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Story Circles: Supporting Boys’ Social and Emotional Worlds in School

  • Erin Elizabeth FlynnEmail author
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Educating the Young Child book series (EDYC, volume 16)

Abstract

Story circles are a small group storytelling activity which were implemented in four preschool classrooms serving lower socioeconomic status (SES), multilingual children in the United States of America (U.S.). Results show that story circles serve as a promising activity for supporting boys of color in the early years of schooling, primarily because story circles position boys to talk about ideas, relationships, and ways of being that are significant to them. Boys of color in the U.S. face disproportionate rates of suspension, expulsion, and retention from the outset of schooling, a problem that has its origins in teacher’s implicit bias as well as the need for a greater sense of socially and emotionally strong classroom communities. Oral storytelling activities like story circles offer the potential to shift boys’ behavior as well as school personnel’s perspective of boys, creating a more inclusive space for young children.

Keywords

Preschool education Immigrant boys Diversity Storytelling Social and emotional supports 
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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Portland UniversityPortlandUSA

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