Narrative Inquiry Alongside a Young Métis Child and Family: Everyday Assessment-Making, Pimatisiwin, and Pimosayta

• In Event: Indigenous Education Pre-K–12 and Teacher Preparation

Abstract

Our paper shows connections we awakened to between a young child, Suzy, and her family’s everyday assessment making and the Indigenous wisdoms of pimatisiwin and pimosayta. The intergenerational relational living alongside as Suzy and her family imagined forward and remembered backward shaped, and was shaped by, their continuous assessment of Suzy’s ongoing making of a healthy life. That children and families hold knowledge of and practice assessment making is little recognized in research or teacher education. Mary Young, an Anishinabe kwe scholar, and our mentor~friend~colleague, lived and taught pimatisiwin (walking in a good way) and pimosayta (learning to walk together). Practicing/living pimatisiwin and pimosayta alongside children and families opens potential for shifting narratives of accountability to narratives of responsibility.

Authors

• Janice Huber, University of Alberta

• Trudy Michelle Cardinal, University of Alberta

• M. Shaun Murphy, University of Saskatchewan