Journal Article

Comunidad de Cuentistas

CUEVAS, EVERARDO, TORREZ, J. ESTRELLA, DEL HIERRO, VICTOR, RAMOS, SANTOS, GONZALES, LAURA

2019

Overview

Storytelling can help youth, families, and communities make sense of their experiences, allowing them to process the past and plan their futures. The practice of storytelling in biographical learning, we argue, can be especially powerful when working with youth of color and Indigenous youth-children whose biographies are often misrepresented or unrepresented in the stories they see in the classroom. In this article, drawing on our work with Nuestros Cuentos, a community-driven storytelling program, we present storytelling as a method for reflection, resistance, and community-building with Latinx and Indigenous youth. The Nuestros Cuentos program takes place in Nkwejong-an Anishinaabemowin word used to refer to the approximate areas of Lansing and East Lansing, Michigan. Meaning where the rivers meet, Nkwejong has long been an important meeting place for Indigenous people, and the area has in recent decades seen an influx of Latinx and Indigenous people pursuing work in factories and as migrant farmworkers.

• Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English
• Subject: Activity Units / After School Programs / Algonquian languages / Biographies / BIOGRAPHY AS CURRICULUM / Children / College Faculty / Community Relations / Cultural Education / Graduate Students / Indigenous peoples / Indigenous Populations / Learning / Meetings / Mentors / Middle schools / Migrants / Minority Groups / Native peoples / Oral Tradition / School Buildings / School Districts / School Libraries / Statistical Data / Storytelling / Students / Teaching / Teaching Methods / Trust (Psychology) / Undergraduate Students