Teacher Use of Digital Stories to Promote Reflective Practice Supportive of Migrant and Refugee Children’s Sense of Belonging

Abstract

Creative and innovative reflective methods are important to prompt and sustain alternative and novel ways for teachers to consider their professional identity and practice. Digital storytelling is one such method that enables the sharing of valued events including narratives of lived experience. This paper reports on a case study investigating teacher use of digital storytelling to promote reflection and pedagogical awareness in support of immigrant and refugee children’s developing sense of belonging. The case study is part of a larger funded project aimed at strengthening the identity and belonging of refugee and immigrant children in early childhood education. In the case study, four early childhood education teachers in an education and care centre planned and created their digital narratives, reflected on the process, and considered the opportunities and implications for integrating digital storytelling in their practice. A range of qualitative data were collected through observations (notes, photographs, video recordings), focus group interview, and teacher created artifacts. Thematic analysis identified that teachers valued their experiences with creating their own digital stories in identifying and affirming their values and identities as teacher practitioners, and in thinking more deeply about coming to belong. They recognised the transformative potential of digital storytelling in promoting understandings of belonging, facilitating reflective practice and identifying relevant belonging-based pedagogical strategies. They recommended other staff and parents could undertake a similar process, predicting that this would enable even stronger reciprocal connections between staff, parents and children to facilitate greater understanding of children’s cultural backgrounds and home experiences as a basis for establishing more targeted belonging-based pedagogies.