Lesson 4 – Recognize Oral Traditions and Storytelling as Valid and Valuable Ways of Sharing Knowledge

Indigenous pedagogy challenges institutions to reconsider what counts as valid knowledge. Colleges and universities often prioritize Western worldviews, recorded in written texts, by presenting them as universal and generalizable to other cultural contexts. Traditional Indigenous knowledge passed down through oral traditions are often marginalized, despite being grounded in thousands of years of lived experience.

What might this look like in practice?

• Oral Presentations — Provide students with opportunities to share what they have learned orally, by presenting in front of an audience or by recording a presentation as a podcast or video.
• Personal Reflections — Expand the range of acceptable writing genres for assessments to include personal essays, journalling, and storytelling.
• Traditional Knowledge — Encourage students to draw upon Traditional Knowledge and oral traditions and ensure that these sources are cited appropriately.

Examples

• Journalism — Students record and edit audio interviews with Indigenous storytellers. Students present news stories as podcasts rather than as written articles.
• Culinary Management — Rather than submitting a written research paper on food history, students develop a video series to present recipes and narrate their cultural or personal significance.