Developing cultural understanding through story-telling

ABSTRACT

This paper supports the notion that stories can be used to share diverse experiences and build cultural understanding. It is developed from a case study of a module which teaches and practices story-making and story-telling to develop cross-cultural communication and understanding. The paper illustrates a staged process of teaching and learning through stories, reflecting upon our experience at each stage. It explores our role as story-tellers as we engage in a field trip in Indonesia and use stories of our own lives to develop communication with our hosts, encouraging interaction and dialogue about the commonalities and differences in our lives. Our personal journeys are captured in daily journals and a post trip reflection which are used to explore our experience and learning. The paper highlights the contribution of stories to the development of multi-cultural literacy, cross-cultural communication and critical reflexivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Story-telling
• teaching
• learning
• cross-cultural communication

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the editors of this special issue and reviewers of this paper for their supportive and insightful comments. Thank you to the Quinton Hogg Trust whose generous funding award covered many of the costs associated with the trip. Finally, thanks to my colleagues and students at the University of Westminster and Pancasila University, and to the villagers in Ngadas who welcomed us into their homes and taught us so much.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.