Developing cultural understanding through story-telling

Abstract

This paper supports the notion that stories can be used to share diverse experiences and build cultural understanding. It is developed from a case study of a module which teaches and practices story-making and story-telling to develop cross-cultural communication and understanding. The paper illustrates a staged process of teaching and learning through stories, reflecting upon our experience at each stage. It explores our role as story-tellers as we engage in a field trip in Indonesia and use stories of our own lives to develop communication with our hosts, encouraging interaction and dialogue about the commonalities and differences in our lives. Our personal journeys are captured in daily journals and a post trip reflection which are used to explore our experience and learning. The paper highlights the contribution of stories to the development of multi-cultural literacy, cross-cultural communication and critical reflexivity.