Our Process.
Learning Approach & Beliefs
Unlocking Silent Histories pedagogical approach roots itself in the local contexts, honoring languages, traditions, and cultures as well as in our belief in youth-directed learning, participatory research, ad community centered video ethnography.
We believe local knowledge and voice are foundational to authentic learning.
Community-connected themes encourage critical and creative expression.
Youth have the capacity to direct their own learning and author their own stories
Invite/Prepare
We receive invitations from community partners. These local stakeholders identify youth leaders who receive production kits and begin to culturally and linguistically adapt the curriculum materials. Mutual visioning and decision-making immediately create a distributed leadership structure.
Engage/Implement
Next, youth leaders recruit young people in their communities and begin engaging them in critical media literacy, technology skill development that leads to youth selecting themes, interviewing elders, and finding the emerging stories.
Debrief/Refine
Regular check-ins bring to the surface nuances to implementing the curriculum. Through ongoing reflexivity, confronting, and navigating power structures that inhibit or enable youth participation. Together we co-analyze our process highlighting emerging patterns that assist in making necessary refinements.
Release/Regenerate
We cultivate the leadership skills that youth need to continue the program upon their exit. Our Indigenous youth partners become lifelong collaborators in our emerging global network. and remaining connected via a virtual platform, which provides a space to share and discuss films.
