Including Children’s Voices: Working with Stories through Persona Dolls
About the Course
VIA ZOOM
Stories are how we make sense of things. We live our lives through stories. We turn our lives into stories. The Persona Dolls come with stories. Some stories via the Dolls allow children to find value in their lived experiences. Windows are opened that help children gain a positive attitude toward difference. The Persona Doll Approach builds on universal storytelling traditions to promote inclusion, build empathy, and address issues of prejudice and unfairness. Persona Doll approach is an effective means of enabling children (ages 4-6) to share life experiences openly. Persona Dolls are life-like, dolls made of cloth. Each Doll is given a ‘persona’ or identity; and transformed into a unique personality with cultural and social class backgrounds, family situations, abilities and disabilities, fears, and interests.
Persona Dolls usually visit in group settings or in homes and a friendship develops between each Doll and the adults and children. Importantly, the Dolls are not used as puppets: the adult relays to the children what the Doll has said. Children and adults are given opportunities to respond to the issues raised through the Doll’s experiences. Interactive problem posing discussions develop, and in this safe environment children are empowered by talking about their own identities, life experiences and feelings.
The stories build upon each other with the aim of unlearning discriminatory attitudes and behaviour. The children relate to the Dolls as ‘friends’, who may differ from them in language, culture and/or disability. In the process, they build their understanding of fairness and unfairness, learn skills in conflict management and problem solving, and are encouraged to feel proud of their families and cultural backgrounds. The children are helped to understand the hurt that prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviour cause and, crucially, to develop the skills they need to stand up for themselves and others.
The workshop will include discussion, and presentation about facilitating conversations where children offer solutions to help the doll. We will explore the importance of promoting equality with young children through how the persona doll is used. We will identify and plan uses for a persona doll in your setting. Working with Persona Dolls takes anti oppressive practice from an abstract concept to a classroom practice that is offered in a concrete-age-appropriate way for young children.
This workshop will be recorded. The link will be shared for 30 days after distribution. Distribution happens in the week following the workshop.
Your Instructor:
Debbie Laurin
Dr. Laurin is an international presenter and author of articles about child wellbeing, child mental health, and childcare routines. She has a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s in Waldorf Early Childhood from Antioch New England University. Debbie’s introduction to Waldorf Early Childhood Education began in the early 1990’s in Waterville, Maine at a summer intensive at Rudolf Steiner College. Debbie uniquely interweaves information from mainstream research with the principles of Waldorf Early Childhood Education to create a unique tapestry to support child wellbeing. She embraces an approach based on antibias education and respectful childcare practices grounded in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Debbie brings experience as a former Waldorf Kindergarten and Parent and Child teacher and her curiosity and wonder of the young child continue to grow joyfully through her experiences as a grandmother to three. Debbie is involved with an international group working towards their Pikler® Pedagogue certification and she trains in the U.S. and at the Emmi Pikler Daycare in Budapest, Hungary. Since 2003, Dr. Laurin is involved with the West Coast Institute serving as faculty and mentor in the Early Childhood Waldorf Teacher Training, she is a member of the Scientific committee with Pikler®/USA and works with the WECAN Birth-to-Three advisory group.