Who does not look back fondly upon the times that their primary school teacher would break away from the lesson in order to tell a story? Or upon how exciting it was when the teacher would have everyone sit in a circle. Everyone was allowed to leave their fixed places and choose a position in the middle of the classroom. The teacher refrained from speaking and invited anyone with a story to speak. Such fun! These are fond memories because they were the exceptions, but what if they were not exceptions and everything we had learnt had been handed down to us in stories? And furthermore, why did this only happen when we were children?
Education is currently focused on so-called ‘results-orientated’ methods. There are tutorials, lectures, seminars, discussions, presentations, and so on. But what has happened to the stories? A world of experiences, fears, desires and ambitions is opened up through stories and the use of metaphors and paradoxes. In fact, all stories begin with a question that is very important to the didactics of being nowhere: how did I get here?
