Counter-storytelling as a pedagogical tool to encourage critical thinking in instructional materials

Abstract

All written communications have perspective. Instructional materials framed from some perspective may contain hidden messages that have not been recognized or questioned. At the same time, unrepresented perspectives left out of educational materials may unwittingly propagate misrepresentation and social injustice. The omission of these perspectives may deprive students of the meaning-making and praxis needed to understand events from different points of view and develop empathy. This study examines how adding the narrative of additional perspective(s) as counter-storytelling with guided questions can help students make connections to new stories (null curriculum), reveal underlying messages (hidden curriculum), and create new knowledge and social justice awareness within existing instructional goals. This project aims to add to current research with an in-depth literature review and a comparison study. For the comparison study, I created two versions of an American Government lesson, one for a control group, and one for an experimental group, which added perspectives and critical thinking questions. I distributed links to these lessons to two voluntary sample groups of adult learners with pre- and post-assessments for feedback. Later I facilitated a smaller focus group to encourage dialogue and feedback with professionals in the field of instructional design.