Storytelling as Relational Practice: Critically Engaging Class-Based Inequality in Growing Up Poor
Disciplines
Communication | Development Studies | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | Social Justice
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Utilizing an intersectional analysis of poverty (Mattsson, 2014, Royce, 2015), this presentation attends to the stories and lived experiences of young people experiencing the plight of class-based inequality (Danforth, 1997). This paper offers an intervention into the ways young people are framed by adults as innocent and developmentally incapable of understanding complex phenomena (Kelly & Brooks, 2009) We base our inquiry within the lessons learned in the 2020 documentary Growing Up Poor, which follows three families in rural/suburban Ohio who have endured the realities of poverty, racialization, and health inequality at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We utilize a phenomenological inquiry to prioritize centering the lived experiences of the young people by highlighting the ways their stories can be used as a conscious-raising tool for helping professionals to challenge inequality, power, and uplift the stories of marginalized children and youth (Gold, 2012). Greensmith and Sheppard (2017) note that helping professionals’ perceptions of children as innocent does a disservice to their experiences of racism and inequality. As the authors note “storytelling provides a platform to trouble narratives of racial harmony and progress by [centering] the storyteller—they are the authority of their own story” (Greensmith & Sheppard, 2017, p. 10). We suggest that the method and practice of storytelling aligns the helping professional with relational practice to uplift the voices, experiences, and stories of marginalized groups within the helping relationship (DuBois & Miley, 2021; Greensmith & Sakal Froese, 2018; Segal, 2013).
Academic department under which the project should be listed
WCHHS - Social Work and Human Services
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Cameron Greensmith, Ph.D., MSW He/him/they/them
Storytelling as Relational Practice: Critically Engaging Class-Based Inequality in Growing Up Poor
Utilizing an intersectional analysis of poverty (Mattsson, 2014, Royce, 2015), this presentation attends to the stories and lived experiences of young people experiencing the plight of class-based inequality (Danforth, 1997). This paper offers an intervention into the ways young people are framed by adults as innocent and developmentally incapable of understanding complex phenomena (Kelly & Brooks, 2009) We base our inquiry within the lessons learned in the 2020 documentary Growing Up Poor, which follows three families in rural/suburban Ohio who have endured the realities of poverty, racialization, and health inequality at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We utilize a phenomenological inquiry to prioritize centering the lived experiences of the young people by highlighting the ways their stories can be used as a conscious-raising tool for helping professionals to challenge inequality, power, and uplift the stories of marginalized children and youth (Gold, 2012). Greensmith and Sheppard (2017) note that helping professionals’ perceptions of children as innocent does a disservice to their experiences of racism and inequality. As the authors note “storytelling provides a platform to trouble narratives of racial harmony and progress by [centering] the storyteller—they are the authority of their own story” (Greensmith & Sheppard, 2017, p. 10). We suggest that the method and practice of storytelling aligns the helping professional with relational practice to uplift the voices, experiences, and stories of marginalized groups within the helping relationship (DuBois & Miley, 2021; Greensmith & Sakal Froese, 2018; Segal, 2013).