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March 2024

The Pedagogy of Storytelling

Bezawit Abebe
Research Fellow
Be'chol Lashon
The pedagogy of storytelling engages and connects both the storyteller and listener.

Since the earliest days of human communication, stories have served as a means of learning. Storytelling transcends all cultural boundaries and is perhaps the oldest method of instruction, allowing generations of people to pass down cultural knowledge that will be retained over time. It is the oral art form where a teller performs a story for a live audience. The storyteller uses words and gestures to bring the story alive before the listeners. The pedagogy of storytelling refers to the use of storytelling as a teaching and learning tool in educational settings. It recognizes the power of stories to engage learners, convey knowledge, and foster deeper understanding and connections.

Beza Abebe was born in Yabello, Ethiopia. She grew up in Hawassa and received her LLB from Hawassa University. In 2009, she moved to Israel and officially made aliyah in 2014. For the last 10 years, she worked in Jewish philanthropic organizations in Israel that strive for the integration, education, empowerment and equality of the Ethiopian Jewish community. She worked at Tebeka, advocating for the Ethiopian community, and The David Foundation, which works on leadership and education for Ethiopian Jews. Beza holds a doctorate in international law from Golden Gate University, masters in government and diplomacy from IDC Herzliya and a masters in law (LLM) from Tel Aviv University. Beza is a research fellow at Be’chol Lashon advocating for Jewish diversity and educating on DEI.
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