Abstract
Narratives, as one of the oldest cultural and didactic traditions known to humankind, trace back across numerous civilizations, societies, and histories. At educational institutions, narratives are interdisciplinary and allow for an interactive, cross-competence study of school subjects. However, direct instruction-based methodologies tend to limit student interaction with narrative-based learning. In response to this problem, Turkish professors Gurses, Dogar, and Gunes established a direct constructivist learning model that changed two-dimensional direct instruction to a three-dimensional model. In this chapter, the authors contend that a direct model is insufficient to create LGBTIQ+ inclusiveness; so, they propose an indirect interaction model for narratives in multidisciplinary fields by making use of the figure of an avatar as developed in game studies. They then offer several practical applications of the indirect-interaction-based model to inclusive narratives, and they conclude by emphasizing the game-like nature of a narrative-based inclusive classroom design.
“The more self-forgetful the listener is, the more deeply is what he listens to, impressed upon his memory. When the rhythm of work has seized him, he listens to the tales in such a way that the gift of retelling them comes to him all by itself. This, then, is the nature of the web in which the gift of storytelling is cradled.” – Walter Benjamin (1936, p. 91)
TopQueer Narratives
In a 2006 article, O’Mochain uses queer narratives to introduce queer themes into the classroom and then have discussions about queer identity with students (O’Mochain, 2006). Later in 2018, Piaz and Zhu wrote about the inclusion and discussion of queer novels and literary ideas in his classroom (Piaz & Zhu, 2018). Coda in his article collated data about LGBT-narrative inclusion in classrooms, identifying the experiential understanding and benefits that the inclusion of LGBTIQ+ narratives bring to classrooms (2023). Yet, in these examples, the stories are being told to the students, or read by the students. The teacher does not invite the student into the narrative as a participant. Although critical engagement with the stories does take place, a theoretical line has been drawn between the classroom and the narrative. As Geer (2022) points out, this line can leave open space for bigotry and discourage teachers from exploring queer narratives.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Game-Based Learning: A way of designing classes to be game-like. It turns the lesson into a game whereby the students become players with an end goal and decisions to make to reach that end goal.
Narrative Interaction: An action or set of actions that influence how the story continues, or the way in which the audience involves itself in the story.
Restorying: The way in which a marginalized group may retell known stories in order to have them better reflect marginalized experiences.
Game Master: A real person who acts as a mediator between the player(s) and the story they are exploring.
Character Avatar: A playable character within video and tabletop role-playing games, and the chosen character used to represent a student or student group.
Differentiation: The act of allowing a multitude of possible choices for the students so that they may personalize their learning according to their needs and wants. A synonym for student ownership in their learning.
Hermeneutics: The study of possible interpretations of narratives, including the positioning of the storyteller and the audience or the relationship between the narrative and the context.
Indirect Interaction Model: A proposed model for interpreting narratives within classrooms whereby one does not directly oppose narrative with task.
Game Studies: The academic study of different forms of play, interaction, and structure expressed by playing games. Also known as ludology.