The purpose of this paper is to present the development and initial findings of a three-year funded project, entitled the Collaborative Storytelling for Disability Awareness (COSDIA) approach. This approach was conceptualized through a careful consideration of the gap in the literature regarding interdisciplinary approaches that consider disability awareness, particularly the intersection between online-offline environments of interaction, collaboration between disabled and non-disabled pre-service teachers, the co-creation of educational materials, and creative writing and digital storytelling. In effect, the study explores the use of collaborative storytelling, through digital and other forms, of pre-service teachers’ own stories and/or fairy tales about disability and aims to foster pre-service teachers’ disability awareness.

This presentation will include findings derived mainly from the first phase of the three-year project. In this first phase, the researchers conducted a thorough literature review documenting existing models in the use of storytelling and drama techniques for pre-service teachers’ training, as well as the representation of disability in the media. Researchers also completed an initial analysis of pre-service teachers’ views around disability and their learning needs around inclusive pedagogy and practice, which facilitated the development of the COSDIA approach. The first phase of the project was concluded through the development of a theoretical and pedagogical framework for the COSDIA approach, as well as the development of its curriculum comprised of seven modules. The development, presentation and delivery of the modules adopt an inclusive pedagogical framework, as the research team agrees that the project has the potential “to reduce educational inequality by enhancing learning opportunities for everyone” (Florian, 2015, p.5).

The research questions complement the research goals of the proposed project, and the research team investigates:

(1)   pre-service teachers’ perceptions in relation to innovative learning approaches regarding disability awareness and inclusive education

(2)   pre-service teachers’ needs in relation to innovative learning approaches regarding disability awareness and inclusive education

(3)   the ways in which COSDIA’s approach can contribute to enhancing pre-service teachers’ disability awareness

(4)   the potential opportunities and challenges of collaborative storytelling (collaboration between disabled and non-disabled people), through digital, and other forms, of pre-service teachers’ own stories and/or fairy tales about disability/inclusive education

Methodology/ research instruments The epistemological principles of this research lie to the social constructivism paradigm – since disability is considered a social construction (Linton, 1998) – and to the post-modern paradigm. From a postmodern perspective language has tremendous power, as it can transmit the ideologies of inclusion and exclusion (Ballard, 2004), which is associated with participants’ conceptualizations of disability as well as with conceptualizations of disability in fairy-tales (Tzimiri, 2021) television, radio and the press (Barnes, 1992). However, language is not the only means of representing reality or communicating since in the multimodal landscape of social media (Ellis & Kent, 2016) language is used in conjunction with other modes of communication such as pictures, photos, videos. Multimodality’ is adopted from the field of social semiotics, which refers to the different modes that people utilise in specific social contexts to create meaning and communicate (Van Leeuwen, 2005). Research design The research design transforms the epistemological principles into pragmatic decisions and serves as a compass for the choices we make’ (Prosser and Swartz, 1998, p.18). Considering the epistemological principles of this study a qualitative approach is considered as the most appropriate for answering the research questions. The research design includes a thorough literature review, exploring pre-service teachers’ perceptions and needs through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews (both individual and focus-group), researchers’ reflective journals, post-questionnaires with participants. All of the above will be analyzed through a combination of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and critical discourse analysis (Gee, 2015).

Initial findings from pre-service teachers’ questionnaires and semi-structured interviews indicate that the COSDIA approach has promising results in relation to enhancing pre-service teachers’ disability awareness and enhancing collaboration between disabled and non-disabled pre-service teachers. In addition, findings highlight the importance of ongoing professional development to facilitate the use of innovative pedagogic practices, and the need to place focus on reflective practice, and to challenge values and beliefs about disability, teaching and learning.

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