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Harnessing the power of cultural health narratives when working with parents of young children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2019

Marg Rogers Open the ORCID record for Marg Rogers [Opens in a new window]
Marg Rogers*
Affiliation:
Lecturer Early Childhood Education, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Marg Rogers, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Narratives are a powerful tool for transferring knowledge and culture. They have a profound effect on our psyche and our attitudes to messages and teachings. The transfer of information through traditional teaching and lectures is often less effective in changing a belief or understanding than using narrative. In this discussion paper, I explore this phenomenon and examine the persuasive effect of cultural narratives. The discussion also considers the impacts of cultural narrative as an educative tool on parental attitudes towards childhood immunisation. I explore the changing nature of the way parents with young children communicate and seek information and early childhood educators’ roles in their lives within the Australian context. Understanding the way humans are drawn to narrative may be beneficial to health workers, early childhood educators, family workers and those who plan health education programmes. To effectively target their messages, it would be of benefit to public health officials to have knowledge about how parents with young children inform themselves and develop health beliefs, and the extent to which parents’ ideas become fixed.

Keywords

cultural narrativeshealth narrativeschildhood immunisationearly childhood educatorsvaccination
Type
Practice Commentaries
Information
Children Australia , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 105 - 109
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019 

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