Stories as a lens: Teaching students to navigate complexity through understandings of place

Thank you, Miss Rosemary mural by artist and former student Sade Alexis, in Vancouver’s West End.

In a social studies classroom, the world is always closer than it seems. Maps paper the walls, and students have access to books and resources about the world around them. But the most meaningful learning about place occurs in the conversations, field trips, and stories they share and encounter together.

Stories are at the centre of Alana Sawatsky’s Human Geography 12 course. She views human geography as a lens to help students navigate the world, one that blends philosophy, science, political science, culture, and anthropology. The course explores how humans interact with the planet and how the planet affects us.

Alana begins each unit with stories from students’ lives, cultures, and languages. “The stories of students in the room can become our curriculum,” said Alana. “It’s a beautiful way of showing students that there are so many different ways to be in the world.”

Sharing stories can be an intimidating task, so many of the discussions and storytelling aspects of Alana’s pedagogy start out in small groups to support students in building confidence. It’s also an opportunity to practise listening and holding back judgment. Practising respectful dialogue in small groups with low-stakes topics means the class is better equipped to approach more complex or polarizing topics together as the term continues.

“Ms. Sawatsky teaches us to think critically and share our opinions confidently, while also really respecting the perspectives of all our classmates,” said Grade 11 student Ruby Kinkaid.

Alana draws on international news, community occurrences, and social media to spark discussions and give students a space to make sense of the stories they encounter. While working through these discussions, the class recognizes and acknowledges that disagreement is healthy when everyone is kind and respectful. Her expectations for participation and active listening, as well as her scaffolding on navigating conflicting opinions, allow for healthy and productive discussions. Students learn to use history, patterns, and contemporary examples to navigate the stories they come across—both within and outside of the classroom.

Much of Alana’s teaching requires stepping outside of the classroom to find geography in the real world. For their unit on food security, they visit locally owned grocery stores and chain grocery stores to compare prices. When they learn about art and resistance, they walk through Chinatown, Hogan’s Alley, and Strathcona to see real examples from their community. Visiting Brentwood Mall is part of the urban planning unit, and during their world religions unit, they visit different places of worship.

Two maps from Alana’s students working on their border projects.

When they learn about borders, the class looks at how border spaces divide us, the history of borders, how borders are drawn around the world, and the implications of such borders. For their assignment, students are given a case study where they are part of an imaged United Nations mediation process to support different ethnic and cultural groups in gaining self-determination. They look at an imagined territory with different linguistic, religious, and geographic regions. They are tasked with drawing a border and justifying their decision. Students think about what factors are likely to unite people and which are divisive. Are people most united by religion? Class? Language? Or something else? (This border activity was inspired by Laura Kmetz, a human geography educator from the United States.)

To add additional complexity, the imagined territory includes a sacred religious site that students must take into account when drawing their border. Students are asked to consider questions around protecting access and border regulations related to the religious site while balancing the needs of different groups.

This assignment includes class discussions on colonialism, historical creation of borders, violence and conflict, and what brings us together or divides us as Canadians.

For each project and assignment throughout the course, students are assessed on their ability to meet the curricular competencies. Alana allows students to “bring their gifts to geography” and share their learning in ways that align with their interests and strengths. Oral communication, writing, scientific mindset, and artistic expression can be used by students to share knowledge.

The value of oral storytelling and tradition in Alana’s class is one of the many ways Indigenous ways of knowing and being are incorporated into learning. For Alana, geography naturally intersects with Indigenous worldviews and perspectives. The idea that learning is experiential, relational, and rooted in place is foundational to her approach.

Although the course covers global tensions, including colonialism, imperialism, climate change, and inequality, Alana believes geography ultimately offers hope.

Kindred Sunsets mural, by Odera Igbokwe, located in Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver. Photo by student Thomas Chen. Photos provided by Alana Sawatsky.

 Students often come to the class acutely aware of the problems society faces: patriarchy, loss of culture, climate change, and conflict. Alana aims to show them that we are not the first to experience these issues. “By studying cultures and other worldviews, we see that there is so much collective wisdom waiting for us,” said Alana. “People have been addressing these issues for so long, and I want students to see that there is wisdom we can look to.”

Alana incorporates geography into all the classes she teaches, not just human geography. The study of place gives context to the stories and histories students use to shape their worldview, thereby enriching the social studies curriculum as a whole.

“Ms. Sawatsky is the kind of teacher whose passion makes human geography not just a class but a new way of seeing the world,” said Grade 11 student Mostafa Mtakhlouf.

She hopes her students leave human geography with a renewed sense of curiosity and the confidence to interpret the world rather than simply react to it. “Every student who walks into the room is curious,” she said. “Sometimes they’ve just forgotten what they’re curious about. My job is to spark that again.” And in her classroom, that spark is everywhere: in the story circles, the city streets, the sacred sites, the grocery store aisles, and in all the places where geography and humanity meet.