Stories in Education: The Importance and Application of Storytelling in Inclusive Education

Abstract

This study explores the pedagogical and communicative significance of storytelling, with a special focus on its application in inclusive education. Storytelling—whether visual, written, oral, digital, or audio—offers a powerful method for transmitting knowledge, values, and experiences in ways that foster emotional engagement, critical thinking, and mutual understanding. The study draws on a qualitative methodology, including action research, conducted within an international educational project that brought together university students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The research shows how storytelling can enhance interaction between students and teachers and strengthen the inclusive character of the learning environment. Stories presented in the project (e.g., from students with hearing impairments or autism) illustrate how narrative practices give voice to marginalized perspectives and challenge dominant discourses of deficit. Through discourse analysis, the study highlights how storytelling becomes a space for constructing identity and empathy. The findings emphasize the transformative power of storytelling—not only as a pedagogical strategy but also as a tool for reshaping educational and linguistic discourse towards equity and inclusion. By embracing diverse forms and contents of stories, inclusive education and the inclusion process can move from access and adaptation to belonging, acceptance, solidarity, and recognition of diversity and linguistic and cultural differences. The study suggests that storytelling, when applied reflexively, represents not only a method but also a way of thinking and transforming a positive approach for building an inclusive approach and inclusive language (not only) in society.