Naturally Teaching Indigenous Metaphors to Better Serve the Decolonized Future

• In Event: (Re)Centering Our Collective Knowledge in a Tlahtocan Community Dialogue Circle: Indigenous Pedagogies From Central Texas

Abstract

Purpose
Key factors for development of identity are language and literacy (Paulsen, 2003). I recognize the opportunity to better understand our cultural identity and authentic selves has been prevented due to colonized education, therefore, as a secondary English teacher I am inspired to restore students opportunities to learn about their indigeneity. Recognition before restoration, then healing begins this process.

Perspectives
As a colonized student, I was unaware of my indigeneity. Participating in Xinachtli Pedagogy Training 2022, showed me a way to include Xinachtli -the natural way.

The way we often approach reading and writing as teachers and students is unnatural (Liberman & Liberman, 1990) Reading could however respond to our curiosities and writing could seek to create meaning much like our Indigenous relatives and ancestors do through storytelling. I embark on this project examining how I utilize the Xinachtli pedagogy to shift my students' realities. I teach in a way and engage content that embraces the decolonized future of my students.

Modes of Inquiry
Freire (1996) suggests that we regularly examine our own teaching. Most educators determine which literacy and identity practices are acceptable in their classrooms based on their own cultural backgrounds (Banister & Begoray, 2013). Utilizing the Xinachtli pedagogy better prepares my students for their futures in a way that is reflective of their realities. Recognizing that Indigenous literacies are framed within oral societies and often neglected or viewed as inferior versions of literacy unsuited for modern life and society (Little, 2006), I share my teaching practice as a counterstory (Milner & Howard, 2013).

After Xinachtli, growing my critical consciousness, I recognized that my perspective needed to shift to draw on Indigenous teachings to take a more natural approach to reading and writing.

I drew on metaphors we encountered in the Xinachtli training and the Hochman Method (HM)’s “But, Because, So” Sentence Expansion Activity to help us tell a better story. I explained to my students that writing as we often engage in it is unnatural, however storytelling is natural. Narratives are our personal way of communicating. We tell stories to others and most importantly to ourselves. We naturally think in narrative form..

Evidence
Each week as a class we:
1. Draw a picture of a metaphor.
2. Share our drawings and concluded that most drawings did not make sense without a deeper meaning.
3. Students copied the metaphor and would complete 3 sentences using “BUT, BECAUSE, SO”.
4 Students shared and discussed.
5. Students read their explanation and developed their writing.

Warrants for Argument
This lesson improved students' writing through Indigenous pedagogy. They learned about our Indigenous cultures, practices, and knowledge, while exploring the power of metaphors. My English II students had the highest passing rate on the STAAR exam on our campus, and my English II Honors students had the second highest scores on campus.

Scholarly Significance
If we, as educators, recognize our colonized ways of teaching and restore those practices with more "natural ways" of teaching that embed Indigenous practices, we could cultivate a healing community.

Author

• Elissa Gonzalez, San Antonio Independent School District