VIEWS & OPINION


Using storytelling to open up the world, close the gaps and build skills


Comment by Dr HARRIET MARSHALL, Director of Education and Impact at Lyfta


Despite the rapid pace of progress and technological advances in society, social inequalities continue to grow – with a devastating impact on educational outcomes and opportunities for children and young people. Data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows barely any progress in closing the disadvantage gap at GCSE level in the past 20 years, and this gap is likely to grow even


wider post-pandemic. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly those at primary age, suffered the greatest impact during the pandemic. Now more than ever, it’s vital that the most vulnerable students have equal access and opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge so that they can thrive in a fast-changing world. A diverse range of life experiences can lead to raised aspirations, a broadening of horizons and provide a richer set of references to support communication skills. For a variety of reasons (not always financially related), many children do not have the opportunity to experience the wider world beyond their hometown. Digital immersive storytelling can be a powerful tool to level the playing field in the classroom and equip all children with the skills and broader experiences to thrive at all levels in life - intrapersonally, interpersonally, societally and globally. Connecting students with real-life human stories provides a window into different perspectives, cultures and people – which might otherwise be inaccessible. This helps to build cultural capital and open doors to new ways of thinking, from developing empathy, resilience and understanding to teamwork, leadership and problem-solving. These are all essential ingredients for children to thrive and become confident and capable in all aspects of life, work and beyond.


For example, providing schools with unique and accessible ways to connect learners with perspectives and people, for example through film and 360° explorable spaces, is an incredibly valuable way to share real human stories from across the world. At Lyfta, my role has been to work in partnership with a wide range of different schools throughout the UK and internationally to capture classroom impact data to better understand the most effective pedagogy and content for learning and thriving in the classroom. Whilst some of the early quantitative findings are fascinating, it is the qualitative data that especially stands out, especially that which captures student voices like the perspective shared below:


‘When I was younger I grew up in a very rural area of this


country and didn’t really see the world outside of it… I didn’t see a motorway until I was 10 and so I’ve come a long way since then. If I was younger and had been shown those things it would have been a lot more impactful for me because I would’ve seen the world in a whole different way a whole lot sooner’ (Year 10 student from Gloucestershire)


Thriving for all and building (inter)cultural capital Ofsted’s definition of cultural capital is broad and open to interpretation, but I consider it as a broad range of cultural experiences and opportunities that prepare children to thrive (now and in the future) and an accompanying awareness of the skills, values and knowledge that has been acquired from these


experiences. In fact, I am increasingly seeing references to the four 22 www.education-today.co.uk May 2023


interdependent levels of thriving discussed in the book Thrive: The purpose of schools in a changing world: • Global - our place in the planet • Societal - place, communities, economies • Interpersonal - our relationships • Intrapersonal - the self (Hannon, V. and Peterson, A., 2021:xiv)


To provide the best education for children and support thriving at all of these levels, it is important to recognise and value the different cultural experiences and opportunities that each child brings to the classroom. Research shows that when children and families’ cultures are valued, both the child’s experience of learning and their progress can benefit. However, it is also important to recognise that not all children have the same opportunities and access to cultural capital, such as languages, traditions, beliefs, and experiences. It’s important for platforms such as ours to offer a wide range of cultural learning opportunities that are experienced through a reflective, evidence-informed learning framework and accessible to all learners. These storyworlds cover a vast range of different people, cultures, traditions, and countries around the world. Crucially, all accompanying educational content should be underpinned by a pedagogical approach and theory of learning and change which is highly sensitive to the dangers of stereotyping, single-stories and tokenism - using Lyfta, it is made clear that each unique, real-life human story is neither representative of a culture, community or country, but instead, exposure to many increases in understanding of different perspectives and ways of thinking, living and being. Intercultural capital experiences, skills, and competencies are therefore a key part of the type of cultural capital it supports. A more traditional (and arguably liberal-western) understanding of cultural capital activities might relate to access to and understanding of professional theatrical and orchestral performances, or opportunities to visit extensive art galleries or historically significant buildings. Doing this through the screen helps by giving learners the opportunity to explore professional performances, such as ballet and orchestral music as well as the opportunity to explore a range of UNESCO world heritage sites - helping children accumulate this type of cultural capital and geographical knowledge that they otherwise may never be able to experience.


Additionally, by creating safe learning environments for young people to virtually travel the world and hear the stories of others in their own settings and environments, we can help support building an intercultural capital resource bank of sorts. This leads to a greater sense of common humanity, intercultural competence, knowledge, and understanding, and decreased sense of social and intergroup anxiety about meeting people from different cultural backgrounds as shown by independent research conducted by the University of Tampere.


Closing gaps and broadening opportunities for all Providing all children with access to a broad range of experiences, skills and knowledge is an effective way of supporting wider societal strategies to redress opportunity inequalities. I have yet to meet anyone in education who does not want a more equitable and inclusive education system. Immersive storytelling offers a glimpse into the future of education, where children can learn about the world in a way that is engaging, accessible, and inclusive. By providing children with access to real-life human stories through immersive storytelling, we can help to level the playing field and equip them with the skills and broader experiences to thrive at all levels in a fast-changing world.


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