Getting Started with Culturally-Sustaining Mythology

Last year, I adapted our school's existing unit on Greek Mythology (centred on The Odyssey) to be more culturally-respectful for my international students. My learners come from a wide range of places, cultures and ethnic backgrounds. To say it was a success is an understatement. Not only did students express their appreciation for being able to bring their prior knowledge and family cultures into the classroom, they also loved learning about mythologies they'd never even heard of. From my point-of-view, I learned as much as the students because they were empowered to be experts in their fields. The pride they took in exploring and sharing their cultures' most enduring stories was an experience I want to repeat again and again - I also want to share it with other educators so all students benefit wherever they are. My father's culture and ethnicity were completely invisible in my own education, and I want to ensure that my students avoid that experience. I also want to promote the likelihood that when students venture out into the world, they have a greater awareness of how people from different backgrounds think, value and behave. I feel schools are becoming more sensitive to this idea with recent movements such as BlackLivesMatter and WeNeedDiveerseBooks, so I'm optimistic that we - as a profession - are doing better in this respect every day.

The issue for many educators is where to begin when approaching mythology through a multicultural lens, so I intend to share my journey in this series of blog posts. I want to reassure you that you don't have to have extensive knowledge about world mythology - you just have to be brave enough to sometimes let your students teach you and stay curious! You are still in control as the facilitator and coach, but students will use inquiry learning to explore and extend their thinking.

Let's Get Started!

The first activity I use is the Alphabet Activator so students can share what they already know. I do have a ready-to-go distance-learning version for Google Slides, but - if you're low on funds - you can easily recreate it yourself online or on paper. Students can use a piece of paper or an online document to simply type out the letters A-Z and get started.

💫 Try this!

Students complete the graphic with all they know in 1 colour. Perhaps they will only know about one culture's mythology, but that's fine! As you progress through the unit, they add ideas in another colour so their learning progress is as clear as the shades they use. At the very least, do this at the end of the unit so they have a clear visual of all they have achieved.

💫 Try this!

Students complete the graphic in pairs or small groups. This way, they start learning from each other immediately. You are almost guaranteed that the inquiry will start right there as students ask for explanations for the terms that are unfamiliar to them. If they don't do this naturally, have some prompts on the board to encourage them! You could display the question grid below.

💫 Try this!

Introduce a competitive element and award points to teams for each box they manage to fill...but they only get the point if each box is different from every other team's!

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Allow students to use languages other than English. This is particularly helpful for EAL learners whose first languages use the alphabet, but may take some creativity for other scripts such as Chinese, Japanese, etc.

💫 Try this!

Create pairs or trios of students who share their graphics with each other. Allow them some time in class (maybe 15 minutes or so) to ask questions about each other's graphics. Tell them that the next day they will quiz each other. This could be as simple as each student taking turns to ask their partner(s) to define a word on their graphics or you could take it up a level and have them create an online game. Options here would include free or freemium apps such as Quizizz, Kahoot, Quizlet and Gimkit - all of these games can be hosted online too!

These are some ideas to get you started. Be brave - give it a go! Have other ideas on how to adapt this activity? Brave enough to let others know how it went for you? Do share!

Whatever you do, happy learning!