Narrative Group Work

Being open to new things and open-minded, behaving humanely and in solidarity with others and creating a good working relationship - this has not always been easy for students. The skills of having an open conversation in a group, honestly sharing personal attitudes, listening attentively, asking questions with confidence and actively engaging on the spot also need to be constantly relearned. Cultures Interactive has developed the Narrative Conversation Groups® to support schools in implementing these important tasks of democracy education, conflict resolution and conversation education. They are offered as a new method of holistic or intensive political education, particularly in rural areas.

Holistic political education that connects content and emotions

The need for this is underlined by the increasing polarization of society. Group-hatred and anti-democratic attitudes as well as populist positions that are put forward emotionally and defy rational debate are increasingly setting the tone - and this is also echoed in school classes. In structurally weak regions, this is often exacerbated by the perception of being “left behind” and not being heard by politics and the media. This makes it all the more important to create new spaces for dialog and promote the ability to engage in well-meaning debate and interpersonal encounters.

Democratic understanding and sustainable conflict resolution in schools

The Narrative Conversation Groups® are specifically aimed at schools because they continue to be an important place of socialization and encounter for young people with different backgrounds and views. In addition, schools are often looking for helpful external support in order to become an effective learning environment for experiences of democratic understanding and sustainable conflict resolution, despite all the challenges posed by subject curricula and tight framework conditions.

The Narrative Conversation Groups® effectively support this by creating a protected space for open discussion, trusting dialog and practising democracy as part of regular lessons. Methodologically, they are based on proven principles of narrative discussion and group self-awareness, as known from youth welfare and social therapy. External group leaders offer an open-topic, self-determined framework in which young people can talk about their experiences and interests and enter into relationships with each other. Chronic tensions and hardened debates are thus pushed into the background. This is because the individual experiences that lie behind opinions and resentments are revealed in the narrative-lifeworld narrative. Through narrative reflection, the young people reassure themselves of democratic attitudes and dissolve misanthropic affects. This results in intensive political education that combines content and emotions.

Acquiring social skills and experiencing self-efficacy

Experience shows: In the discussion groups, the students quickly find their personal concerns and work through the tensions of their respective class dynamics. In doing so, however, they always intuitively move towards central social issues - (in)justice, bullying, violence, misanthropy, gender roles, friendship, family, participation - which are also the subject of specialist curricula. In the discussion groups, however, the pupils develop these topics from their own wealth of experience and drive - and thus fill them directly with life. The result is holistic and intensive political education and democracy education.

Countering prejudice and group-hatred

The groups encourage and enable pupils to talk about their personal experiences, to make their own views understandable, to engage in a committed conversation and to listen to each other. In doing so, they become aware of their experiences and learn to be honest with each other and with themselves, to deal constructively with their own feelings and insecurities - and to negotiate differences of opinion free from devaluation and hatred.

The pupils set the content of the group discussions independently. In doing so, they naturally address issues of social interaction and current socio-political topics - based on their own personal experiences of respect, being heard, equality, diversity, prejudice and being different. This strengthens the students' basic democratic attitude and prevents misanthropic attitudes - both on a substantive and emotional level.

Target group

Primarily pupils from Year 7 onwards, including primary level