Abstract
This article explores how storytelling, particularly through picture books, facilitates learning across boundaries of age, culture, gender, and education. In this article, we emphasize the value of picture books in integrating Indigenous oral traditions into the classroom, highlighting how these texts foster a reciprocal relationship between listener and storyteller. By focusing on the act of listening, our article argues that Indigenous picture books require active participation and decentering of the individual, positioning listeners as part of a larger collective. This article also underscores the importance of viewing children as active, responsible, and agential members of their communities, aligning with Indigenous perspectives that recognize children as contributors to communal knowledge and well-being. Using Michaela Goade’s Berry Song as a case study, the article examines how listening to child protagonists in Indigenous picture books can serve as a means of learning and teaching. We further assert that these picture books are not only educational tools but also vehicles for decolonial pedagogy, helping to bridge cultural, generational, and educational divides. Through this lens, Indigenous storytelling offers a transformative opportunity to rethink the role of children in education, and in doing so, we advocate for teaching approaches that center children’s voices and their place within broader cultural narratives. Ultimately, the article highlights the power of Indigenous picture books in facilitating decolonial learning practices and promoting cross-cultural understanding.
Author Biography
Rachel Stubbs
Rachel Stubbs, PhD, is an English lecturer at the University of Calgary and St. Mary’s University and is of Indigenous and settler descent. Rachel received her undergraduate degree in English and History at MacEwan University in Edmonton and her master’s degree in English at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Rachel is a research assistant with the Books to Build On Project in which she researches, presents, and leads workshops. This project coincides well with her own research, which focuses on depictions of Indigenous girlhood in literatures of Western Canada written by settler and Indigenous women from 1890-1939. Rachel enjoys spending her down time hiking, fishing, camping, and hunting with her two dogs, Widgeon and Cricket.
Anja Dressler Araujo
Anja Dressler Araujo is a Settler born in Manitoba, who grew up on Vancouver Island and has resided in Mohkinstsis, Calgary, on Treaty 7 land ever since. Her ancestors immigrated from Europe. She holds degrees in both Arts and Education from the University of Calgary. Anja has fulfilled many roles as part of the Books to Build On Team since joining in 2018 and most recently was project manager. She continues to be part of the content development team and the workshop team. She enjoys setting plans in motion for the project, finding new inspiring Indigenous children’s books to add to the site and share with her children, and writing and guiding other teachers in their creation of Seeds for Learning using Indigenous literatures. Anja is a practicing elementary school teacher in the Calgary area and she actively brings Indigenous literatures into her own classroom and enjoys supporting teachers around her to do the same.
Kari Dressler
Kari Dressler (she/her/hers) is a settler who grew up on Vancouver Island, resided in Calgary for her school years, and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law, earning a UNITAR-CIFAL Certificate in Sustainable Development Law and becoming a qualified member of the Climate Law Capacity Registry. She also holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, majoring in International Business Strategy and earning a Global Collaboration Certificate from the X-Culture Program. As the finance manager, Kari develops and implements financial tracking and reporting procedures. Kari previously acted as information manager, creating a process for tracking project objectives, resources, and applicable metadata.
Jadyn Fischer-McNab
Jadyn Fischer-McNab is a Cree artist who was born and raised in Mohkinstsis (Calgary), Alberta, on Treaty 7 territory. Jadyn studied at the University of Calgary, where she received bachelor degrees in Kinesiology and Education in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Jadyn has worked as a full-time junior high school teacher since 2018. Jadyn began her work at Books to Build On by originally creating lesson plans for the project in 2020 and then moving into a casual role in 2021 as a member of the content development and educational community engagement teams. Alongside her passion of connecting with story, Jadyn has illustrated the published children’s title Brave Like the Buffalo. She also owns and operates a small stationery business, artbyJFM, with products available online as well in a variety of stores across Alberta. Jadyn belongs to George Gordon First Nation (Treaty Four) and is an intergenerational Residential School survivor. She is passionate about breaking down barriers and educating others by incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing and being into her art, her teaching, and her life.
Dr. Aubrey Jean Hanson
Dr. Aubrey Jean Hanson is an English lecturer at the University of Calgary and St. Mary’s University and is of Indigenous and settler descent. Rachel received her undergraduate degree in English and History at MacEwan University in Edmonton and her master’s degree in English at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Rachel is a research assistant with the Books to Build On Project in which she researches, presents, and leads workshops. This project coincides well with her own research, which focuses on depictions of Indigenous girlhood in literatures of Western Canada written by settler and Indigenous women from 1890-1939. Rachel enjoys spending her down time hiking, fishing, camping, and hunting with her two dogs, Widgeon and Cricket.
Dr. Erin Spring
Dr. Erin Spring (she/her/hers) is a scholar and educator of British descent now living and working with/in Treaty 7. She is an associate professor of Language and Literacy at the Werklund School and currently serves as the associate dean of undergraduate programs of education. She is also a mother to three busy children: Hawksley, Wren, and Marigold. Erin grew up on Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Territories and lived in many different places before moving to Moh’kins’tsis (the Blackfoot name for Calgary). She has been honored to collaborate with and learn from Blackfoot and Cree communities in Alberta and Manitoba over the past ten years. Erin and Aubrey were co-leads on the Innovative Initiatives in First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education within Undergraduate Teacher Education project. Together, they led the team through reviewing the BEd curriculum, gathering Indigenous texts, and generating the Books to Build On web resource.
Recommended Citation
Stubbs, R.,
Dressler Araujo, A.,
Dressler, K.,
Fischer-McNabb, J.,
Hanson, A.,
&
Spring, E.
(2025).
“We sing too:” Pedagogical approaches for listening to children in Indigenous picturebooks.
Occasional Paper Series,
(54), 86-95.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1561
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Indigenous Education Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons