Making Sparks: Exploring the Power of Oral Storytelling to Create Connection in Sustainability Education
摘要
Now, more than ever, there is a need for conversations about how education can create meaningful changes in our relationship with our environment. In this chapter, we look at the potential for using oral storytelling in education to promote a connection to the environment and motivate pro-environmental behaviour. Using data from our podcast, Learning Lore, about storytelling and education, we focus on the research questions: What power does oral storytelling have to bring about change in the context of sustainability education? and What narratives about storytelling in education do we find in our data and in the literature? The findings are presented as a ‘conversational collage,’ blending quotations from the podcast with our own reflections, as a way to represent our process of analysing the data and engaging with related research literature. The guests highlight the value of the unique moment of storytelling and the connections created through the intersubjective experience of telling and listening. Drawing on these insights, as well as research on place and interpersonal attachment, we argue that the potential to cultivate a sense of security and agency is a significant, but underexplored, aspect of what oral storytelling can offer in the context of sustainability education.