Wearable e- textile as a narrative mediator for enhanving ampathy for moral development in Primary School

Abstract

A critical moral issue education has to deal with is that of bullying. Recent findings in Education have noted that bullying might be associated with empathy. Many prevention bullying programs have used narratives and Storytelling as an effective method to promote empathy. In recent times several studies have been conducted which focus on the creation of new storytelling media that can enhance empathic skills. This study was focused on the creation of a new type of storytelling medium that attempts to both activate the user’s embodied experience and promote the user’s feeling of presence in the mediated narrative world, with the exploitation of an e-textile. A “digital dictionary” was also created for the effective use of the wearable e-textile as a narrative mediator that enhances empathy. In this study, 10 students (6 boys, 4 girls) aged 11 and 12 wore the e-textile, watched and listened to the narration. The evidence of the questionnaire and interviews imply that participants enjoyed their interaction with the wearable e-textile. The results also suggest that the etextile operated as a narrative mediator, it enhanced participants’ empathic connection with the characters and this might have led not only to a non-bullying behaviour but also to a more defending action in future bullying situations. In conclusion, these results suggest that wearable e-textiles, in combination with a narrative, could prove invaluable tools for helping the moral development of students.