Strand III
Photo from UnSplash, Michael Held
Strand III: Unbroken
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To use storying as a critical method for examining how intergenerational histories, identities, and positionality shape power, belonging, and ethical responsibility in early childhood education.
“Stories… become intertwined [and] interwoven into who we are and are becoming. These stories live in us, in our bodies, as we move and live in the world” (Clandinin, 2020, p. 219).
This strand positions storying as both method and responsibility. Narrative inquiry understands human experience as storied, relational, and shaped across time, place, and social context; identities are not fixed but continuously composed through the stories we inherit, live, and tell (Clandinin, 2020). Intergenerational histories, positionalities, and social locations form the threads that shape experiences of power, marginalization, and belonging. Yet these same threads also carry resilience, resistance, and possibility. From a critical race theory perspective, stories are not
The artefacts within this strand trace how personal and collective stories remain unbroken across time, layered and connected across generations. The included artefacts demonstrate that storying is not an individual act but a relational one, interlacing personal narratives to broader sociopolitical conditions. Wynter-Hoyte and Smith (2020) note that centring historically marginalized stories fosters identity,
“Oppressed groups have known instinctively that stories are an essential tool to their own survival and liberation”
(Delgado, 1989, p. 2436).
merely descriptive but political: counter-stories expose inequities that dominant narratives obscure and give voice to experiences that would otherwise remain silenced (Delgado & Stefancic, 2023). Delgado & Stefancic (2023) argue that stories can “name a type of discrimination… [and] once named, it can be combated” (p. 52). In early childhood education, attending to these lived histories is essential for ethical practice because children and families do not enter learning spaces as blank slates; they arrive already shaped by complex social, cultural, and historical conditions.
community, and a sense of self-worth among children, helping them “love themselves, their histories, and their peoples” (p. 406).
Unbroken reflects a commitment to strength-based practice. Carlton Parsons (2017) explains that “When people of colour are othered in dominant institutions, counterstories are one way of “'overcoming otherness' (Delgado, 1989) and building solidarity” (p. 36). Through storying, educators can engage ethically with their own positionality while making visible the hidden narratives that shape early childhood education.
Artefact I
Module 3: Positionality & Situating Your Epistemology
My Ecological Map
EDUC 500 - Research Methodology in Education, Dr. Koichi Haseyama
Photo from UnSplash, Joaquin Arenas
This artefact is a personal Ecological Map created in the first term of the program as part of an exploration of epistemology and positionality. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the map situates the self within layered social, cultural, and historical contexts, illustrating how identity is shaped through relationships, institutions, and lived experience.
Although I was familiar with Bronfenbrenner’s framework, I shared how difficult it was to
situate myself within it. I wrote at the time about uncertainty in how I identified, a reflection of navigating multiple and sometimes conflicting social locations. In hindsight, the map was missing what I now understand as the “heart work” of storying - an engagement with the emotional and relational dimensions of identity. As Gehl (2017) suggests, “knowledge does not begin in our consciousness, it actually begins… in our heart” (as cited in Muskrat Videos, 0:37).
Revisiting this map now, I recognize it as the beginning of tracing the threads that shape my positionality. Identifying as bi-racial is a relatively recent way of naming myself. For much of my life, I navigated between spaces of dominant privilege and experiences shaped by systemic racism and intergenerational trauma. This artefact captures that in-between space before those threads were fully acknowledged or interwoven into a coherent narrative.
This artefact supports Strand 3, illustrating how storying begins with situating the self within intergenerational and sociocultural contexts, making visible the layered histories that shape our narratives over time and space. It represents not a finished account of self, but an early attempt to situate my story within the broader social fabric that continues to shape who I am becoming.
Artefact II
Funds of Knowledge Artefact III:
Our Stories
ECED 532 - Advanced Seminar on Research in Early Childhood Education: Sociocultural Perspectives on Early Childhood Education, Dr. Allison McCann
This artefact emerged from a course assignment grounded in Moll et al.’s concept of Funds of Knowledge, which invited us to explore the cultural and familial knowledge that shapes who we are. Centred on conversations with my father and the examination of family photographs, the project traces intergenerational histories of slavery, segregation, racism, exclusion, and resilience. Through his storytelling, my
Photo from UnSplash, Martin Zangerl
reflected on experiences of fear, pain, and systemic injustice, but also on family strength and perseverance. As he explained, “The only reason that Black people have rights today is because they never stopped fighting for those rights” (Fowler, 2024, as cited in Our Stories artefact). He also emphasized the responsibility of transmission of stories: “It’s important for me to tell my children everything that I remember and where I came from… it’s really important for you to tell your kids” (Fowler, 2024, as cited in Our Stories artefact). His reflections highlight the importance of honouring ancestral histories, acknowledging ongoing inequities, and creating space for future stories and counter-stories.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it” (Angelou, 1993, p. 113).
Within Strand 3, this artefact illustrates how stories function as threads that connect past, present, and future. As noted by Momaday (1976), “notions of the past
and future are essentially notions of the present. In the same way an idea of
one’s ancestry and posterity is really an idea of the self" (as cited in Stremmel, 2014, p. 2). What began as an exploration of my father’s experiences became an encounter with my own positionality; his story is also part of my story. From a critical sociocultural perspective, family histories, including those shaped by trauma, constitute vital knowledge that informs identity, belonging, and participation in the world. This artefact therefore operates as a counter-story, revealing experiences often absent from dominant narratives while foregrounding resilience, agency, and survival.
The process of gathering and sharing these stories also transformed relationships within my own family. Hearing these accounts prompted my children to see their grandfather differently and deepened our collective understanding of where we come from. In this way, this artefact supports Strand 3 by demonstrating how intergenerational storytelling operates as a critical method for understanding how histories of oppression and resilience shape present identities and possibilities for belonging in early childhood environments. By seeking tangible evidence of these histories and honouring the stories that endure, educators can better understand the present and help sustain unbroken lines of resilience and possibility.
Artefact III
Literature Circle:
Writing the School House Blues, by A. H. Dyson
LLED 556 - Theory and Research in Early Literacy, Dr. Harini Rajagopal
This artefact is a literature-circle presentation examining Dyson’s Writing the School House Blues through the lenses of multimodal literacy, belonging, and equity. Grounded in an ethnographic approach, the work centres storying as a way to understand children’s lived experiences of schooling. Dyson (2021) notes that “everything a human being might call the
Photo from UnSplash, Huy Tran
story… happens outside the photo’s frame” (p. 3), emphasizing that classroom performance alone cannot capture the complexity of a child’s life. The artefact explores how policies, assessment practices, and racialized expectations shape how stories are heard, interpreted, and woven into dominant educational narratives.
The artefact highlights how school structures and dominant narratives can either support or constrain children’s opportunities to belong, to be seen as competent, and to participate fully. The work challenges deficit framings by insisting that children cannot be reduced to institutional measures: “a child is not contained by a score” (Dyson, 2021, p. 13).
This artefact supports Strand 3, illustrating how attending to children’s stories, the lived experiences and family narratives that shape them, enables educators to recognize the roots of inequity and to create early learning environments grounded in resilience, belonging, and social justice.
Attending to these strands allows educators to resist deficit interpretations and instead nurture spaces where diverse stories are valued and woven into the fabric of early learning environments.
“The hope is that well-told stories describing the reality of black and brown lives can help readers to bridge the gap between their worlds and those of others. Engaging stories can help us understand what life is like for others and invite the reader into a new and unfamiliar world" (Carlton Parsons, 2017, p. 49).
Artefact IV
Personal Reflection:
Storying and Positionality
ECED 533 - Advanced Seminar on Research in Early Childhood Education:
Leadership and Policy in Early Childhood Education, Dr. Iris Berger
This artefact is a personal reflection that emerged from a group project examining leadership through the work of a Canadian organization supporting culturally and linguistically diverse families. Centred on an encounter with a board leader, the reflection attends to the threads of narrative, both hidden and evident, and how some stories are pre-written by dominant systems, even as we still exercise agency in what we tell, withhold, and revise.
Photo from UnSplash, Boris Misevik
Through this dialogue, I recognized how easily we construct narratives about others before truly listening, noting how my own “imagined story slowly unravelled” through direct engagement (Steinke, 2025d). This reflection interrogates assumptions, discomfort, and bias, both hers and my own, revealing how identities are formed within intersecting systems.
This artefact supports Strand 3, demonstrating how critical engagement with others’ stories can disrupt taken-for-granted narratives, expose positionality, and deepen reflective practice. The encounter illuminated how personal histories, racialized realities, and professional identities are interwoven rather than separate, reinforcing the importance of refusing the fictions of neutrality and recognizing how our lived histories shape our pedagogical decisions in early learning spaces (Souto-Manning & Rabadi-Raol, 2018).
"Stories are wonderful things. And they are dangerous"
(King, 2003, p. 9).
This artefact was originally created and submitted as an audio recording. To preserve its original form, I am sharing an audio version in addition to this written submission.