Teachers' perceptions of the importance of stories in the lives of children in Myanmar

Abstract

Children's active involvement in storytelling develops diverse lifelong skills for critical thinking, cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Central to the success of attracting the attention of students for storytelling are the social-emotional roles that teachers play in children's lives. This study investigated 23 kindergarten teachers' views in Myanmar on the importance of stories, how they carry out storytelling as a part of curriculum, and how they view stories as a way to promote children's development, as well as how students respond to the stories. In general, teachers in Myanmar report feeling supportive of the importance of stories in children's lives. However, many teachers also reported lack of time, authentic materials, and teaching aids for conducting stories in classrooms in local schools. They noted that international schools do include stories and have a fixed and regular programme with fully equipped facilities.