“The most natural thing in the world to me when talking to someone is to tell them a story. That’s how I make sense of things,” — Dr. Marquita Foster
As we celebrate Black History Month, we asked Dr. Marquita Foster, lecturer and graduate program director for Baylor SOE’s EdD in Learning & Organizational Change, to share insights from her teaching career and research. A former middle and high school English teacher, Dr. Foster has published on topics including Black feminism, cultural approaches to classroom disciplines, and storytelling in Black and indigenous traditions.
Faculty Guest Blog
by Dr. Marquita Foster
To say that storytelling in Black culture is just rooted in the oral tradition dismisses its historical contributions to liberation, its legitimization of oppositional knowledge, and its enduring instructions for resistance and survival. Storytelling is the universe in which we live, a whole other world fancied for the simplicity of its design and lauded for the nature of its complexity. The story is a primary vehicle of sharing lived experiences from individual to individual, household to household, generation to generation — to inspire, warn, engage, entertain.
Unrestrained by standards, a story in the Black community is laden with context and can be a sentence, a word, or physical movement. My mother said a great deal with a glance and the tilt of her head. When my grandmother rocked back and forth or rubbed her hands together, I knew wisdom was coming. My father’s laugh always stretched his legs out, and after catching his breath, he’d dropped the word “listen” into the air, drawing everyone in like a mystery. The power of these stories rests in the unpredictable order of the plotline, the rhythmic arrangement of words and sounds, and the body playing its part.
Why Storytelling Lives On
In the broader context, storytelling is an organic, human activity. A way to share truths and realities within communities and across cultural borders, connecting the past with the present and the possible future. The purpose of storytelling drives us all to answer: What do these realities tell us? Why should we care? Who should hear them? Who needs to hear them?
Many truths cannot be learned by any other means than the stories or narratives of the people living the experience, which is a major reason why storytelling is so essential in Black culture.
As a people often omitted or underrepresented in dominant discourse, we must correct mistruths and protect our realities with stories, counternarratives, and counter-realities. In reflecting about my time as a K-12 educator, I often share narratives through research that tell of hope and victory to help the larger community understand the importance of restoring the humanity of Black children, whose very existence is fraught with misconceptions in the education system. We need to tell and hear their stories to normalize Black excellence and joy, because even in these contemporary times, their positive experiences are framed more like exceptional rather than everyday events.
Recommended Reading: Black History in the Afrofuture
While the oral tradition has a long, valuable place in Black history, the written narrative has long been utilized and espoused as a conduit to empowerment in our community. Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin remain our greatest and most well-known storytellers, and no assessment of storytelling in Black culture would be complete without paying homage to them.
Also among these greats is Octavia Butler (1947-2006), a science fiction writer who utilized elements of fantasy, history, and the radical imagination to center futures where Black people exist, thrive, and create.
Butler’s novel Kindred, perhaps her most well-known and celebrated work, incorporates time travel in making a prophetic statement about the role of slavery on intergenerational trauma. Other of Butler’s novels worth reading are Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Wild Seed, and Fledgling.
_________________________________
For more news from Baylor School of Education, visit the Instant Impact home page.
For media inquiries, please contact Meg_Cullar@baylor.edu / (254) 710-6435.
ABOUT BAYLOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
For more than 100 years, the School of Education has advanced Baylor’s mission across the globe while preparing students for a range of careers focused on education, leadership, and human development. With more than 65 full-time faculty members, the school’s growing research portfolio complements its long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching and student mentoring. Baylor’s undergraduate program in teacher education has earned national distinction for innovative partnerships with local schools that provide future teachers deep clinical preparation. Likewise, the School of Education’s graduate programs have attained national recognition for their exemplary preparation of research scholars, educational leaders, innovators, and clinicians. Visit the School of Education website to learn more.
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.