Summary:
This thesis focuses on exploring the use of art and storytelling/fairy tales, for the inclusion of
diversities in education. It is based on action research. The main objective is to highlight ways
of using fairy tales that promote social awareness and experiential exercises and activities
encountering different forms of art (visual arts, educational drama and role models, group poster
creation, creative writing and the creation of fairy tales). The research focuses on the prevention
and early intervention of school bullying, homophobia, racism and discrimination and diversity
inclusion in the classroom. Additionally, the aim of the research is to reveal the teachers’ and
special educational teaching staff, who participated in the research, views and experiences, along
with the use and test of certain ‘fairy tales of social awareness’ in groups of students. The socalled ‘fairy tales of social awareness’ have been created by undergraduate and post-graduate
groups of social work students in the University of Thrace during the pandemic and distance
education. The qualitative data emerged from the analysis of the notes from the initial focusgroup interviews, the researcher's diary on participatory observation and on her own group work
during the action research as well as the verbatim transcription of seven semi-structured,
recorded individual interviews with teachers and a drama teacher, who participated in the
survey. The analysis of the qualitative data showed that the use of art and fairy tale as a tool of
prevention and early intervention worked positively in terms of the children's response. It
positively affected the formation of opinions and the attitudes regarding the integration of
otherness as well as the prevention of discrimination, social exclusion and bullying among
students.
Keywords:
Keywords: fairy tales of social awareness, the prevention and early intervention, integration of diversity, teachers, theatrologist
