GEM TOOL> PHASE 2> STEP 5

Storytelling

Elements of Storytelling

• Choosing a story
• Storyteller’s point of view
• Participation of others in the story
• Barriers and problems
• Consent

Methods of Gathering Stories

• Face-to-face interchange
• Online interchange

Content to be Explored in Stories

• Context/Background
• Learning and Change/Transformation
• Gender Analysis and Gender Planning and ICTs

CHOOSING A STORY

Encouraging people to tell their stories gives stakeholders and participants an active role in the evaluation and gives depth to the study which is crucial especially for a gender perspective evaluation. These stories can be told from the perspective of the evaluator who writes down her experiences and the stories she has collected from the participants. Or the evaluator asks the participants themselves to write down their stories. In cases where participants can’t write, the evaluator faithfully documentstheir stories. The last two types of storytelling come from the perspective of the participants.

Keep in mind that there are many stories in an organisation or community which can allbe interesting. It is therefore important to remain focused on the evaluation objectives. Below are some reminders that may help you choose the stories you want to document.

• What is the story about?
• Whose story is being told? the evaluator’s story? the participants’, i.e.,members of the project or community?
• Who will be in the story?
• Who will be affected by the story?
• Is the story focusing on one group of women and excluding others?

 

STORY’S POINT OF VIEW

• It is important to establish the point of view of each story.
• Who is telling the story?
• Why is the story important? why is it important for the storyteller to tell her story?
• Is the storyteller an observer or an active participant in the story?
• What is the role and position of the storyteller in the organisation, community or project?

 

OTHER SPEAKERS IN THE STORY

In most cases, there is more than one speaker in a story, that is, there are other participants or characters in the story. Here are some questions that can help identify other main characters in a story.

• Aside from the storyteller, who else areinvolved in the story?
• How and in what way are they involved in the story?
• Are there women involved in the story? who are they?
• How and in what way are the women involved in the story?

 

BARRIERS AND PROBLEMS

For some, usually women, barriers and problems arise preventing them from fully sharing their stories. What these problems are is the first step in uncovering gender equality considerations in any ICT initiative.

• What are the barriers that prevent the telling of the story?
• Will the story put others in a problematic situation?
• Will the story benefit or harm some people more than others?
• Is it safe for the women to speak out and tell their ICT experiences?
• What steps can be taken to make the environment safe for storytelling?

 

CONSENT

Asking permission from those involved before taking down or documenting their stories is a sound and ethical practice. This is a must The answers to the following questions can serve as a checklist for
evaluators:

• Was the project explained to everyone involved?why the project is important? what is it about?why is it important to get their story? who will benefit?
• Are the storytellers aware that the evaluators understand and respect their rights? are aware of the possible repercussions the stories may bring about?
• Did the storytellers give their informed consent?
• Do the participants in the story know how the information will be stored? used in other ways?
• Will the participants be consulted if their story will be used for other purposes other than the original objective?

Below are pointers for two general methods of gathering stories though certainly, there are many other ways of collecting stories.

 

FACE TO FACE INTERCHANGE

Face-to-face interchange is talking to one person or with several people in a group using a structured interview or a free-flow conversation or discussion. How to stimulate discussion and encourage storytelling, phrase questions, and document answers accurately are important factors to a successful face-toface
interchange. For orderly documentation, it can be useful to categorise the kind of information
desired:

• about the social and environmental context
• about the people/actors/gender
• about the communities
• about situations, issues, views and the like that are contested

These types of information can serve as general guidelines to the discussion or interviews and also serve as reminders to the evaluation team or interviewers of topics that have to be covered.

In facilitating a guided conversation, it is important to keep focused on the story/ experience. Try not to be led astray with irrelevant stories. But at the same time, listen well to the storyteller, that is, let her tell her story the way she wants to. People have different ways of sharing their stories because language, cultural norms, class status, experiences and gender affect the way stories are told. Oftentimes, too, there are experiences that are difficult to share in a straightforward manner. Give room for people to warm up, to feel comfortable. Even silence helps – it stimulates remembering and thinking both for the storyteller and the facilitator or evaluator.

Questions must be clearly understood by the interviewee or members of the group. How questions are phrased and rephrased depends on how good a listener an evaluator is.

Accurately document the stories – note down the specific language and style of the telling through quotes and describe the way the statements were given. This makes the story powerful which in turn records as truthfully as possible the experiences of the participants and stakeholders.

 

ONLINE INTERCHANGE

Storytelling can also be done through a combination of online methods – email interviews, online discussions and real-time online conversations through chat facilities.

Online methods rely more on structured interviews and prepared questions. Phrase questions to avoid dominant simple responses like “yes” or “no” by giving openended questions that ask about expected/
unexpected outcomes/happenings. Rephrase questions to allow “unstructured” responses and use of informal language to make the respondents feel comfortable. Remember that online methods are a step backward from face-to-face exchanges; they lose the electric response of spontaneity because writing is a different medium.

One of the advantages of online methods is the speed and ease of communicating with respondents. The stories can be done in several stages, which give breathing time both for the evaluators and respondents. For example, the first set of questions by email can concentrate on the general contours of the story. This can be followed by an online discussion or conversation using chat programs to talk about specific situations and to better probe problems and questions. This combination can help uncover the various layers in stories.

If online methods are insufficient, telephone interviews can be resorted to. Listening and hearing a voice at the other end of the line comes closest to a face-to-face conversation where details of a story are better explored
or explained. It is important to get the entire story, that is, to go beyond the simple narration of events. This section suggests questions that will serve as guidelines in exploring and gathering specific details of stories.

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND

The first thing to find out in every story is its setting. In ICT initiatives, this means exploring information about the economic, social, cultural and technological background of the story. Genera l information such as location (rural or urban), economic situation and literacy are important to note. Specific ICT elements that refer to context/background can be established by asking the following questions:

• When and why were ICTs introduced?
• How were they introduced?
• What were the types of ICTs?
• For what purpose/s were ICTs used?

Remember to collect gender-disaggregated data whenever possible. Find out more about roles and relationships of women and men by exploring answers to questions regarding:

• participants – who are involved
• resources – who have access to resources; in what way do they access or use these resources
• power and decision-making – who makes decisions about ICT appropriation, access and use
• roles – how do women use ICTs in their everyday tasks/work (e.g. household, community; paid, unpaid)

 

LEARNING AND CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION

The most important subject of evaluations is finding out the learning and change or transformation that occurred on the personal, organisational and community level. This is one of the most significant things you want to know from the stories that you have gathered. But, before doing this, it is best to review the values/principles that guide ICT projects and initiatives because these often determine the changes that they perceive. Some general questions that can help identify the changes are:

• Has anything changed as a result of the process/initiative?
• What has/have changed? at what levels have these changes occurred?

For example, questions to the participants/ stakeholders can go along this way:

• Did the use of ICTs make any changes to the type of work you do? If yes or no,how?
• Did it change how you make decisions? If yes or no, why?

 

GENDER ANALYSIS AND GENDER PLANNING AND ICT

To explore the learning and changes in gender equality and women’s empowerment, focus on questions that proceed from gender analysis and gender planning such as:

• access and control – what access to resources do women have now that they didn’t have before? who were trained? by whom?
• power and decision-making – what roles do women and men have in decisionmaking
• roles – what activities do people do? for what purposes do women/men use technology? what are the differences between the roles of women and men? why are there differences? how does age affect
all of the above?
• change/transformation – what changes have people gone through? how do women and men perceive these changes in relation to their previous and present roles and relationships? in relation to power?
• project/initiative’s concept and plan –does the project reinforce women’s roles or change roles?
• vision of the future – how do people see the future? in relation to children? (this is a good indicator of visioning a future); what change or transformation would they like? (e.g. how they see their daughters/ sons in the future in relation to ICTs and their roles in the community)
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• policy/legislation environment – is it a gender enabling environment? are women aware of these? if no, why? if yes, do they influence or shape women’s experiences and/ or perspectives?
• economic factors in ICTs:
  • Who supplied the ICTs?
  • Who provided support?
  • Whom did you pay to provide support and training?
  • Did you employ additional staff/consultants?
  • Were they men or women?
  • Who paid for the ICT infrastructure?