Title: “Co-Creation of a Culturally-Relevant Approach to Examining Movement, Self-regulation, and Effort Through Story and Storytelling in Indigenous Communities”
Supervisor: Dr. Shannon Bredin
Committee members: Dr. Rosalin Miles, Dr. Moss Norman
Abstract:
Background: Culturally relevant ways to realize the capacity for learning through story are important areas of research within Indigenous communities in lower British Columbia. Indigenous communities are recognizing and fulfilling their sovereignty by returning to their community-specific practices and discarding approaches to thinking that are rooted in colonial structures. Connecting story to movement is a culturally safe approach to expanding Indigenous knowledge on motor skill, behavior, and physical effort. Story can be a strategy for behavior regulation by using story as a feedback mechanism to facilitate self-regulation. Perspectives in Indigenous motor learning may be communicated through story via stories that target strategies for specific movements. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual effort required by Elders and Knowledge Keepers to tell a story is important for understanding the role of movement in the storytelling process.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the role of story and storytelling in feedback on motor skill, self-regulation in behavior, and physical effort of storytelling through a community-based and Indigenous-led research effort.
Methodology: In consultation and partnership with two Indigenous communities, Musqueam and Lytton First Nation, a 5-week Indigenous-led research project will be undertaken, which includes a co-creation phase, a series of semi-structured interviews, and analysis. All co-creation and analysis consultation phases will use sharing circles. Elders and Knowledge Keepers from the two communities will be asked to participate in the research. There are five total sharing circles and two groups of participants. The first group of Elders and Knowledge Keepers participate in a sharing circle to create questions for the semi-structured interviews. The second group of Elders and Knowledge Keepers participate in three sharing-circles responding to co-created questions. The final sharing circle is for reporting results back to the community with both groups.