Storytelling in history classrooms: moving through historical empathy and analysis

This study investigates how oral storytelling in history classrooms can foster historical understanding by engaging students both emotionally and analytically. Drawing on classroom observations and linguistic analysis of an experienced eighth-grade teacher’s narration of 16th-century European colonisation, the research identifies three storytelling types: insider-first, outsider-first, and narrative oscillation. These types reflect distinct shifts between immersive and analytical perspectives. Using systemic functional linguistics and process drama theory, the study demonstrates how narrative structures can evoke empathy, scaffold reasoning, and support disciplinary engagement. Findings suggest that insider-first storytelling promotes emotional connection and identification, outsider-first storytelling enhances conceptual clarity, and narrative oscillation enables integration of individual experience with broader historical analysis. The study concludes by advocating for storytelling as a deliberate pedagogical strategy and calls for further research into its reception and impact on students’ historical understanding.