Stories for Thinking: DEVELOPING CRITICAL LITERACY THROUGH THE USE OF NARRATIVE

Abstract

Introduction:  A central thesis then begins to emerge: man is in his actions and practice, as well as his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal ... a teller of stories that aspire to truth. But the key question for men is not about their authorship; I can only answer the question about ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior questions, ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’... Deprive children of stories and you leave them unscripted, anxious stutterers in their actions as in their words. Hence there is no way of giving us an understanding of any society, including our own, except through the stock of stories which constitute its initial dramatic resources. (MacIntyre 1984, p201)

Oh I get it, we’re not supposed to read the story we’re supposed to think about it.  (7 year old child)