Countering sound trauma through eco-justice education: A curricula of arts-informed eco-poetic inquiry

• In Event: 21st-Century Challenges of Baltic School Education

Abstract

Public schools often demand that learners engage with a variety of sounds that can be dangerous before they even enter their classrooms. Being in loud spaces, from public systems of transportation, to classrooms and gymnasiums where learning communities congregate, can have long-lasting effects. In this paper I consider how exploring writing practices might counter making noise in urban spaces that can evolve into sound trauma as outlined by Goodman (2012) and Bull & Back (2003). As educators, we need to foster an awareness of how excessive sounds, that are often taken for granted, affect thinking as well as our relationships with the places we live and with each other. I consider how engaging with the development of eco-poetic inquiry can help learners to develop an appreciation for uncovering information through poetic writing and song learning, that includes a deep analysis of language, to increase interest about their own thinking processes.

Short Bio

Andrejs Kūlnieks is an Assistant Professor with the University of Saskatchewan in the Department of Curriculum Studies where he teaches in the area of Language Arts, Literacies, and Drama education. He was also adjunct professor with the Trent University Indigenous Environmental Studies Program. He has worked with the undergraduate and graduate Program in Education at York University and Nipissing University where he developed courses about Literacy and Society, Critical Pedagogies, and Democratic Approaches to Education. He has also developed undergraduate courses in the area of Curriculum Methods, Language Arts, and Literacies at Brock, Nipissing, and York University. His research interests include curriculum theory, language and literacy, arts-informed research, poetic inquiry, Indigenous environmental studies, leadership in eco-justice environmental education, and educational biography

Author

• Andrejs Kūlnieks, University of Saskatchewan