Views of preschool teachers on using the anatolian storytelling in preschool education

Abstract

In cooperation with UNESCO Turkish National Commission, the Department of Teacher Training in the Ministry of National Education started an Anatolian Stories Project in 2019. In this Project, Anatolian Story Telling In-service Training was organized with the participation of preschool teachers. The current research aims to examine the contributions and limitations of Anatolian storytelling practices in preschool education in terms of preschool teachers’ views. A holistic single-case design was preferred for the study. Twenty preschool teachers who got the Anatolian storytelling in-service training participated in the study. A semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as the data collection tool. To analyze the data, content analysis was performed. Results show that Anatolian storytelling is effective to introduce our cultural properties and to promote cultural concepts and values. In the meantime, pre-service teachers think that Anatolian storytelling practices can easily be integrated into the Turkish language, visual arts, and drama practices. In this manner, storytelling affects the development of language, social-emotional, cognitive, and motor skills which are also the main goals of the preschool education curriculum. Moreover, as having an intriguing effect, and facilitating eye contact, stories also contribute to classroom management. There is a lack of collected Anatolian stories suitable for each educational outcome and age level. This result is suggested as the limitations of Anatolian storytelling practices. © (2023), (T.C. Milli Egitim Bakanligi). All Rights Reserved.