"People are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories."
Roger Schank, Learning Scientist
Stories bring us together. They connect us on the most fundamental, human level. Tapping into the connective power of storytelling can fuel some of the most meaningful learning experiences. I see the role of narrative in my work as helping to:
Contextualize educational materials for relevance and impact;
Drive situated learning experiences in cross-cultural settings;
Disrupt dominant narratives and resulting structures of power; and
Foster the human connection that both enables storytelling in the first place, and allows us to use it to propel change
Check out some examples of my coursework integrating narrative elements into digital education below.
Narrative & Motion Graphic
We've learned a lot about parenting programs worldwide, with an increasing urgency to generate evidence in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). With the incorporation of early childhood development into the Sustainable Development Goals, and the adoption of the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2018 Nurturing Care Framework by more and more countries, the global commitment is clear. How do we know where to go next though? How do we know what stories urgently need to be told? It starts by understanding what we've already learned. This is the story of what we know. And what's still missing.
Narrative & Audio
While critical discourse around neoliberal practices and inherent power hierarchies in the international development industry continue to grow, there is a long way to go. Participating in the system as is, without confronting these issues, only serves to reinforce power divides that run counter to the work. There is a need to examine of how these divides persist globally and what can be done to disrupt them to better align the industry with the values it purports to emulate. This is the story of how two siblings, growing up in the industry and now working in it, experience such systems, and their thoughts on where to go next.
Narrative & Instructional Design
A big part of ethical research with human subjects involves informed consent. Informed consent means agreeing to participate in research with full knowledge of the purpose, expectations, benefits, and risks of participating. Researchers under the Ahlan Simsim project realized they weren't achieving this full knowledge with the participants of their study. This is the story of what they did to address it, and what other researchers can learn from the approach.
Narrative & Data Viz
Graduate students in the education, communications, & technology (ECT) program at NYU face a challenge: navigating the ambiguity of our field. This translates into a lack of confidence in planning career pathways. As part of a larger learning design project, a survey capturing students' confidence was administered. This is the story about who these students are, where they come from, and how those identifying characteristics interact with their level of confidence.
Narrative & Games
As the focus on implementation of parenting programs accelerates worldwide, so does the body of evidence. How do you think we're doing? This is the story of what we're learning at the global level about parenting programs, with a spotlight on FHI 360's Playful Parenting implementation research.
Narrative & Social Media
We know a well trained workforce is linked to positive developmental outcomes for children. But what do we know about the workforce? This is the story of what we're learning so far about the workforce in four different parenting programs under FHI 360's Playful Parenting implementation research.
Narrative & Augmented Reality
To get people questioning the narratives around and reinforced by historical landmarks, we need to get these narratives interact with each other. By putting the contradictory symbolic associations side by side, we create a dialogue between two different versions of the United States. This AR experience superimposes conflicting ideas about the Statue of Liberty on the landmark itself, subsequently directing users to an article to learn more about the contentious symbolism of the Statue.