Decolonizing Outdoor Education - Assignment 3 (EDUC6107) - Jenny Carroll

 Decolonizing Outdoor Education 

Reflection and Goal-setting

I recently read Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit, but Marie Battiste, who is from Mi'kma'ki, the unceded land on which I live with gratitude. There were three main points provided regarding decolonization that I took away: first, to acknowledge colonial and racist practices, next, to acknowledge the richness of Indigenous knowledge, and finally to learn it respectfully without appropriation (p. 69). 

I know that there are many colonial and racist practices that I am a part of in my role as a classroom teacher. Simply existing as a school with brick walls and desks in classrooms is colonial in nature. Using numbers to "grade" students is unfair and perpetuates inequitable power structures, especially when learning is done and assessed by reading and writing alone. Using biased resources such as textbooks, videos or even my own personal experience or perspective as someone of settler origin negates the importance of Indigenous knowledge and wisdom. 

I am learning more about both traditional and contemporary Indigenous knowledge, particularly Mi'kmaw knowledge, and am grateful for the help I am getting from classmates, instructors, Indigenous friends and colleagues and also "strangers" - or "new friends", as I like to call them. 

I will be piloting a newly created course called Netukulimk and the Environment 12 in September. I was fortunate to have been part of the teacher team who worked with full-time curriculum leads, community elders and knowledge keepers to help put the course together. My learning journey has been eye-opening, humbling, difficult at times, joyous at other times, full of questions, and continues every day. As someone of settler background who will be co-learning alongside students in this class using Etuaptmumk ("the gift of multiple perspectives" - Albert Marshall) and Netukulimk ("maintaining the source of life that is our natural world" - Albert Marshall) as guiding principles, I have a responsibility to make every effort to decolonize our learning space.

Leanne Simpson (2014) writes that educating Nishnaabeg children to survive and prosper depends on forming "intimate relationships of reciprocity, humility, honesty and respect with all elements of creation, including plants and animals" (pp. 9-10) . This is what I want for my students. I want them to know how they are interconnective with the beings in nature around them. I want them to understand ecoservices as gifts, as Robin Wall Kimmerer does with wild strawberries, and how they might give back to the land. I want them to know they are part of a circle of life, not a hierarchy, in keeping with Indigenous worldviews as I understand them. I hope that this will give them a sense of humility and respect for all other beings. I hope we can be honest about what we know and what we want to learn, and support each other in that journey.

With all this in mind, my personal commitments moving forward for all my courses, whether they are "land based", such as Netukulimk and the Environment 12, or more "western science based", such as Biology 11 and 12, are as follows:

-careful and intentional use of language: for example, using traditional Mi'kmaw names for local areas to show respect for the relationship between land and language as described by Tuck, McKenzie and McCoy (2014). Also, using words like "gifts" rather than "resources" or "beings" rather than "ling/non-living things" tends more toward Indigenous ways of knowing.

-more explicit reference to knowledge holders, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. I think acknowledging that people make knowledge come alive and trying to get more community folks involved with what we are learning about to share their knowledge models to students my own humility (as the course "teacher", I am not an "expert") and recognizes the value of Elders and intergenerational learning. 

-more storytelling – by me and by the students. Improving our active listening and watching skills. Thanking each other for sharing. This honors Indigenous ways of being and knowing and builds relationships with each other.

-modeling lifelong learning by sharing what I am co-learning as we "walk together"​.

-giving students more voice and choice – providing opportunities for authenticity​ in learning, assessment and evaluation in students' preferred learning and communication styles.

-creating personal land acknowledgements - after building our relationship with the land, we can move forward in our personal journeys of reconciliation by learning about why land acknowledgements matter, who should make them, what must be included, and create meaningful ones based on our own relationship with the land.

This hope and expect this list of commitments to grow as I learn more about decolonization and its benefits for all.

References:

Battiste, M. (2015). Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the learning spirit. Purich Publishing Limited.

Four Arrows (2022, December 20). Discovering & using Kindred’s Worldview chart by four arrows – a video with four arrows and Darcia Narvaez. Discovering & Using Kindred’s Worldview Chart By Four Arrows. https://kindredmedia.org/2022/12/discovering-using-kindreds-worldview-chart-by-four-arrows-a-video-with-four-arrows-and-darcia-narvaez/

Kimmerer, R. (2020). The Gift of Strawberries. In Braiding Sweetgrass (pp. 22–33). essay, Milkweed Editions. 

Simpson, L. (2014). Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(3), 1-25. http://whereareyouquetzalcoatl.com/mesofigurineproject/EthnicAndIndigenousStudiesArticles/Simpson2014.pdf ​

Eve Tuck, Marcia McKenzie & Kate McCoy (2014) Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research, Environmental Education Research, 20:1, 1-23, DOI:10.1080/13504622.2013.877708

Netukulimk (UINR). Youtube. (2010, March 5). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsNVewjgKxI 

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