Abstract
Ph.D. (Childhood Education)
In its attempt to develop a theory that was grounded in data, this study was conducted with 7 Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers and 44 learners at a primary school, in the Masvingo urban district of Zimbabwe. The study was guided by the principles of Grounded Theory research, particularly the Glaserian model that advocated following systematic procedures to data gathering and analysis; this included: open coding, selective coding, theoretical coding and memo writing, theoretical sampling and constant comparative analysis. Drawing from a variety of data sources that consisted of naturally occurring data, drawings produced by learners, interviews and observations, this study explored: “How did oral storytelling techniques influence story comprehension?” Given that learning occurs informally at an ECD level, this study revealed that the recycling of knowledge took the centre stage in providing the best pedagogical processes for the effective facilitation of story comprehension. It is envisaged that identifying contextual problematic concerns affecting the effective development of story comprehension, with special attention directed towards intervention strategies, will help ECD educators operating in similar contexts to identify and address contextual barriers affecting learning. As such, the theory developed in this study was called; The Theory of Recycling Knowledge: A Basic Social Process for Developing Story Comprehension.