Program of Study

Level and Stage of Graduate Study

My name is Charity Becker and I am currently in the second year of a PhD in
Educational Studies program at the University of Prince Edward Island working with supervisor
Dr. Sean Wiebe. I have completed Advanced Qualitative Methods in Educational Research,
Graduate Seminar Education Studies, and Directed Study in Research Methodology, and am
currently enrolled in Advanced Quantitative Methods in Educational Research and completing
my comprehensive e-portfolio.
Research Question
The readings and conferences I have engaged in over the past year have led me to
consider the impact of storytelling in the classroom, particularly as it relates to building
relationships and creating student voice. Critical reflection has prompted me to explore the
following question: How can Indigenous storytelling methodologies impact transformation in the
English language arts class by empowering student agency and voice? How might this indicate
the potential for Indigenous educational values and methods to change public education in
Canada?
Context
Mills, Davis-Warra, Sewell, and Anderson (2016) write: “Schooling systems throughout
the world have struggled to authentically negotiate Indigenous cultural identities” (p. 1) and that
“mainstream educational practices in many postcolonial societies are not culturally neutral, but
are based by default on the dominant white norms and ways of valuing language and literacy
practices” (p. 2). As a result, the public education system does not work for many Indigenous
youth who are forced to assimilate to conflicting cultural norms and who are often also suffering
from intergenerational trauma due to previous (and often continuing) government mistreatment. I
would also argue that our education system does not work for many of our non-Indigenous
students who struggle for a plethora of reasons, including: poverty, addictions, abuse, family
trauma, and, increasingly frequently, mental health issues. Storytelling and counter-storytelling
can be a way to disrupt and challenge dominant paradigms in which some of our students are
privileged and some are oppressed. (Lawrence & Paige, 2016, p. 68).
Wiebe and Yallop (2010) write: “In schools, hearts need caring, hearts need our attention,
our investment and time” (p. 179). Yet often public education focuses on standardized
knowledge and skills in which all students are expected to behave and achieve in the same way.
Chartrand (2012) writes that Indigenous education stories, such as the Medicine Wheel, “is a
pedagogical tool that places learners at the centre of their own life-world” and that “it can be
used to help all students achieve a greater sense of self” (p. 150). As opposed to Western
curricula which privileges content, Anishinaabe pedagogy “is aimed at exploring the
interrelationships between all things within a critically reflective paradigm” and “takes into
account feelings, attitudes, and values that can add affective components to the conventional
subject matter curriculum” (Chartrand, 2012, p. 152). If we are to care for the hearts of our
students, all of our students, we need to create a space where students are empowered, where
their voices can be heard, and where they are able to work toward developing a strong sense of
self-awareness and belonging in the world.
Objectives
The purpose of the research is to examine how Indigenous storytelling methodologies can
transform the structure of a public English language arts class by empowering all students with
agency and voice. My unique position as a researcher and an English language arts teacher in a
public school enables me to put into practice the teachings learned from Elders and Indigenous
educators and to reflect upon the potential of Indigenous educational values and methods for
transforming education in Canada as we move toward reconciliation.
Methodology
This research will be a phenomenology (van Manen, 1990) of Indigenous educational
values and of using Indigenous storytelling methodologies to transform an English language arts
classroom. Sources of data will include: 1) transcripts of open interviews with Elders and
Indigenous educators, 2) notes of observations storytelling in Indigenous schools, and 3)
journaling and poetry on the ways in which the storytelling methodologies have impacted student
engagement and learning and provided students with agency and voice in my English language
arts classroom. Analysis will follow Sameshima and Vandermouse’s Parallaxic Praxis Model
(2008) to guide data collection and analysis. With the multiple sources of data, the Parallaxic
Praxis model guides interpretation by emphasizing what can be learning through the multiplicity
of perspectives. The research findings will then be transposed into an arts-based text
incorporating fictional narrative, poetry, and visual art which encapsulate the themes uncovered
through reflection of the raw data collected from the open interviews, observation notes,
journaling, and poetry.
Contribution to the Advancement of Knowledge
Wiebe and Yallop (2010) state: “Schools can be (often are) oppressive sites for
individuals and for communities. [However] they can also be places where, in certain classrooms
at certain moments, students can find their voices and those voices ought to be encouraged and
supported” (p. 188). They go on to emphasize that “when teachers nurture students’ words, listen
deeply to them, are influenced by them, encourage them, celebrate them, and increase their
value, then all students in a classroom will raise their expectations for how much authority they
carry with them in the world,” and “such expectations will have a positive correlation toward
equality, regardless of difference” (p. 195). The research findings from this project will present
ways in which Indigenous storytelling methodologies can be used in an English language arts
class to empower all students to have agency and voice. They will also demonstrate how
adopting (rather than merely acknowledging) Indigenous educational values into public schools
can help move Canada closer to true reconciliation.
Research Timeline
Over the next two years of my research study, I will be collecting and creating the raw
data through extensive reading about storytelling, in particular Indigenous storytelling
methodologies, and through conversations with Elders and observations of educators at
Indigenous schools.
The following year, I will incorporate those methodologies in my own English language
arts class and reflect through journaling and poetry on the ways in which the storytelling
methodologies have impacted student engagement and learning and provided students with
agency and voice. I will then analyse the raw data through a phenomenological lens (van Manen,
1990) for themes that emerge naturally from the writing and use the Parallaxic Praxis model
(Sameshima and Vandermouse, 2008) to transpose those themes into fictional narrative, poetry,
and visual art which will become the final dissertation.
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