Medidas objetivas para el análisis de calidad de imagen

In the section that follows, I will argue my position for the use of story in the primary school context as a vehicle for using sacred texts in an age appropriate-way. Stories are not only a central part of the primary curriculum but also surround us in everyday living: they engage our emotions and help us to create meaning in an enjoyable way. Ipgrave

(2012) in a recent piece of research found that faith stories were particularly well received in the primary schools.

In interviews with children at different primary schools, the success of the teachers’ efforts to

generate an enthusiasm for books was evident, as in the case of the six-year old who exclaimed,

‘I love books!’, another who pronounced, ‘I like people telling stories to me because it’s really interesting’, and a third who explained ‘As you read [the book] it’s like enjoying it, it’s like you’re really having fun reading it and you don’t want to stop’. This pattern of engagement was

observed in RE lessons with Biblical and other scriptural stories. It could be said that the text gathered an interpretive community around it as the children asked and answered questions about its content and meaning. (Ipgrave, 2012: 266)

These findings encouraged me to see the potential for developing the practice of SR using story. Ipgrave’s observations suggest that primary schools already provide a

positive environment in which pupils can enjoy scripture reading and joint interpretation. This interpretive community begins to look a little like those created during SR

encounters and presents the possibility of developing this further.

Around the same time the potential for using narrative in religious education had been explored and theorized by Reed (2013). In combining narrative philosophy with narrative theology, she and her team propose a narratival pedagogy which is built on two

fundamental tenets:

Firstly, drawing on Ricoeur, we suppose a narrative concept both of the self and of wider society, the latter of which is formed from the multiple, overlapping and at times contradictory stories of the people of which it comprises. This is our narrative philosophy, which is inclusive of all people irrespective of their religious or secular worldviews and which is therefore universal in scope and application.

Secondly, informed by this narrative philosophy, and in keeping with a narrative

conceptualisation of all religious and secular worldviews, we suppose a narrative understanding of both the Christian community and of the biblical texts upon which that community is based. This is our narrative theology which is of relevance conceptually and analytically both to those within the Christian tradition and to those who, standing outside the tradition, enter into dialogue with it. (Reed et al., 2013: 299)

This theoretical framework has been developed at Exeter University and applied to practical classroom teaching in a new approach to the teaching of RE, “The RE–

searchers”. It provides an approach which promoted different styles of RE investigation and uses characters as age-appropriate symbolic representations of different

methodological approaches to the RE enquiry. One of the characters “See the Story Suzie” engages with faith stories to help her understand how others see the world. It is

based on a critical, dialogic and enquiry-led rationale and reflects the approach of the adult practice of SR.

Storytelling is a literary genre with which pupils are very familiar. They recognise that a classical story format consists of a beginning, a middle and an end, it has characters and a setting, a problem to be solved and a denouement which brings a conclusion to the story. But stories are also helpful when dealing with religious beliefs in that they suspend truth claims and allow an exploration of the implicit meanings. Mayer highlights this and suggests that:

One of the most striking features of stories is that they have the same features and function in

almost the same way whether we believe them to be “true” ie non-fiction or untrue ie fiction. (Mayer, 2014: 64)

For some the stories of the Bible are literature, for others literal truth: in both cases it is possible for readers to draw meaning from the text. He goes on to suggest that:

Our willingness to accept the premise of a story suggests that we evaluate the truth of narrative not in terms of direct correspondence with the real world, but in terms of its internal consistency and its conformity without general conceptions about the way the world works. (Mayer, 2014: 64)

In the process of engaging with a story we are not so concerned to establish what is true and what is not true, we are more concerned to explore the truth-likeness of ideas and narratives or as Brunner suggests:

We interpret stories by their verisimilitude, their “truth likeness” or more accurately their “lifelikeness”. (Bruner, 1990: 61)

I would suggest that this dimension of the story structure makes it a particularly useful vehicle for pupils to explore differing perspectives. It allows different interpretations to exist alongside each other and enables pupils to discuss informally what they believe without having to take on the belief structure of a faith tradition. Whilst it may not be fully-possible for pupils to understand what it is like to be a person of another faith tradition, it may very well be possible to gain an empathetic insight into their belief system through sharing in engagement with a story.

Having suggested that stories are helpful in creating meaning for the individual, they can also hold meaning for communities. Ricoeur (1986) argues that collective narratives exceed the limits of individual imagination and extend to the communal. He suggests that as communities we are constantly in a process of developing a shared narrative that helps to define our culture.

Looking back to the recent research of Ipgrave (2012) we see evidence of primary pupils beginning to develop an understanding of the religious culture beyond the stories themselves.

Some children were able to do this on a wider scale as they placed the stories within the narrative not just of the scriptural canon but that of the religious tradition to which those stories pertain and of a human story of which they themselves are part. (Ipgrave, 2012: 274)

I would suggest that from the theoretical position of Reed et al and the observations of Ipgrave it is appropriate to consider the use of faith stories as a vehicle for developing intercultural and interreligious awareness.