Narrative pedagogy in inclusive design Observations and outcomes of a training for experimental teaching in a university context.

Abstract

This article aims at describing the educational experience that the students attending the degree course in Primary Education Sciences at the Sapienza University of Rome underwent as part of a research project focused on narrative teaching.

The project, structured into several phases, involves the experimental implementation of a narrative project with pupils attending the final two years of primary school and the first grades of lower secondary school.

The hypothesis developed identifies the narrative and fairy tale as a  means useful for promoting the development of communicative interaction between peers, sociability, the recognition of diversity as a resource, the improvement of culture and inclusive practices in an educational context. Specifically, it assumes that the narrative approach can contribute to improving the perception of the classroom climate, to reinforcing self-awareness and self-efficacy, increasing the ability to deal with difficulties and self-regulate the emotions of the subjects.

The methodological training path of university students and the practice of the activities which will be experimented by the pupils are described in the article: a group writing of a fairy tale based on the characterization of characters with difficulties and on the recognition of their strengths.

A positive appreciation of the experience at both personal and group level, as well as the recognition of the high usability of the training in their future profession as teachers emerged from the feedback provided by the students by means of a questionnaire.

Keywords: Teacher training, narrative pedagogy, inclusion, self-construction, didactic experimentation of narration