Refugee students may come to schools with fragmented educational histories and other exile-related stressors, but many also settle fast, enjoy school and live rather ordinary childhoods. These more positive stories are not told because they get overridden by well-meaning but counterproductive stories of victimhood. This article presents a…

This paper focuses on the potential of storytelling as a means of influencing students to become engaged with science and to choose a career in a STEM field. Given the role that leaders can play in motivating and influencing people and considering Nikola Tesla a leader in the fields of electrical engineering and science, the paper identifies…

The biographical stories of scientists and engineers, particularly those from historically excluded groups, have been integrated into the curriculum for a materials science course. The goal is to help students connect and relate to the scientific content, while opening the door to conversations about social justice in the virtual classroom. We…

At the time of his death, Dr. Adam Peck served as Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Illinois State University. During his 25 years in student affairs, he served in a variety of other roles, including assistant vice president and dean of students at Stephen F. Austin State University and director of student life at Saint Louis…

No single story can represent fully and comprehensively a complex historical movement such as the Civil Rights fight for freedom and social justice. Learning about this movement through multi-perspective biographical young adult graphic novels cultivates in students a nuanced understanding of this historical struggle, making it more concrete and…

This article is based on a teacher's journey over the years with her mentor. She highlights her personal and professional relationship through anecdotes and conversations. The article focuses on the year she cotaught with Vivian Gussin Paley and shares her experiences in the classroom and the lessons she learned during that year. The article…

Storytelling is an important skill in management education for leaders. However, even though students learn about storytelling, they do not often practice it. When students do practice storytelling, they frequently prepare speeches that they deliver in front of a class. Interacting with theater students can help management students convey a…

Storytelling can help youth, families, and communities make sense of their experiences, allowing them to process the past and plan their futures (Bruner; Flores; Jones). The authors argue that the practice of storytelling in biographical learning can be especially powerful when working with youth of color and Indigenous youth--children whose…

Collective biography draws on memory work methods developed initially by feminist sociologists (Haug et al., 1987) where people collaboratively examined the social and discursive resources through which they take themselves up as particular gendered subjects in the world. Their own memories become resources to investigate processes of…

Writing biography, as writing any historical account, "involves the use of literary techniques and is subject to aesthetic requirements in both style and structure." Narrative, common to both historical and fictional writing, is the central theoretical concept; and understanding the nature of narrative in biography--a hybrid genre that is grounded…

People who have impacted generations have left legacies we can explore today through biographies. The 5L instructional design introduced in this article includes five components: Listen, Learn, Locate, Link, and Legacy. In the "Listen" section, teachers use storytelling and read-alouds to introduce individuals who shaped history. During…

This article describes the Digital Life History Project, a 10-week "lab" linked to a course on aging, in which students and community-dwelling elders work together to create a short digital story honoring the elder's life. After two interview sessions, the pair works together to produce a 3- to 5-minute digital life story narrated by the elder.…

In contemporary contexts, young people are accustomed to life story; indeed, their lives are saturated with constructions of their stories and those of others, whether created by themselves or their "friends" on social networks. Multimedia outlets convey often detailed stories of more-famous others, whether celebrities or those experiencing…

The following article outlines the methodological approach used to include people with learning disabilities as active participants in an oral history produced in Australia. The history sought to document life inside Kew Cottages, Australia's oldest and largest specialised institution for people with learning disabilities. This work furthers…

The authors have worked together since 1986, though not always in the same building, and not always in the same area or even zip code. Over the years their titles have changed, as well as their employers, not to mention their roles and responsibilities. But there is no getting around the fact that when asked what has been keeping either one of…