Power of Stories

The most memorable lessons I had the pleasure of being a part of were linked to powerful stories. As an immigrant from an Eastern country, stories my Western friends, mentors and teachers shared with me helped me understand life in Canada in a very personalized way. These experiences inspired me to weave stories into my own practices. As an instructor, I often receive feedbacks on how stories helped my students gain understanding of a theory in a practical way.

Far beyond my personal experience, stories have been used as a vehicle of learning for thousands of years. In indigenous culture, stories are often used to communicate values, ideas and knowledge. They are an important and inseparable part of indigenous education. As stories tend to promote active discussion and individual reflections, they tend to be etched deeply into the minds of learners. After all, many indigenous stories have survived centuries without prints (Mace, 1998). Hence I will focus my exploration on the power of stories in indigenous culture would help us gain a worldly educational view through countless generations of wisdom and create classrooms that respectfully accommodate individual differences.

Mace, F. (1998). Human rhythm and divine rhythm in Ainu epics. Diogenes, 46(1), 31.