Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 82 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-45).

This study examined the effects of a narrative intervention for second graders with poor narrative ability. Second graders in one school were screened for narrative ability and 36 students with poor oral narrative skills were randomly assigned to an intervention or comparison group (no narrative instruction). The intervention group participated in 22, 30-minute small group narrative instruction sessions for 8 weeks. Intervention focused on macrostructure and microstructure aspects of narrative. Before and after the 8-week intervention, students in both groups were evaluated by the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, 2004), a measure of narrative production and narrative comprehension. In addition, students were given a researcher-developed measure that assessed knowledge of specific words encountered in intervention materials. Narratives were also analyzed with respect to microstructure and macrostructure elements. Three separate Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted using the following dependent variables with each pretest score used as a covariate: (1) the narrative comprehension subtest of the Test of Narrative Language (TNL), (2) the oral narration subtest of the TNL, and (3) a researcher-developed vocabulary test. Practical significance effect size results indicated that there was a statistically significant intervention/comparison group difference effect on oral narration ability (effect size = 1.45) and specific vocabulary knowledge (effect size = 1.32); however, there was no significant difference between group posttest scores on the narrative comprehension subtest (effect size = .19). In addition, English language learners in the intervention group (n = 3) performed similarly to their peers.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

There is an increasing trend in youth education and civil society that focuses on global citizenship. The development of the storyteller and story is a highly intuitive practice refined by experience. Literature in education and democracy, elicitive approaches to peacebuilding, and storytelling in education are reviewed. The study is based on three theoretical ideas: (1) that cultural stories encode and transmit knowledge, (2) personal narratives enable the integration of theoretical ideas into their socio-political context, and (3) that storytelling can help students apply their knowledge through positive action. This qualitative study uses grounded theory and a multi-method approach, drawing primarily on twelve semi-structured interviews. The data revealed four key themes that guide storytellers’ learning outcomes: knowledge, culture, dialogue, and agency. Storytellers described storytelling as a powerful pedagogical practice that provides democratic and inclusive spaces capable of facilitating dialogue and promoting student agency.

This thesis tells two intertwined stories about stories about nature. One, theoretical, asks what stories and histories do and why storytelling matters in place-making and policy-making. The second questions the effect of narratives of pristine nature on place-meanings in southwest New Zealand, serving as a case study to illustrate the abstract relationships of the first. Throughout reflexive consideration of my research journey as academic storytelling contributes to my theoretical arguments. Narratives help humans make sense of time and their place in the world. Stories and histories both shape new and reflect current understandings of the world. Thus narratives of nature and place are historically, geographically, and culturally specific. Place-meanings result from the geography of stories layered over time on a physical location. In the iterative process of continually re-presenting landscapes in specific places, negotiation between storytellers with variable power shapes physical environments and future place-meanings. This thesis uses the pristine story to explore these links between stories and histories, place-meanings, and policy decisions. From the arrival of New Zealand's first colonists to today's perceived "clean green" landscape, narratives distinguishing timeless nature from human culture have influenced policy-making in multiple ways. Focusing specifically on understandings of the conservation lands now listed by UNESCO as Te Wāhipounamu South-West World Heritage Area, I trace the origins and evolution of three dominant narrative strands - world heritage, national parks, and Ngāi Tahu cultural significance. Using post-colonial understandings of conservation as cultural colonization, I consider how the pristine narrative obscured Ngāi Tahu understandings of the area. I explore how the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 has begun to shift place-meanings by altering power-geometries between storytellers. Participant-observation in Department of Conservation visitor centres, however, illustrates that legislated stories and storytelling processes are expressed differently in representations of land in specific locations

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In this study, differences between literary and digital storytelling are identified as a context for the issues explored within this thesis. I argue both the strengths and weaknesses of both the written and digital arratives. It is difficult to apply the same standards to two exceptionally different genres, but it is the truest way to compare and contrast the two. I will examine a few of the studies that have already been done that are similar and some of the assertions they have concluded. / Storytelling : past and present -- An objective comparison of narrative -- Literary and digital narrative -- Digital media and the digital narrative -- Objective and subjective issues. / Department of Telecommunications

There is an increasing trend in youth education and civil society that focuses on global citizenship. The development of the storyteller and story is a highly intuitive practice refined by experience. Literature in education and democracy, elicitive approaches to peacebuilding, and storytelling in education are reviewed. The study is based on three theoretical ideas: (1) that cultural stories encode and transmit knowledge, (2) personal narratives enable the integration of theoretical ideas into their socio-political context, and (3) that storytelling can help students apply their knowledge through positive action. This qualitative study uses grounded theory and a multi-method approach, drawing primarily on twelve semi-structured interviews. The data revealed four key themes that guide storytellers’ learning outcomes: knowledge, culture, dialogue, and agency. Storytellers described storytelling as a powerful pedagogical practice that provides democratic and inclusive spaces capable of facilitating dialogue and promoting student agency.

The art of storytelling is one of the oldest forms of creative discourse. Apart from finding stories, the most important job in television is the construction of stories to have a broad audience appeal. This first-hand review of Missing Persons Unit, hereafter referred to as MPU, a prime time program on the Nine Network in Australia with immense audience appeal, is an original work by the executive producer (development and series producer Series One, executive producer Series Two and Three) based on an overview of two-and-a-half years of production on three series. Through a case study approach, this Masters project explores how story is constructed into a television format. The thesis comprises two parts: the creative component (weighted 50%) is demonstrated through two programs of MPU (one program for evaluation) and the academic component through a written exegesis (50%). This case study aims to demonstrate how observational hybrid series such as MPU can be managed to quick turn-around schedules with precise skill sets that cut across a number of traditional genre styles. With the advent of radio and then television, storytelling found a home and a series of labels called genres to help place them in a schedule for listeners and viewers to choose. Over recent years, with the advent of digital technology and the rush to collect the masses of content required to feed the growing television slate, storytelling has often been replaced by story gathering. Today even in factual series where a clear story construct is important, third party ‘quick fix’ specialists are hired to shape raw content shot by a field team, who never put their own work together and may never come into the edit suite during a project. This thesis explores the art of storytelling in fast turn-around television. In particular it explores the layer cake approach used in the production process of MPU, that enables producers of fast turn-around television to shepherd their own stories from field through to post-production. While each new hybrid series will require its own particular sets of skills, the exploration of the genesis of MPU will demonstrate the building blocks required to successfully produce this type of factual series. This study is also intended as a ‘road map’ for producers who wish to develop similar series.

This thesis tells two intertwined stories about stories about nature. One, theoretical, asks what stories and histories do and why storytelling matters in place-making and policy-making. The second questions the effect of narratives of pristine nature on place-meanings in southwest New Zealand, serving as a case study to illustrate the abstract relationships of the first. Throughout reflexive consideration of my research journey as academic storytelling contributes to my theoretical arguments. Narratives help humans make sense of time and their place in the world. Stories and histories both shape new and reflect current understandings of the world. Thus narratives of nature and place are historically, geographically, and culturally specific. Place-meanings result from the geography of stories layered over time on a physical location. In the iterative process of continually re-presenting landscapes in specific places, negotiation between storytellers with variable power shapes physical environments and future place-meanings. This thesis uses the pristine story to explore these links between stories and histories, place-meanings, and policy decisions. From the arrival of New Zealand's first colonists to today's perceived "clean green" landscape, narratives distinguishing timeless nature from human culture have influenced policy-making in multiple ways. Focusing specifically on understandings of the conservation lands now listed by UNESCO as Te Wāhipounamu South-West World Heritage Area, I trace the origins and evolution of three dominant narrative strands - world heritage, national parks, and Ngāi Tahu cultural significance. Using post-colonial understandings of conservation as cultural colonization, I consider how the pristine narrative obscured Ngāi Tahu understandings of the area. I explore how the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 has begun to shift place-meanings by altering power-geometries between storytellers. Participant-observation in Department of Conservation visitor centres, however, illustrates that legislated stories and storytelling processes are expressed differently in representations of land in specific locations