Why use stories to talk about bullying, harassment and violence?
One of the challenges in talking about bullying, harassment, and violence with young people is in relating the concepts to their own life experience in a supportive and solution-focused way. Literature can help students to grapple with a range of situations and viewpoints, critically examine beliefs and actions, and consider alternative ways of understanding the world and social relationships. Literary characters help young people to make sense of what it is to be a member of a community, to be a friend, and to manage stressful situations.
Stories can help young people see that the world is something over which they, as characters in life, can exercise some control. The events of stories are a means of exploration of the world, helping to confirm, to illuminate, and extend life experiences, in ways that give power over them.
Books provide the experience of a diversity of voices in a variety of times, places, roles, and literary styles. Stories can help foster connection with others in the knowledge that we share some of the same concerns and feelings.
Most importantly, stories give us a way into working as a community of inquiry by helping us to:
- explore behaviours, values and perspectives, seek a better understanding, and consider options
- examine the impact of social factors on individual identity (e.g. ethnicity, poverty, sexuality, location and religion)
- critically examine the social construction of identity with regard to gender, culture, and so forth, and so make more informed decisions about our actions
- examine exceptions to dominant forms of masculinity/femininity to challenge the ways we construct our gender identities
- examine and challenge existing power relations within social relationships and social institutions
- identify and address barriers that limit students’ opportunities, participation and benefits from schooling
- assist students to question how disadvantage is shaped by social structures and institutions, and to challenge through action these injustices.
Adapted from Boys, Gender and Schooling, Education Queensland website
http://education.qld.gov.au/students/advocacy/equity/gender-sch/
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