Relational Narrative Inquiry Alongside a Young Métis Child and Her Family: Everyday Assessment Making, Pimatisiwin, Pimosayta, and Teacher Education and Development

Understandings of diverse children, families, and communities/peoples as holding knowledge of and as practicing assessment is little recognized in research for, or in programs of, teacher education and development. Our paper shows the intergenerational relational living that Suzy, a young Métis chil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Education
Main Authors: Janice Huber, Trudy Cardinal, M. Shaun Murphy
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.698647
https://doaj.org/article/75c738cd876e49a9b3c31ba3b18107c9
Description
Summary:Understandings of diverse children, families, and communities/peoples as holding knowledge of and as practicing assessment is little recognized in research for, or in programs of, teacher education and development. Our paper shows the intergenerational relational living that Suzy, a young Métis child, experienced alongside her family as they imagined forward and remembered backward. This process shaped, and was shaped by, the family and Suzy’s continuous assessment of her ongoing making of a healthy life. We see important connections between Suzy’s and her family’s everyday assessment making practices and our experiences alongside Anishinaabe kwe scholar Mary Isabelle Young (Singing Turtle Woman), who lived with us Pimatisiwin (walking in a good way) and Pimosayta (learning to walk together). Dominant narratives of accountability in universities and schools most commonly serve the institution or government. Much potential opens in teacher education and development when we shift from these orientations to orientations that lift the particularities of each person and our collective responsibilities to all our relations. In this way we move closer to fulfilling our responsibilities to the people and worlds around us, to all of creation, the animals, plants, Earth, and cosmos, and to the next generations.