Skip to main content

Learning to Narrate: Appropriating a Cultural Mould for Sense-Making and Communication

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Educational Encounters: Nordic Studies in Early Childhood Didactics

Abstract

The study reported in this chapter is an empirical investigation of the appropriation of narrative skills in young children (1–4 years). The important distinction between a narrative and a paradigmatic mode of sense making is clarified and discussed. Then two different narrative practices are analysed. In the first, two teachers and a group of children collaborate in planning a story. In the second, a child’s spontaneous telling of what he has experienced is elaborated primarily through the participation of the teachers. How the teachers scaffold the children’s story-telling and how the children respond to this support are scrutinised. The importance and implications of learning to narrate is emphasised and discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aukrust, V. G. (1996). Learning to talk and keep silent about everyday routines: A study of verbal interaction between young children and their caregivers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 40(4), 311–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aukrust, V. G. (2005). Tidlig språkstimulering og livslang læring: En kunnskapsoversikt [Early literacy intervention and lifelong learning: A research overview]. Norwegian Department of Knowlegde.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). The problem of speech genres. In C. Emerson & M. Holquist (Eds.), Speech genres and other late essays (V. W. McGee, Trans., pp. 60–102). Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bamberg, M. G. W. (1987). The acquisition of narratives: Learning to use language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bamberg, M. G. W. (Ed.). (2007). Narrative: state of the art. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnhart, R. K. (2000). Chambers dictionary of etymology. Edinburgh: Chambers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blum-Kulka, S. (1994). The dynamics of family dinner talk: Cultural contexts for children’s passages to adult discourse. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 27(1), 1–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, L. K., Innocenti, M. S., Roggman, L.A., Norman, V. K. J., & Ortiz, E. (2010). Telling stories and making books: Evidence for an intervention to help parents in Migrant Head Start families support their children’s language and literacy. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 343–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (2002). Making stories: Law, literature, life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (2006). Narrative and paradigmatic modes of thought. In In search of pedagogy, Vol. II: The selected works of Jerome S. Bruner (pp. 116–128). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chukovsky, K. (1974). From two to five (M. Morton, Trans.). Berkeley: University of California Press. (Original work published 1925).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cote, L. R. (2001). Language opportunities during mealtimes in preschool classrooms. In D. K. Dickinson & P. O. Tabors (Eds.), Beginning literacy with language: Young children learning at home and in school (pp. 205–222). Baltimore: Brookes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels, H., Cole, M., & Wertsch, J. V. (Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson, D. K., & Tabors, P. O. (Eds.). (2001). Beginning literacy with language: Young children learning at home and in school. Baltimore: Brookes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyson, A. H. (1997). Writing superheroes: Contemporary childhood, popular culture, and classroom literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors, P. (2006). Den meningssökande människan [The meaning-seeking human]. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glenn-Applegate, K., Breit-Smith, A., Justice, L. M., & Piasta, S. B. (2010). Artfulness in young children’s spoken narratives. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 468–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham, S., Tönsing, K. M., & Alant, E. (2010). Teachers’ interactions during storybook reading: A rural African perspective. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 392–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamberelis, G. (1999). Genre development and learning: Children writing stories, science reports, and poems. Research in the Teaching of English, 33(4), 403–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kozulin, A. (1998). Psychological tools: A sociocultural approach to education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labov, W., & Waletsky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experiences. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays in the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lai, W.-F., Lee, Y.-J., & Lee, J. (2010). Visiting doctors’ offices: A comparison of Korean and Taiwanese preschool children’s narrative development. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 445–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luria, A. R. (1976). Cognitive development: Its cultural and social foundations (M. Lopez-Morillas & L. Solotaroff, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mantzicopoulos, P., & Patrick, H. (2010). The seesaw is a machine that goes up and down: Young children’s narrative responses to science-related informational text. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 412–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCabe, A., & Peterson, C. (1991). Getting the story: A longitudinal study of parental styles in eliciting narratives and developing narrative skill. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 217–253). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, G. H. (1967). Mind, self, and society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1934).

    Google Scholar 

  • Michaels, S. (1991). The dismantling of narrative. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 303–351). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, K. (Ed.). (1989). Narratives from the crib. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, K. (1996). Language in cognitive development: The emergence of the mediated mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (1996). Narrating the self. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 19–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative: Creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ødegaard, E. E. (1998). Fortell om meg da jeg var liten: Fortellingen som mulighet i samarbeidet mellom barnehage og hjem [Tell me a story about my childhood: Narrative opportunities in conversations between preschool and home]. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 6, 375–385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ødegaard, E. E. (2006). What’s worth talking about? Meaning-making in toddler-initiated co-narratives in preschool. Early Years, 26(1), 79–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ødegaard, E. E. (2007a). Meningsskaping i barnehagen: Innehold og bruk av barns og voksnes samtalefortellinger [Meaning making in preschool: Contents and use of children’s and adults’ co-narratives] (Göteborg Studies in Educational Sciences, 255). Göteborg, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ødegaard, E. E. (2007b). What’s on the teacher’s agenda? International Journal of Early Childhood, 39(2), 45–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Oers, B. (1998). From context to contextualizing. Learning and Instruction, 8(6), 473–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Oers, B. (Ed.). (2003). Narratives of childhood: Theoretical and practical explorations for the innovation of early childhood education. Amsterdam: VU University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paley, V. G. (1997). The girl with the brown crayon: How children use stories to shape their lives. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Propp, V. (1968). Morphology of the folktale (2nd ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reese, E., Leyva, D., Sparks, A., & Grolnick, W. (2010). Maternal elaborative reminiscing increases low-income children’s narrative skills relative to dialogic reading. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 318–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B., Paradise, R., Mejía Arauz, R., Correa-Cháves, M., & Angelillo, C. (2003). Firsthand learning through intent participation. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 175–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rommetveit, R. (1992). Outlines of a dialogically based socio-cognitive approach to human cognition and communication. In A. H. Wold (Ed.), The dialogic alternative: Towards a theory of language and mind (pp. 19–44). Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Säljö, R. (2005). Lärande och kulturella redskap: Om lärprocesser och det kollektiva minnet [Learning and cultural tools: On processes of learning and collective memory]. Stockholm: Norstedts Akademiska.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, R. K. (1997). Pretend play as improvisation: Conversation in the preschool classroom. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schick, A., & Melzi G. (2010). The development of children’s oral narratives across contexts. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 293–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torr, J. (2007). The pleasure of recognition: Intertextuality in the talk of preschoolers during shared reading with mothers and teachers. Early Years, 27(1), 77–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulviste, T. (2000). Socialization at meals: A comparison of American and Estonian mother-adolescents interaction. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31(5), 537–556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Vol. 1: Problems of general psychology, including the volume Thinking and Speech (R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton, Eds., N. Minick, Trans.). New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, G. (1986). The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wertsch, J. V. (2002). Voices of collective remembering. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (2006). The role of tutoring in problem solving. In In search of pedagogy, Vol. I: The selected works of Jerome S. Bruner (pp. 198–208). London: Routledge. (Original work published 1976).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niklas Pramling .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Pramling, N., Ødegaard, E.E. (2011). Learning to Narrate: Appropriating a Cultural Mould for Sense-Making and Communication. In: Pramling, N., Pramling Samuelsson, I. (eds) Educational Encounters: Nordic Studies in Early Childhood Didactics. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1617-9_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics