Foregrounding the agency and voices of families who sought refuge in the United States, we investigated their storytelling by asking: What kinds of stories do parents/guardians choose to share? And what are the purposes of their storytelling? Assisted by interpreters, we worked with nine families with children aged from five to eight years, who…

A literature review is generally a compendium of written material on a topic presented as research background. It functions to describe what is known in academic circles and to justify research questions that step beyond the known. A more nuanced approach involves getting "beneath the skin" of the literature itself; considering the…

This essay charts the experiences of a group of Year 10 students studying literature together. I challenge the current educational thinking that the literature classroom should consist exclusively of a set of canonised texts handed down from teacher to student. Instead I consider the importance of ensuring students have space to explore themselves…

African American English has a rich oral tradition, with identifiable features across all 5 systems of language--phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. This is an investigation of the extent to which pragmatic features of African American oral storytelling traditions are apparent in the written stories of African American…

In this article, we conceptualize curricula through an EcoJustice Education (EJE) framework to educate teachers about Indigenous and environmental education. The primary tasks of EJE are to engage learners in a cultural analysis of the ecological crisis and in the identification of diverse cultural methods that can bring about eco-democratic…

This paper is in part, a reflective analysis of 15 years living with the state-recognized Florida Creek Indians of the Central Florida Muskogee Creek Tribe and the Pasco Band of Creek Indians, formally of Lacoochee, FL and currently in Brooksville, FL, respectively. It addresses the power structures within tribal organizations. Selected Creek…

This research draws on the reflections from group discussions with indigenous families and interviews with early childhood educators and community stakeholders from five First Nations reserve communities in Canada whose young children participate in the national aboriginal Head Start On Reserve (AHSOR) programme. The purpose of the study was to…

This dissertation is both an autobiographical and collaborative exploration of the complexities experienced by Indigenous women in their academic journey. But more than that, the entire study was conducted in ways that are in accordance with Traditional Indigenous worldview, Indigenous Storytelling/Oral Tradition and the role of women in…

To learn productively and experience academic success, students need access to curricula and instructional approaches that are "culturally relevant" and "culturally responsive". Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy uses "cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes" and thus "empowers students…

One of the major challenges facing South African higher education institutions is to deal with the learning preferences and styles of an increasing diverse student population. Although much research has been conducted on the identification of learning styles theories for classroom application, little attention has been devoted to the investigation…

In "Gumbo Ya ya," the author reflects on how varied stories and cultural and linguistic perspectives encountered during her evolution from student to veteran teacher have helped shape her research and pedagogy. Using a simultaneity of voices that parallel the musical traditions of her Louisiana heritage, she shares her views on teaching…