An exploration of Emotional Literacy Support Assistants' understanding of emotional literacy, and their views on and use of stories and storytelling

Abstract

Large numbers of children and young people are in need of support for their social, emotional and mental health needs; this has been described as a ‘mental health crisis’ (Gunnell, Kidger & Elvidge, 2018, p. 361). A programme widely used in schools to support children in developing their emotional literacy (EL) is the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme (Burton, 2008). As part of their training, ELSAs may receive input on writing and using therapeutic stories. Storytelling is a useful tool for introducing emotions into the classroom in a safe, educationally appropriate way, and evidence suggests that storytelling approaches, including the use of pre-written as opposed to personalised stories, are an effective way to support the development of emotional literacy in children and young people, however writing personalised therapeutic stories is time consuming meaning that ELSAs may find it difficult to use them in their practice. There is scant research evidence about ELSAs’ use of stories and the factors which inhibit or enable their use. In this research I therefore aimed to explore ELSAs’ views on the use of stories, as well as their understanding of the term ‘emotional literacy’, and to explore their views of how attending a continuing professional development (CPD) session on the use of stories in ELSA work has impacted on their practice. The findings of this research show that the central reason underlying participants’ use of stories in their practice is as a relationship building tool and that stories were viewed as an effective way of communicating with children. Participants were more likely to use stories when they felt trusted by school leadership and confident in their ability; attending additional training on the use of stories increased feelings of confidence. Participants had a broadly consistent conception of the meaning of ‘emotional literacy’, however their views also took account of environmental and societal factors, which are not accounted for in the definition of EL. Implications of the findings for further research and educational psychology practice are considered.