Presentation by Nicola Groves at the third ESRC funded seminar on participatory research with people with learning disabilities

1. Taking part by Telling Stories
Nicola Grove
Openstorytellers
www.openstorytellers.org.uk

2. Openstorytellers

3. Research

4. Story

5. Process
Research
Story

6. Story and research

7. Theory
• A theory is an idea
which:• Helps you think
about problems
• Explains why
something happens
• Suggests what will
happen next

8. Partial Participation
You CAN do
something
Even if you can’t
do EVERYTHING
Baumgart et al., 1982

9. Theories about storytelling
what do these images suggest?
Stories are
what you
read to
kids: in
education
this is the
dominant
idea; almost
no oral
personal
narrative in
curriculum
Stories are
performances by
one person,
everyone listens
quietly.
Can lead to “oh
dear, I can’t tell
stories”
&
People tell
stories together,
the listener is
actively
involved; stories
of personal
experience are
face to face,
animated.
EVERYONE
does this all the
time!
This is what we
do in
Storysharing

10. Storysharing is…
• Telling stories together
• Using whatever communication skills are
available
• Focusing on meaning and feelings

11. Hopes and Dreams project
•
Photo of girl holding heart
cushion, representing love,
dreams
•
Photo of girl holding
megaphone to represent
voice, speaking up
• Ideas you can
grasp
• cf. Natural semantic
metalanguage Wierzbicka,
2010

12. Community: mobility allowance
campaign 2011
• We need money
for our bus –
jigsaw of bus
• Each person
chooses a piece
of the bus as their
contribution
• We put the bus
jigsaw together –
we need all our
money
•
A lady tells the story of how going to
Stonehenge in the bus helped her to remember
a trip there when she was little – she has just
relocated to our home in Wiltshire from the
Midlands. This helped her to feel connected and
manage the transition.
•
We sent a DVD of our presentation to the MP.
He supported our campaign to keep mobility
allowance for people in residential settings

13. Truth to power: telling stories
•
We hold participatory meetings about local civic issues where
people are supported to share their experiences. Here we are
telling them to our MP. We use music, karoake, objects and
communication aids so everyone can join in

14. Key points
• Co-authoring
• Working together
• Finding the one key
contribution that each
person can make

15. Contact
www.openstorytellers.org.uk
For information on Storysharing
and community connecting