Teaching Life Narratives in the Classroom: Strategies Based on Indigenous Traditions

The life narrative is an oral genre grounded in Indigenous tradition and teaching practice. In Canadian Indigenous communities, the expertise and content transmitted by life narratives are a part of their oral heritage. Drawing from their personal and professional experiences in Indigenous school environments, as well as the results from exploratory studies, the authors have developed an educational model for teaching life narratives in the classroom. This paper begins with an overview on the pedagogical use of life narratives for historical reconciliation, knowledge and expertise preservation, and ethical education. This enables the authors to propose a definition supported by the existing scientific literature. An analysis of the data collected from Innu, Algonquin, and Mohawk communities revealed the main strategies commonly used by their teachers and Elders. A pedagogical model dividing these strategies into planning, integration, and implementation phases for using life narratives is finally presented.