Tell Your Story: literature review on using Storytelling with maps to reduce early school leaving

PROJECT NUMBER – 2016-1-FR01-KA204-023943

Karl Donert

President EUROGEO

[email protected]

IO1: LITERATURE REVIEW ON TELLING DIGITAL STORIES

mailto:[email protected]


O1 Method

• More than 110 academic articles identified

• Also Web sites and other sources

• Shared out between partners for review

• Reviews analysed and categorised

• National reviews undertaken by partners

• IO1 version 1 written, updated versions 2, 3

• Recommendations …. to be discussed

• Final version after this discussion


Main Findings

Telling digital stories to fight against early School-Leaving

• Early School Leaving

• ESL Policies

• Successful actions

• Storytelling in education

• Digital Storytelling

• Storytelling with maps

• Storytelling pedagogies


Main Findings

Early School-Leaving

• Target group - young people either leaving school early or at risk of exiting the school system without getting qualifications



Europe 2020 strategy

Lisbon Agenda

ESL below 10% in each country

OECD, 2014



Eurostat, 2015



Kay Factors (Cedefop, 2016)

• Factors related to the individual and their family background

• Factors related to education and training

• Factors related to employment

• Other factors – like changing school, moving home


Early School-Leaving Policies

• Policies based on recommendations of Council of the EU to reduce early school leaving

i) prevention strategies

ii) reintegration strategies

iii) recovery strategies

• Goal: increase inclusion and social cohesion

• Based on evidence-based policies and practices.



How do policies relate to TYS?

• Remove obstacles to completion

• Develop conducive and supportive learning environments that focus on the needs of individual pupils

• Support cooperation between schools, local communities, parents and pupils

• Promote a better understanding of ESL



National analyses

• Belgium – action plan - vocational stream

• France – school failure - national plan

• Italy – family origin – new framework

• Slovenia – low ESL – education well resourced

• UK – education cuts – no explicit policy

• Others – Roma and discrimination, living conditions, family policies, intercultural,


Early Leaver Profiles (1)

Cedefop, 2016


Early Leaver Profiles (2)

Cedefop, 2016


Successful Actions (1)

• INCLUD-ED Project – 27 case studies –reorganising resources to suit the learners http://creaub.info/included/

• Focus on skills & competences – volunteering

• Pedagogical approach - Success at School Project http://www.successatschool.eu/

• Work-based learning tracks – transition to employment

http://creaub.info/included/

http://www.successatschool.eu/


Successful Actions (2)

• Dialogue and participation in decision-making

• Schools as communities of learning

• Second chance opportunities http://masecondechance.onisep.fr/

• Non-formal approaches – Success at School Project

• Storytelling for learner motivation (Hung et al. 2012)

http://masecondechance.onisep.fr/


Stories & Storytelling

• storytelling process – Mezirow’s transformational learning steps – explore and collect data– construct a storyline / plot - order, logical

connections– develop flow– formulate a message – materialise the plot– build presentation – share results – receive and handle feedback



• Narrative and dialogue

• Story-based learning pedagogies

• Serious storytelling – stories without entertainment

• Digital storytelling

• 4 learning types i) participation, ii) reflection iii) deep learning and iv) project-based learning



Story-based learning – blending content and process to learn nursing (MacKinnon and Young, 2014)



Components of digital storytelling (Freidus and Hlubinka, 2002)


Storytelling Through Maps

• Several different platforms

– Esri Story Maps http://storymaps.arcgis.com

–Map Story http://mapstory.org

• user-friendly, interactive, and engaging

• visual model that helps organise thoughts

• can highlight questions and answers

http://storymaps.arcgis.com

http://mapstory.org


Storytelling Pedagogies (1)

• Narrative - a cognitive organizational scheme

• Characteristics - interactive content, dynamic, greater creativity, empowered to participate

• Powerful aids to understanding and reflection

• Attention to feelings, thoughts, and emotions



• Can help deal with complexity

• Learner constructivism – ‘sensemaking’

• Design thinking mindset – asking the right questions

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model

• Story circles

• High self-efficacy



• Placed learning: has relevance to students in the space that they inhabit, connect with the family/community and interests outside school

• Purposeful learning: absorbs the student in actions of practical or intellectual value, students can work like professionals;

• Pervasive learning: beyond school examinations, supported by family, carers, and peers;

• Principled learning: appeals to the student's passions or moral purpose – it matters to them

Deakin Crick and Goldspink (2014)


Recommendations (1)

• Use storytelling to understand obstacles to completion

• Focus on creating a transformative learning environment for individuals

• Use to enable a learning community

• Use storytelling to better understand ESL

• Ensure a storytelling process is used

• Describe and use Storytelling pedagogies


Recommendations (2)

• Integrate the technologies - make them invisible - telling the story and sharing the story

• Provide opportunities from a technical perspective – not prescriptive – high flexibility

• Show storytelling matters - it has meaning to the young people

• Students should be treated as professionals

• Linked to non-formal approaches so students have ownership

Tell Your Story: literature review on using Storytelling with maps to reduce early school leaving

Education