Maleika Mohamed

Maleika Mohamed is a Masters student in the Child Studies program (Department of Education). She received the Experiential Learning (EL) Grant to work alongside Associate Professor Diane Pesco on an activity that explored how young children exercise creativity in oral storytelling. The stories were told by 120 children attending childcare or kindergarten programs in French. They were collected as part of a larger research project designed to foster preschoolers’ language by engaging them in telling and dramatizing stories in the classroom. Maleika’s role involved listening to audio recordings of stories told by the children, reading transcriptions of the same stories, and analyzing them.  Her supervisor, Diane Pesco, described the Experiential Learning project as a “terrific opportunity for Maleika to further develop her research skills and contribute to an applied research project with teachers and children in Quebec schools, even during the pandemic”.

As Maleika described, “perhaps the most meaningful part of this experience was the opportunity to work with language data from French-speaking children. Although I have some French language ability, as a non-native speaker, I did not feel prepared to conduct research entirely in French before beginning the Experiential Learning project. In sum, this opportunity strengthened my decision-making skills, my ability to work autonomously, my collaboration with others, and my French abilities.  I already can see how these skills will contribute to my continued academic career as well as my experiences outside of Concordia.”

Maleika’s masters program has a heavy focus on applying research and theory to practice. Performing this activity challenged her to apply what she has learned throughout her degree while providing her with a shot at some hands-on research experience. “In particular, the Experiential Learning Grant has given me experience in planning and carrying out data analysis and in interpreting findings, skills I will most definitely use in completing my thesis. I was also able to develop and try out new research skills'' says Maleika. For instance, she developed and implemented a coding system that captured the expressive features of the children’s stories. This involved first performing an extensive literature search, reviewing what other researchers have said about how children tell stories and their creative use of language in storytelling. 

Through her analysis, Maleika discovered that children’s use of certain types of words, relationships established between characters, and detail about the setting of the story were key in making the story compelling. At the end of this activity, she had a greater understanding of how children carefully construct stories to not only convey a plotline, but also to engage their listener. “I did not anticipate how fortunate I would be as a recipient of this grant as it provided me some stability when things were tumultuous and allowed me to engage in a meaningful project during the early months of the pandemic. Although I was scheduled to begin data collection for my thesis last spring, those plans were disrupted when schools closed in March. The grant and activity allowed me to get a head start on learning and applying the skills I would have been developing if my thesis research was not halted by school closures.”

“Most importantly, the experience has motivated me to further examine children’s storytelling for my thesis and to continue to bridge theory and practice. I would recommend applying to the Experiential Learning Grant if you are looking to be inspired in connecting community work and research, as I was.”

This article was written by Emily Andrews.