In conjuction with Duquesne University’s UCEA Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice, IEL just released a new guide, “Community Story-Mapping: The Pedagogy of the Griot.”
In conjuction with Duquesne University’s UCEA Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice (CELSJ), IEL just released a new guide, Community Story-Mapping: The Pedagogy of the Griot, by IEL’s Lynda Tredway and CELSJ’s Gretchen Generett. This step-by-step guide is designed to help communities to undertake the story-mapping process, which helps “uncover, recover, tell, and retell the stories of a community in order to develop a road map for future action and advocacy.” The process focuses on community members as griots (gree-oh), based on the West African historians, praise singers, and storytellers.
In addition to an overview of concepts and introduction to the story-mapping process, the guide includes instructions and ideas on forming community teams, visiting with community members to collect their stories, interacting with the community, analyzing stories for collective meaning, and developing action plans. IEL developed this document as part of its new Leaders for Today and Tomorrow initiative. The guide borrows from theories and practices from Community Learning Exchanages, and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Cover photo: A griot in Mali shares a story with a group of women in the community. Photo by Emilia Tjernstrom via Creative Commons.