Stories have always been the means of making a message, of exploring the relationship between past and present, and of giving significance to events. A noted native artist and writer described the "talking stick" of his tribe as a talisman which gives the person who possesses it the right to speak and hold the attention of the tribe. A…

Indigenous knowledge is a living, breathing concept and must be treated with care and respect. This living knowledge is transmitted orally. At the University of Queensland (Australia), the Torres Strait Islander Studies course was taught in the Indigenous way, and elders were involved throughout, from formatting the course outline to the running…

Examines the importance and centrality of orality, rather than literacy, in the shared lives of the Cree of northern Alberta. Discusses orality consciousness related to the practice of shared memories and personal and communal healing during the "dance of the ancestors" or "ghost dance." Includes a short history of the Cree…

Describes an intergenerational literacy English-as-a-Second-Language program. Stories were used to foster language and literacy development in English and participants' native language. Activities were built on the oral tradition. (Author/VWL)

Explores the relationship between writing ability, cognitive development, and orality among students of minority cultures, particularly the African American culture. Suggests that students from cultures with strong oral traditions do not lag behind other students but must nevertheless succeed in making the transition to written standard discourse.…

Analysis of three Native American Cinderella-type tales finds that although each has flaws in depicting Native American culture, overall they are culturally accurate and respectful. Such tales can be used as teaching tools to help children understand Native American cultures and beliefs while making them aware of how culture and beliefs can easily…

The work of experienced and student lower primary teachers in three schools in Southern Malawi was studied, using lesson observations, interviews and pupil tests. The use teachers make of songs is given as an example of how they use oral culture. The function of songs in lessons is mainly to manage the class rather than to teach content, in…

In the Western Apache discourse community, landscape is not just the realm of nature in its sheer physicality. Neither are places in the landscape to be read as metaphors. Rather, places, visual things by reason of their identification with aspects of social hierarchy are literally giving moral messages, are imploring people to live right. This…

Two Native people describe their respective journeys to healing, journeys that involved the rediscovery of language and culture. In Part I, "Healing the Tears of Yesterday by the Drum Today: The Oneida Language Is a Healing Medicine" (Grafton Antone), the first narrator taught the Oneida language to adult students at a community center.…

Numerous studies have linked reading aloud to preschoolers and these children's later success as readers. But some of the parents with whom teachers work, whether they work at Head Start, childcare centers, or primary grades, have limited reading skills. However, the Hispanic, Native American, African American, Irish American, and many other…

The emergence of the Native voice in academia has provided much outstanding scholarship rising out of analysis of oral histories and textual authority of Native peoples. In the 1990s, however, attempts to discredit Native scholarship included the claim that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" was a willful fraud, debates over the Bering Strait theory…

A grandmother teaching fishtrap building by actually building one while telling a story provides a model and criteria for success in teaching Nlakapamux children, the most important criterion being the presence of cultural experts--grandmothers. Role-modeling, storytelling, and hands-on experience combine theory and practice and provide a mnemonic…

Sets forth three calls to education: (1) "Education begins when people are seeking to be whole"; (2) "Education must use memory and her/history as crucial sites of resistance"; (3) "Education must serve to name and to voice." Various strategies for educational change and social empowerment are given. (BF)

This first in a series of essays on electric writing focuses on communication efforts of the preceding oral, written, and print cultures. Topics discussed include face-to-face versus distant communication; political power; correlations between social structure and access to information; information accumulation; costs; authorship; and the content…

''Stories do not simply contain knowledge, they are themselves the knowledge'' (Jackson (In: K. Eagan, H. McEwan (Eds.), Narrative in Teaching, Learning and Research, Teacher College Press, New York, 1995, p. 5)). How can we teach well? Perhaps we can find answers through our stories from the classroom. It is through our stories that we make sense…