Feature Once upon a time ... tales from the geography classroom

ONCE UPON A TIME ... TALES FROM THE GEOGRAPHY CLASSROOM

The power of storytelling – and the sobering story of Mrs X. By Stephen Ramsbottom, Assistant Head – Teaching, Learning and Teacher Development and a teacher of Geography.

Everyone enjoys a good story. History shows that the very best communicators and educators understand the power of storytelling – we need look no further than the biblical parables. But stories are not just fun and interesting. Daniel Willingham (2004) argues that stories are ‘psychologically privileged’, meaning that our minds treat stories differently than other types of material. Stories can make the abstract concrete. They are easy to remember because they have an inherent structure and provide a web of interconnecting parts. Piecing the different elements of a story together can be cognitively challenging – and we know that we remember those things that we think deeply about (Willingham, 2004). Yet, Tharby (2018) suggests that storytelling in the classroom has become a dying art. Too often, more attention is paid to the structure of the lesson and the sequence of activities than to the inherent emotional structure of the material itself – its human narrative. I’m not so sure. Rather, I believe that we are experiencing a Rosenshineinspired renaissance – an acceptance and improved understanding of the efficacy of direct instruction, of which storytelling is a compelling part. There is relative agreement on the basic features of an effective story, sometimes called 'the four Cs':

The Four Cs

1. Causality – events in stories are related because one event causes or initiates another, thus providing inbuilt triggers for memory recall. 2. Character – strong, interesting characters are essential to good stories. 3. Conflict – in most stories, a central character has a goal and obstacles that prevent the goal from being met. This creates an element of tension that adds to the interest but, more significantly, adds an element of difficulty that initiates deeper thought. 4. Complications – the character’s efforts to remove the obstacle typically create complications, new problems or conflicts that need solving.

We could add to this list a fifth point: place. The late Rex Walford used to enjoy adapting Descartes' famous quote: ‘I think, therefore I am ... therefore I must be somewhere.' Stories must have a location; they must happen somewhere – which leads us on to storytelling in geography.

Storytelling in geography

The study of geography lends itself to storytelling. Storytelling is an unforced methodology for a discipline focused on people and place, underpinned by big concepts such as causation, change, conflict, development, distribution, futures, inequality, interdependence, process, and uncertainty. Note the overlap between the components of an effective story and some of the key geographical concepts. On the evidence of 25 years of geography teaching and the observation of hundreds of lessons, the following types of geographical storytelling seem to be most effective:

1. Personalisation

Comprehending a large-scale process, pattern or trend can be overwhelming for pupils. By personalising the general point into a specific example, it becomes less abstract and more manageable and relatable – often triggering an empathetic, emotional response. Although focusing on one individual simplifies the general trend, it allows the exploration of layers of complexity. For example, crafting the tale of one named rural-urban migrant to illustrate the complex, conflicting pressures involved in the decision-making process is an effective way to study the causes of urbanisation. It is straightforward to add in character (the age profile of a typical migrant), conflicts and complications, push and pull factors and the friction of distance.

2. Anthropomorphism

In physical geography, storytelling might mean developing an anthropomorphism for the formation of a physical landform. For example, Mark Enser (2019) outlines the well-used story of Old Harry and Old Harry’s wife to show how erosion led to the formation of chalk stacks in Dorset: ‘We can create the character of Old Harry using the features we want our pupils to recall: the hard, white chalk and the added complication that he is weakened with fractures. Now we have conflict: it is Old Harry against the sea, holding out for as long as he can but doomed to fail. All the way we through we have causality – this is happening because the thing before happened.’

3. Sequence

Effective character development comes from the action sequence as powerful storytellers ‘show’ rather than simply ‘tell’. Scott Fitzgerald argued that ‘action is character’ and, in geography, for action read process. A classic example of this is pupils creating a cartoon story of the rock cycle with the character Sediment Sid/ Sally transforming through time between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock through the life-changing processes of compaction, cementation, heating, pressure, weathering, and so on.

4. Hinterland

Exploring the hinterland of the subject through stories adds colour and interest – but this is always a delicate balancing act with the management of cognitive load and the need to cut out extraneous detail. Examples include telling the story of continental drift and the humorous Alfred Wegener song by the Amoeba People. This song develops a strong character, complications and conflict – before some resolution as the mechanism for plate movement is hypothesised many years after Wegener’s death. Similarly, the discussion of geopolitical issues can be enhanced by a foray into the fascinating life story of one of the architects of modern geography – Halford Mackinder.

Storytelling does not need to be only teachertalk. Although games and simulations have drifted out of vogue in recent years, some of the very best simulations work by immersing pupils in a character or role and then giving them a series of interconnected experiences. The roll of a dice or the randomness of a chance card demonstrates that the story is not fixed. There is little control and multiple outcomes, complications, and conflict – especially for those who are most vulnerable. Tried and tested examples include ‘Cojo – the life of a West African subsistence farmer’ and ‘Rosa – the Bangladeshi garment manufacturer’.

6. Space

The spatial dimension underpins all these approaches; at times a specific learning activity can be to map the story, either as it is being told or immediately after. In recent years, we have read a chapter out loud from The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Rauf to Year 9. This tells the story of a young refugee who has fled Syria and, following a traumatic, hazardous journey, arrived in England. A follow-up activity is to map the route taken across Europe.

The sobering story of Mrs X

This example of storytelling was designed for a Year 11 A level taster lesson - focusing on the OCR Human Rights topic ‘Variations in women’s rights – factors that influence global variations in maternal mortality’ (2.2.3 Option C, 1b and 2a). The lesson was informed and inspired by the brilliant WHO animated short film ‘Why did Mrs X die?’,1 which in turn was based on a lecture by the founder of the Safe Motherhood Movement, Prof Mahmoud Fathalla.2 Eight hundred women a day die in childbirth and this lesson attempts to explore the causes of this shocking figure by looking at the life story of one woman.

Making use of a new breakout space (a glorified corridor), I decided to use the physical space to represent the pathway of Mrs X from cradle to grave. Along the route, I set up several stations, with props, to represent critical moments in Mrs X’s life. I adopted a cyclical structure – starting at the end of the story, with the death of Mrs X (and a clinical cause of death) – and then going back to the beginning to explore the deeper socioeconomic and geopolitical causes of this maternal death.

The story is set in Afghanistan – where the maternal mortality rate of 638 per 100,000 live births is the highest outside Africa – and specifically in the remote village of Qal’eh-Ye-Now in Bagdhis Province. Each stage of the story develops the character of Mrs X – Doris Xante. As layers of complexity and complication are introduced at each station, pupils are forced to question the original clinical cause of death. These include poverty, premature birth, ill health, poor diet, lack of education, child marriage, lack of antenatal care, and, ultimately, an under-resourced healthcare system. All these causes of maternal death are exacerbated by social injustice and the geopolitical situation in an environment that values women only for their ability to reproduce.

References:

Teacherhead, 2018. Great teaching. the power of stories. Available at: https:// teacherhead.com/2018/09/23/great-teaching-the-power-of-stories. Hands on for Mothers and Babies, 2012. Why did Mrs X die, retold. Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpMwkbiH3eQ.