Traditional multicultural storytelling: Effects of in-service teacher training program on attitudes of selected kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers in a suburban Texas independent school district

This study examines the impact of a specifically designed in-service teacher-training program in traditional multicultural storytelling on the attitudes of selected kindergarten through fifth grade teachers in a suburban Texas Independent School District. The study compared pre and post-training teacher perceptions both in the areas of attitudes about storytelling as a teaching tool and about the use of traditional multicultural literature (folktales, fables, myths, and legends) to promote cultural understanding and in the areas of actual use of storytelling and traditional multicultural literature in the classroom. The one-day training workshop included informational sessions on various aspects of storytelling and traditional multicultural literature as well as storytelling modeling and opportunities for each attending teacher to learn and tell a traditional multicultural story to an audience. The curriculum guide included information about storytelling as well as chapters on six different cultural groups including chapter subsections with: (1) a summary of values and beliefs, (2) traditional stories and storytelling techniques, (3) background discussion for children, (4) student activity suggestions, and (5) an annotated bibliography. Participating teachers were given pre-training questionnaires immediately preceding the workshop and post-training questionnaires approximately three months later. The dissertation includes triangulation observations utilizing a separately published qualitative dissertation originating out of the same teacher-training workshop. Research Questions explore the impact of the teacher training in changing teacher perceptions in the areas of: (1) the usefulness of storytelling, (2) the value of traditional multicultural storytelling, and (3) the actual use of traditional multicultural storytelling. A fourth research question examines the effects of various demographic variables on teacher perceptions.; Although the content of the program design and curriculum guide were generally thought by the attending teachers to contain valuable and significant information and although the same teachers reported to be entertained and interested by the material, the training program failed to translate to meaningful changes in behavior in the classroom. However, the findings of the study and its related literature review present interesting data that will hopefully lay the groundwork for future research in the promising area of traditional multicultural storytelling.