Christine Bridge, PhD, LLED
Land Education and Reconciliation: Exploring Educators’ Practice
Supervisors: Dr. Teresa Dobson (LLED), Dr. Jan Hare (LLED), Dr. Candace Galla (LLED)
Wednesday, March 14, 2018 | 9:00 a.m. | Graduate Student Centre, Room 203, 6371 Crescent Road
Committee Members:
Dr. Teresa Dobson (LLED)
Dr. Jan Hare (LLED)
Dr. Candace Galla (LLED)
University Examiners:
External examiner: Dr. Susan Dion (York University)
University examiners: Dr. Susan Gerofsky (EDCP), Dr. Cynthia Nicol (EDCP)
Abstract:
The focus of this narrative inquiry was to engage educators in a series of land-based activities that prompted them to consider how the notion of “land as first teacher” (Haig-Brown & Dannenmann, 2008) might contribute to interdisciplinary approaches to land education, ecological recovery, and reconciliation in their classroom praxis. The 4Rs of respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 1991) provided an ethical community protocol that directed an exploration into ways to integrate processes of reconciliation into educators’ teaching practice. The research took place on the University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver campus, situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people.
Over the span of four months, a participant group consisting of four graduate students, three undergraduate students, and two course instructors from the UBC Faculty of Education, engaged in a series of land-based activities on various public sites on or near the UBC campus that acknowledge and re-inscribe Indigenous presence. Following each activity, participants were asked to reflect on a series of guiding questions. Data sources included pre-study questionnaires, reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, and my own field notes and observations.
Findings of the research suggested dominant discourses regarding the use of land and ethics towards the land were effectively challenged over the course of the study. Participants expressed how they might re-shape their instructional approaches to include processes of reconciliation in a multitude of ways, and expressed commitment to build their own personal and professional knowledge, and awareness of Indigenous perspectives to help further these processes.
The study builds on a body of research exploring the effectiveness of decolonizing teacher education programs. It advances land education as a pedagogical model, and thus addresses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (2015a) calls to action for increased Indigenous content for learners at all levels. Further, it attends to the urgent need for reconciliation that runs deep in our country, by promoting mutually respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples (TRC, 2015b).
