‘‘
Makers’ work. It is a view of education which sees learning as socially constructed and is about finding inclusive spaces to ‘release the imagination’ of children. This is reflected in discussions with children about how our work makes them feel:
“It makes me feel free. I think it and do it.”
“No one can tell you what to do, you can make up stories by yourself or in a group.”
“I feel like my mind’s escaped from captivity. I like imagining and I have a big imagination.”
“You’re learning that it’s ok if you have this idea. You’re learning that it’s ok to make a mistake.”
A different view of Childhood The Story Makers Company was established in 2017 at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University by academics, teachers and artist educators concerned with this marginalisation of creative opportunities for young people to make and share their stories. Our aim is to nurture the spaces for children’s voices through our research-based work with schools, communities and artist educators by creating a multidisciplinary community of Story Makers. Developing the Press seemed then like the natural progression from this work, publishing stories for middle grade fiction, which capture children’s under-represented narratives. By doing so, we aim to disrupt power dynamics by involving children in the writing and publishing of our literature and address what Ebony Elizabeth Thomas calls the “imagination gap” or lack of diverse voices in children’s publishing. We use drama and storytelling workshops
Autumn-Winter 2019 Story Makers aspiration day.
to allow children to co-create stories, which we transform into engaging fiction books. Our ethos is to also incorporate pathways, across the university and beyond, for young aspiring diverse writers and illustrators who attend our workshop process with children, something we have been developing with our second book. In order to achieve this, we have expanded our core team to include a children’s publisher, Ana Arêde.
A Story Making Process
The co-creation of our stories takes place over eight workshops with young people and lasts about four months in total. During the workshops, a story-making community is established, and children create the backstory, characters and plot through drama, positioning them as key decision makers. This incorporates drawing and creative writing as multimodal methods of shaping narrative. Our first story was co-created with children aged eight to 10 years old and written in house by Tom Dobson as a way for us to develop the writing process. The book focus is negotiated with schools and other stakeholders but is foregrounded by children’s collective imaginative ideas. For example, our first story The Nightmare Catcher explores gaming through the
PEN&INC. 31
eyes of a child whose mum struggles with mental health. The children were able to choose the focus of the book (gaming) and were able to ensure that, in line with their experiences, gaming was represented positively. Following an open stimulus in the first workshop, the children drew upon their gaming experiences in order to populate the gaming world and to
Our aim is to nurture the spaces for children’s voices through our research-based work with schools, communities and artist educators.
Lisa Stephenson
pp.30-32.indd 3
09/10/2019 16:33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
