Empathetic encounters of children’s augmented storying across the human and more-than-human worlds

ABSTRACT

This study brings empathy to the centre of literacy practice by investigating children’s augmented storying as it was related to empathetic encounters across the human and more-than-human worlds. The study applies sociomaterial theorising that defines empathy as relational and emergent across human–material–spatial–temporal assemblages. The empirical study was situated in a Finnish primary school in which children used an augmented story-crafting tool (MyAR Julle) to explore their local environment and to create and share their stories. The findings show how empathy emerged situationally across the children, other human beings, materials, technology and the natural world. The empathetic encounters of the children’s narratives were more than romantic or smooth encounters, instead competing and in tension with one another, calling moral reasoning and agency. The study shows the potential of sociomaterial theorising to change the way we think about children’s encounters with the world, using empathy as a framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Empathetic encounters
• children
• augmented storying
• nature
• sociomaterial approach

Acknowledgments

We want to express our sincere gratitude to all children and adults who took part in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

The study follows the ethical standards of scholarly research established by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research on Integrity (https://www.tenk.fi), Data Protection Act and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Education Division of the City of Helsinki reviewed and approved the study. Informed consent was obtained from all adult and youth participants and youth guardians. Pseudonyms were used for all individuals.

Additional information

Funding

This research has received funding from the Australian Research Council grant number DP190102067 (Renshaw, Tooth, Kumpulainen) as well as from KONE foundation grant number 202008316 (Kumpulainen, Byman, Renlund, Wong)

Notes on contributors

Kristiina Kumpulainen

Kristiina Kumpulainen is Professor of Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland and Associate Professor of Educational Technology and Learning Design at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her ongoing research focuses on children’s digital literacies, agency and learning in formal education and in communities. She has researched and developed pedagogies and materials for children’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning, multiliteracies, and environmental education. She is the co-author (with A. Blum-Ross, and J. Marsh) of Enhancing Digital Literacy and Creativity: Makerspaces in the Early Years (2020) and (with J. Sefton-Green) Multiliteracies and Early Years Innovation: Perspectives from Finland and beyond (2019).

Jenny Renlund

Jenny Renlund (M.A. in Education) is a PhD student in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests include multimodal and multi-sensuous pedagogies, arts-based methods and children’s aesthetic experiences with nature. She has collaborated on developing and researching pedagogical materials designed to promote children’s aesthetic engagement, multiliteracy and ecoliteracy.

Jenny Byman

Jenny Byman (M.A. in Education) is a PhD student in the School, Education, Society, and Culture Doctoral Programme at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests include children’s experiencing, emotions and affect, and storying with nature. She is an author of educational materials designed to support children’s interests and understanding of the environment.

Chin-Chin Wong

Chin-Chin Wong (M.A. in Design) is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She engages in the research group “ECHOing: Enriching Children’s Ecological Imagination” and the Playful Learning Center research lab at the university. Her research focuses on promoting children’s ecoliteracy in environmental education through novel pedagogical designs with multiliteracies pedagogy.