Symbol Literacy Project Secures $50,000 Grant for Narrative Reasoning Research

In an effort to continue researching children’s sense-making processes and the pedagogical potential of cultural elements, the Symbol Literacy (SL) team, led by Professor Adrian-Mario Gellel (Faculty of Education/ Faculty of Theology), will be collaborating with ten academics hailing from six US and European institutions.

Following the University of Malta Excellence-Funded project, which sought to study how pedagogy may facilitate children’s sense-making through art and narrative, the Symbol Literacy Research team is now delving further into the data collected to investigate the possibility of identifying narrative reasoning in children.

The collaboration and further research are being made possible through a generous grant of $50,000 awarded by the Children’s Spirituality Research and Innovation Hub. The research grant will allow academics from Union Presbyterian Seminary,  Yale University, University of Kent, Università di Salerno, Haute Ecole Pédagogique and the University of Malta to meet, collect, and analyse new data.

Professor Gellel is keen to create opportunities for interdisciplinary conversations to help shed light on the intricate narrative processes found in children's narratives previously gathered in the Excellence-funded study in response to visual prompts. This team of experts, hailing from different fields of study, will be collaborating over the next six months to discuss and reflect on the patterns of thought used by children aged 8 to 11 when producing original narratives. They will aim to analyse how narratives connect to the children’s perceptions of reality and will seek to uncover the cultural repertoires woven into these stories.

In keeping with the core Symbol Literacy endeavour, the main task of this team will be to delve deep and seek to provide a holistic view of children’s narratives. The integration of the different points of view of each expert will ensure that the reflections capture the complexity of the children’s narratives while respecting their authenticity.

This will truly be a unique opportunity to explore the quasi-uncharted empirical territory of children’s narrative reasoning and a golden opportunity to enrich the academic community through inter-disciplinary dialogue. By shedding light on children’s narrative reasoning processes, educators will hopefully be in a better position to respond to children’s needs.