"I Don't Want Sad Stories!" Refugee Families' Storytelling With Young Children

• In Event: 16.028 - Examining Identity to Enhance Learning Opportunities Among Resettled Refugee Youth

Abstract

Storytelling is “a mode of thought” and “vehicle of meaning making” (Brunner, 1996, p. 39) that is central to learning and identity development (Cole, 1996; Rogoff, 2003). Personal storytelling is functionally different in different cultures (Eder, 2007; McCabe, 1997, Ochs & Capps, 2001). Despite diverse refugee storytelling experiences and traditions, the dominant narrative in the media, public forums, children’s literature, and research centralizes refugee suffering and displacement, presents the image of helplessness and loss, and reinforces their marginal and powerless position (Kisiara, 2015; Rajaram, 2002). Against such practice, we emphasize agency of refugee parents by focusing on stories they choose to share with their children. Specifically, we ask two questions: (1) what kinds of stories are shared at family storytelling; and (2) what are parents’ considerations with their storytelling at home?
Nine refugee families with children ages 5-8 from Nepal, Somalia, and South Sudan resettled in the U.S. participated in this study. Assisted by interpreters, we visited each family three times to observe storytelling sessions and conduct interviews about family storytelling practices. The storytelling sessions (18) and interview sessions (27) were video-recorded and translated/transcribed. We used emergent coding and constant comparative analysis to identify themes of stories, contexts of storytelling, and adults/children’s role in storytelling practices.
Our findings revealed a broad range of stories shared by refugee families, including fairy tales, animal stories, stories of national heroes, etc. For each story, parents and children engaged in discussion about its moral lessons (e.g., hard work gets rewards, don’t trust strangers, respect hosts and elderly). Humor and wit are another main theme of the stories (e.g., Yonis the Thief, Lion’s Share). Some stories were full of naïve “scientific” wisdoms (e.g., how different body parts work together to function well). Conspicuously, traumatic refugee experiences were largely missing from family storytelling. While much storytelling about refugees depicts trauma (Hopkins, 2009; Kisiara, 2015), our study showed these families chose positive stories with clear moral lessons.
Refugee parents’ interviews revealed their effort to create a counter narrative of their cultures and experiences. Although many parents with time-consuming jobs in the US had challenges allocating time for family storytelling, they made concerted effort to preserve their native language and tradition through sharing stories. They intentionally focused on positive, funny and witty stories. One parent specifically told us, “I don’t want sad stories.” The parents hoped to instill a proud and positive image of their culture and their people by emphasizing moral lessons in their stories.
The findings of this exploratory study highlight a wealth of cultural resources and learning opportunities or “funds of knowledge” available in refugee families (Joyner, 2012; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). As a major recipient of refugees (The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, 2012), American schools struggle to meet refugee students’ socio-emotional and learning needs. Based on the findings, we suggest the following ways to address this problem: (1) integrate family stories into classroom learning; and (2) collaborate with parents and refugee communities to sustain native language and culture.

Authors

• X. Christine Wang, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City