Relational Storytelling and Critical Reflections on Difference

Abstract

This essay explores unique practices for teaching relational ethics through storytelling. Drawing from my experiences teaching an advanced undergraduate Narrative Ethics seminar, I explain how my students responded to a storytelling unit through which they examined their values and storytelling ethics. I interweave observations from my teaching with insights gathered from my students’ in-class discussions and written reflections to demonstrate the pedagogical aims, outcomes, and challenges encountered when engaging this material. I focus particularly on offering suggestions for encouraging students to (a) embrace limits to their understandings of others and (b) recognize how listening for, and expressing, difference plays a fundamental role in their personal, relational, and ethical growth.