Background
What we call family history literacy is the nexus of genealogy and the psychology of reflection. Finding one’s family story is often the impetus to deep understanding of oneself. That knowledge of being is often a first step in the lifetime information seeking process of preparing, asking, seeking, making, understanding, sharing, and, finally, celebrating (Cajete, 1997). We will illustrate the concept and processes of family history literacy by referencing our individual histories.
Objectives, Methodology and Outcomes
The primary objective of our presentation is to investigate the relationship between personal history and individual learning style(s). With that objective in mind, we considered the following questions:
1. What is the relationship between story and documentation in family history literacy?
2. How does understanding of one’s family history influence one’s role as a researcher (Roy, 2014)?
3. How might family history literacy be a decolonizing force within IL pedagogy (Denzin, Lincoln & Smith, 2008)?
We employed several of the Indigenous research methods that Smith identified in Decolonizing Methodologies (1999). These include testimony and story telling through locating data and sharing family stories. Sharing is conducted while still protecting family biography and negotiating privacy and writing. Smith mentions remembering as an Indigenous research method, even if such remembering includes not forgetting a painful past.
Audience members will leave our session with: a greater understanding of the role of family history in understanding personal learning styles and worldview; an awareness of an adoption process; an understanding of the history of American Indian boarding schools; and a view of the impact of family history on information seeking and, thus, information literacy. Our presentation provides us as researchers, writers, practitioners to demonstrate the contributions of marginalized voices into the IL fields. We will introduce finding information about family history including McCauley’s process of locating details including her first official records related to her birth in South Korea and subsequent adoption by an American couple (Nelson et al., 2010). Her return to the country of her birth aided in her understanding of her personal history. Roy’s family history includes stories and documentation of her grandfathers’ attendance at the Carlisle and Pipestone boarding schools in Pennsylvania and Minnesota (Fear-Segal & Rose, 2016; Krupat, 2021). Such attendance was enforced and shortened due to the 1915 influenza and the return of the United States soldiers from WWI. Details about the Carlisle Industrial School are available through a searchable database developed and maintained by library staff at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania while national efforts are underway to document the Indian boarding school experience through local initiatives and the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS).
References
Cajete, G. (1997). Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education. Skyland, North Carolina: Kivaki Press.
Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies. Los Angeles: Sage.
Fear-Segal, J., & Rose, S. D. (Eds.). (2016). Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, & Reclamations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Krupat, A. (2021). Boarding School Voices: Carlisle Indian Students Speak. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Nelson, K.P. Hübinette, T., Kim, E. Kwonn Dobbs, J., Langrehr, K, & Myong, L. (Eds.) (2010). Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Korean Adoption Studies.
Roy, L. (2014). Leading a Fulfilled Life as an Indigenous Academic. AlterNative, 10(3): 303–310.
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books Ltd.
