In this video Clint Smith (DC Region Corps, Teach For America, 2011) and his students help us understand the power of narrative
‘To understand somebody, understand what shaped them, understand their story’ Clint Smith, Teach For America, 2011
We are all storytellers and we all play audience to the stories of others. We use stories to make sense of the world around us and our place within it - and so do our students.
At its simplest, a story is an account of a set of events, but in reality it is much more. As storyteller’s we get to make choices about what information to include and exclude, when to start a story and when to end it, which voices to elevate and which to ignore. We add our own analysis, our own philosophy, our own judgement - these choices define the narrative, and the narrative defines our understanding of the story.
On a societal level the power of the narrative is repeated on a wider scale. As a society, we are constantly hearing stories through politics, the media, entertainment, religion, education, or individuals. How we understand each story depends on who is telling it - who is framing the narrative.
In the context of Clint Smith and his students, the voices of young people from low income and minority communities are often excluded from this societal narrative. Also often missing, is a deep and honest analysis of the history that shapes the current context in which these young people live. Disconnecting a context from the history that shaped it and excluding the voices of those most affected can lead a society to view its low income and minority communities through a limited, and often distorted lens.
This lens shapes how we perceive our students, their communities and the role we play within the context we work. Likewise it shapes how our students perceive themselves.
Clint’s example shows us that by recognizing the limitations and distortions of this lens, actively seeking to elevate the voice of the unheard, and critically examining the context in which we work and the history that shaped it - we can, together with our students, push back against the negative caricatures that our societies often impose.
Article written by Faolan Jones, Teach For All
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19 сен 2024
