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BSA Education Study Group Conference 17th Sept

Emma Parfitt — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 11:34:00 +0000

Young People’s Educational Identities in Challenging Times

The title of my presentation was Climbing the Beanstalk: Self-worth and Education. It was a challenge for me to think about my research in a different light. That is, how it could be related to young people’s educational identities. I largely let the students’ words speak for themselves to demonstrate that one of the themes that seemed to emerge was that a large part of their identity at school. In particular the students had an awareness of the current economic crisis and its consequences for their future. They felt under pressure to achieve academically. While some students felt supported to meet educational goals, and were therefore more confident in their futures, others did not feel supported and tended to think negatively based on the experiences of their families. As a result these young people felt powerless and frustrated, with low self-worth despite their potential.

The keynote speaker was Dr Sara Delamont. She gave an interesting view on sociology as a subject and how female researchers work was becoming forgotten about because of male and female academics citing a biased ratio of male authors, despite many women working the field (something for all us PhD students to bear in mind, to be inclusive in our referencing). Obviously a PhD supervisor has more power to insist on this being done by their students. So I’ll be checking with mine that they are aware of this issue! This also affects journals and books. One series of books Dr Delamont mentioned wasn’t going to include a book on Gender until she pointed out it was missing. Something for us all to be aware of in our own referencing and when writing book reviews.

Other speakers:-

Siobhan Dytham – The Dynamic and Contestable Nature of Friendship Groups at Secondary School

Shelagh Keogh and John Fulton – An Exploration of a Free Schools and the Application of Bourdieu’s Theories of Habitus, Capital and Field

Natalie Campbell – Higher Education Experiences of the Paralympic Student

John Fulton – Learning Through Amateur Boxing

Maria Papapolydorou and Patrick Ainley – Aspiring middle class people who come from working class backgrounds may, one day ‘marry a prince’

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The Inner Library

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:01:00 +0000

What is an inner library?

‘We carry with us every story we have ever heard and every story we have ever lived, filed away at some deep place in our memory. We carry most of those stories unread, as it were, until we have grown the capacity or the readiness to read them. When that happens they may come back to us filled with unexpected meaning.’

(Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, xli)

Remen’s words touch on the idea of an ‘inner library’ which is expressed in Arthur W. Frank’s book, Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology. They articulate a similar notion, that we may carry the kernel of a story with us for a long time. Until something triggers its memory and in doing so uncovers new meaning. When the right conditions prevent themselves old ideas we have carried with us but never really understood, acknowledged, or accepted, take root. Blossoming into a new series of neural networks that can forever altar the idea of who we are. Story and the human brain have grown together over a long time. In our lifetime we are always transforming in some way. And if we accept and flow with this process of change life has the potential to be all the richer.

Cultural history of the inner library

The idea of an inner library has a long cultural history. Thought the first time I came across an idea like this it was in a contemporary novel. It was in one of Stephen King’s novels, I think Dreamcatcher, please correct me if I’m wrong, where the main character remembered things by keeping them on shelves like a stationary cupboard in his brain. He could hide thoughts there too. Or that is how I recalled the idea in my mind’s eye when Frank mentioned the concept of an ‘inner library.’

Death, Memory, and Material Culture by Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey discusses the history of the concept of an inner library. Basically, in medieval times the mind was seen as a series of rooms, this became a library. Later as technology influenced the concept further, our minds were visualised as organising information like computers.

I find it fascinating how this concept has changed with surrounding cultural influences and technology. It’s a shame that our brains aren’t much like computers … Well sometimes they are: except the binary code of the brain is narrative.

The inner library and storytelling

I am largely comparing the storyteller’s use of language and the resulting emotions expressed in group discussion. Yet the concept of inner libraries is important in the storylistening process if it has a impact on emotional response. I find that the concept of an inner library is relevant to my research on storytelling. Because it has an influence on the emotions that will be triggered as individuals listen to folktales.

Learn more about Emma’s writing

If you are looking for a book to read about sisterhood and the resilience of friendship check this out:

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Laura Perls

Emma Parfitt — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:55:00 +0000

Living at the Boundary book review and thoughts.

‘It is a false question whether to repress or not to repress aggression. Since aggression is an indispensable ingredient of human makeup, we have to use it, to develop it into a valuable instrument for the management of our lives.’ (Laura Perls, Living at the Boundary, p43)

Substituing emotion

Although the quote above focuses on aggression another emotion could be substituted in its place. Our current frame of mind works on the forces of motivation behind our actions (suppressed or not). Perls’ chapter on ‘How to Educate Children for Peace’ raises some interesting ideas. I don’t agree with all of them.

For example, Perls discusses how the suppression of aggression could lead to intellectual inhibition with negative effects on critical thinking. She argues that by supressing children we are teaching them to surrender their insight and will to others. Her arguement is centered on extreme situations. I believe that there is a danger of suppression in an environment where home, school, society all act towards controlling a person’s identity.

Thankfully, there are other environmental factors to take into account that have an influencing effect on the mind: access to books, teachers, friends, family members, and the wider society. These all affect our mind and emotional intelligence as well as personality traits and IQ. Being exposed to different influences teaches us what is expected. Yet our mind is our own: we don’t have to agree with the status quo.

A driving force

However I think that controlling environments do have an emotional impact. Perls knows, as a psychologist, that emotion is part of human instinct, and how we relate to the world. Suppression could lead to the expression of emotion in explosive ways such as extreme violent behaviour, like rape. This can happen where the emotion is unable to be transformed because skills are not in place to know how to do so.

Often seen as negative, Perls points out that aggression can provide us with the impetus to get things done. It is a driving force in order to tackle problems and find solutions. It may even be used in ‘resistance against aggression’ by using its power to ‘build a strong conscience, as a means of directing these energies’ (41).

Encouragement

Perls’ words support encouraging the recognition, and support, of emotions in children and adolescents. An important life stage is when we come to realise that we have a choice when it comes to dealing with our feelings. Taking a step back is one of the reasons why Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and meditation work for so many people. If we did this through storytelling with children and adolescents, helping them recognise and transform their emotions, things really could begin to change. They are already. And it isn’t too late to begin the transformation as adults either.

Transformation through story

We learn to connect to and explore emotions through story. Tanith Lee in Red as Blood talks of love in its many misunderstood forms. For example ‘Beauty’, in Lee’s retelling of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ it is set in the future. The beasts are aliens from another planet. She writes of finding love, ‘Of the thing one has always yearned for. To be known, accepted, and so to be at peace. No longer unique, or shut in, or shut out, or alone’ (166). Lee covers many complex emotions, the yearning to be loved, and the understanding that it is when we find someone to love us as we are that we find peace.

This is in great contrast to Disney’s version of love. I love the magic and the music of fantasy animation while being wary that they spoon feed us into believing that one is only complete with another person. And it is usually an impossibly perfect specimen of the opposite sex. Sure, the sex drive is built towards the seeking of others for reproduction, but this is not the be all and end all for many people. For some it is the altruistic bonds we form that count, as culture and biology work hand in hand to create the individuals we become.

Folk tales, carry different messages. Folk tales usually allowing the ‘hero’ to recognise in his or her quest that happiness comes from within and love is found along the way by accident. Once we’ve found in ourselves what makes us content then this can be shared with another person. There are many different roads in life. Let’s hope for the wisdom and compassion to choose a good one.

Check out this narrative!

A Friendship of Thistles

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Emotional Intelligence

Emma Parfitt — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:25:00 +0000

Emotional Intelligence is a word banded around a lot these days. My interest in the subject came through stories, and how we connect stories that we hear to our own emotional response.

‘We may ask what is truth in the face of centuries of retelling? The answer lies with experience: as long as a tale is told, it has meaning (truth), will evoke response and can be understood.’

(Alida Gersie and Nancy King. Storymaking in Education and Therapy, p.29)

My research

I’ve had to change methods a few times this week as NVivo is not as user friendly, or flexible, as I’d hoped. Coding is complicated. And have you ever noticed how highly complicated emotions are? I have become emersed in lines of text, gone in the wrong direction, realised things weren’t working, and reined myself in to ask: What am I looking for exactly? How can I make this project more specific and manageable? I’ve also been reading up on emotional intelligence (EI).

A definition of emotional intelligence (EI)

EI has been defined by D. Goleman as ‘Being able to motivate one-self and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and to hope’ (Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ, 1996).

It’s a pretty high order in today’s technology bombarded world when we have to shut things off in order to concentrate on the task in hand.

I believe that EI is crucial to why traditional storytelling is relevant today. The benefits of group storytelling are rooted at a cultural and community level; something many feel we are struggling to maintain in the face of current global pressures and technologies.

Experiments with story or real-world situations?

Neil Frude came up with an experimental concept to focus on one emotion and set up different test groups. This has great potential. It is always great to talk to someone passionate about the same field of study. I considered his idea very carefully before deciding that I wish to focus on testing in real world situations for now: largely because a mixed-method approach may reveal unexpected patterns and themes which can be further explored at a later stage.

Neil Frude and Steve Killick are interested in how stories can be used to help children ‘develop cognitively and emotionally.’ Exposing a child to ‘a threatening storyline’ whilst in the present of a parent or caregiver ‘challenges the child’s sense of security’ and yet allows them to get ‘reassurance’ strengthening their bond with the adult (Family Storytelling and the Attachment Relationship, Psychodynamic Practice 17.4, 2011, pp.441–455).

Much work has been done on attachment theory. If early attachments to a caregiver affect the way we relate to others, then activities such as reading to our children become essential to create a society that we can be proud to live in.

Mixed models

How EI can be tested is still up for discussion. The area is a relatively new one. Bracket et al. did a comparison of methods such as MSCEIT and Bar-On. The first assesses the ability to manage emotions while Bar-On is more of a mixed model, relying on self-reports of competency, emotional ability and personality traits (Relating Emotional Abilities to Social Functioning, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91.4, 2006, p.780).

There is much work to be done on the best way to measure EI. Though we can simplify tests to deconstruct the processes involved it is when we reconstruct, and form more complex models, that we get a more complete picture of the emotional and mental skills comprising an individual.

Future directions

One of the future directions Brackett et al. suggests we focus on include the processes involved in interpersonal relationships and social situations: this ties into my hypothesis that storytelling will cause change over time in the emotional intelligence of adolescents. I am trying to discover what changes are taking place and the processes underlying them. I am trying to find meaning in the stories that allow communication between our inner and outer worlds.

Read my book about my final research here!

If you are looking for a book to read about sisterhood and the resilience of friendship check this out:

‘Infallibly, she knew a golden rope had been placed in her hands. She had only, with patience and wisdom, to draw it in.’

(Tanith Lee, The Golden Rope in Red As Blood).

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Review of Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology by Arthur W. Frank.

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:27:00 +0000

Socio-narratology: what is it?

‘People’s access to narrative resources depends on their social location: what stories are told where they live and work, which stories do they take seriously or not, and especially what stories they exchange’ (Frank, 3).

I had been looking at socio-psychology as a form of analysis when Jack Zipes suggested a book that he had just reviewed himself. ‘This is a splendid book, and anyone who takes storytelling seriously should find the time to explore’ (Jack Zipes, Living Through Stories, Review by email, April 2012). I had already heard a few people mention Arthur W. Frank’s book The Wounded Storyteller, but this one seemed more relevant for my research.

I didn’t know anything about dialogical narrative analysis prior to reading this book. Like socio-narratology, dialogical analysis includes what a story does, how it connects and disconnects people, and that there are numerous possibilities when it comes to interpretation. Socio-narratology is practiced via dialogical analysis, learning from storytellers how to use stories appropriately and in what setting. There is no set way of doing this. I rather like that it is so fluid: unless I’m completely missing the point. Overall it is very confusing; at the same time it makes perfect sense. Frank’s writing style is representative of the quality of his experience in the field. I like the questions he raises and how he phrases his discussion in a creative way.

Huh?!

The main concept that I understood from Letting Stories Breathe is that this form of analysis encourages working with those you are studying, forming a relationship, opening a dialogue, and learning from this dialogue as a researcher. Dialogical analysis accepts that we cannot know all the inner workings of another person, as people are constantly changing. But we can acknowledge our own weaknesses and predispositions—as a result of our own social conditioning—as a part of the interpretation process.

Frank talks about what stories do, how they work, and provides some possible perspectives, when considering methods of analysis. He considers, in chapter six, that dialogical analysis ‘begins with how stories give people a sense of who they are’ (Frank, 159). From this we can progress into the way in which connections are formed in people’s ‘inner library’ of stories. The way in which this creates bonds between groups and communities; bringing us back to what narratives do and how they do it.

Emotions and stories

Although I am looking at the emotional benefits that fictional stories provide, Letting Stories Breathe is relevant to my work with storytelling because it stresses the importance of ‘story and storyteller working together’ (Frank, 107). Dialogical analysis attempts to unravel how stories affect individuals and become woven into a sense of cultural identity; between friends, acquaintances, businesses, and the community.

Do you agree with what I am saying? Please support my work, make a donation via the Paypal button at the top of this blog. Thank you.

Learn more about Emma’s writing

If you are looking for a book to read about sisterhood and the resilience of friendship check this out:

Perhaps you would also like the Seven Sisters series?

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Society for Storytelling

Emma Parfitt — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:26:00 +0000

Great news, The Society for Storytelling is interested in my research and my research aims. Which is to see storytelling in schools throughout the UK.

“I’m pleased to confirm that the trustees agreed at last week’s meeting that supporting your research would be a worthwhile cause.” (Chip Colquhoun, Chair).

They are going to sign a letter of support to help me fund raise. At present I am seeking funding from 2013 to cover my 2nd and 3rd PhD years. With funding being so competitive this year I am thinking of new ways to raise funds. For example I am looking into a collaborative project with others. Being involved in research with more experienced persons is very exciting. I have already learnt a great deal and look forward to what is ahead–despite it being challenging. With a new spring in my step thanks to this support from the Society for Storytelling, more information will follow once something is confirmed.

Update: well, in case you were wondering I could not find any funding, instead I switched my PhD to parttime and took on three jobs to support myself. Finishing in four years, not bad! Now I keep in touch with my storytelling pals while writing, and helping others with their writing.

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Questions about the stories surrounding us

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:34:00 +0000

‘some methods are more useful for the questions they offer’(Arthur W. Frank, Letting Stories Breathe, p.72)

Questions and crossroads

My question is how can traditional storytelling be used to support emotional health? It’s a tough one. The term narrative therapy was coined as a result of the work of two men, Michael White and David Epston (see https://narrativeapproaches.com/books/narrative-means-to-therapeutic-ends/). Though they didn’t want to be associated with any formal definitions. What exactly they did, I don’t know yet, because I am waiting for their book to come into the library. However in my search, of what felt like every periodic journal in an electronic maze, I found Pennebaker.

In the United States, Pennebaker took the idea of narrative and health further by attempting to test it empirically. He and his colleagues did experiments on writing therapy and discovered that writing had a positive effect on not just mental but also physical health! Which brings me to another question, how do we test this? Pennebaker used qualitative data analysis, the measure of positive versus negative words and how these changed over the test period. I am about to trail this myself in a test run of what I hope will be a larger project in 2013, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mental health

There aren’t any definitions that really cover ‘positive’ mental health. In medical dictionaries the definition states that problems in mental health are more measurable. It is like trying to define what makes a ‘whole’ person, sometimes we need different things in our lives to feel secure and comfortable. However individuals know for themselves when they feel well adjusted to the environment around them. T hose moments where things flow perhaps, where we don’t only get on with things but feel truly alive and engaged with our environment. We can feel an emotional and physical balance. When it comes to measuring this I’m still trying to figure it out, I’m sure many other researchers are also.

So where am I starting from? I got the core idea of my PhD after reading The Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She discusses stories from a female and Jungian perspective. I got to wondering what, if anything, had been tested on the emotional effects of story? At first there was very little. I found mention of an experiment after 9/11 demonstrating that stories helped people cope with anxiety. But these were real life stories. What of fiction? Because of Estés’ book I was drawn to folk lore. My mum encouraged me to read fairy stories as a child, and that later developed into an interest in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Weaving the threads together

Could I find a way to bring storytelling and mental health together? White & Epston’s idea was also to bring different disciplines together so that people could learn from one another. If only someone had told me this in school when I was conflicted between studying English or Science! To me the two things went together, apparently a lot of other people think this way outside of the curriculum. And so despite being funnelled initially into a biology degree, I gave up science to pursue writing, and here I am attempting once more to bring the two things together. A storytelling based research project, resulting in a mix of qualitative methods, a book of short stories, and the development of another new skill, blogging. Then went back to an old skill and passion: writing!

Get your copy here!

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