2011 AAUP Public and Secondary School Library Selection

Storytelling's positive impact on ethical development in children

Storytelling empowers children to engage in discussions; explore ideas about power, respect, community, fairness, equality, and justice; and help frame their understanding of complex ethical issues within a society. In Life Lessons through Storytelling, Donna Eder interviews elementary students and presents their responses to stories from different cultures. Using Aesop's fables and Kenyan and Navajo storytelling traditions as models for classroom use, Eder demonstrates the value of a cross-cultural approach to teaching through storytelling, while providing deep insights into the social psychology of learning.

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Educatiors, scholars, and non-scholars alike will highly appreciate Donna Eder's study . . . In this book, she not only reclaims the significance of storytelling within Western culture but also reintroduces the act of storytelling into the school curriculum. March 30, 2011

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[T]his book offers a cross culture, indterdisciplinary study of breadth and depth together with [Eder's] acknowledgements, analysis and advocacy.