Living Inuit Knowledges in Early Childhood Education Through Multispecies Ethnography

• In Event: Responding to Current Times of Anthropogenic Inheritance: Multispecies Relations in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

For decades Inuit have decried the absence of Inuit worldview in Inuit education (Annahatak, 1994; Arnaquq, 2008; Watt-Cloutier, 2000). Researchers have also articulated the importance of engaging with Inuit in designing and delivering Inuit education (Berger, 2009; Crago, Annahatak, & Ningiuruvik, 1993; Douglas, 2009; Stairs, 1988). In this paper, I will outline a strategy for moving away from individual human preoccupations and Eurocentric pedagogies in Nunavik towards more collaborative human engagements better informed by perspectives that emerge from the land, sea, and ice in relationship with many species, including animals and plants. In particular, this paper focuses on sedge grass.
Two main theoretical influences shape this paper. First, Anishnaabeg scholar Leanne Simpson’s scholarship resonates with my interest in accessing Inuit worldviews. She writes about “reclaiming land as pedagogy, both as process and context for Nishnaabeg intelligence, in order to nurture a generation of Indigenous peoples that have the skills, knowledge and values to rebuild our nation according to the worldviews and values of Nishnaabeg culture” (Simpson, 2014, p. 1). Second, I am inspired by an emerging body of literature that articulates a call for educational change through a common world framework (Common World Childhoods Research Collective, 2015; Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2012; Taylor & Giugni, 2012) that acknowledges the interdependence of nature and culture (Haraway, 2008; Whatmore, 2008) in our common worlds (Latour, 2005). Common Worlds theorists, amongst whom I count myself, are concerned with environmental justice (Anderson, 2010; de Finney, 2014) and the ethical responsibilities of humans to address environmental and social injustices resulting from colonization (Rose, 2011; Watts, 2013). We take issue with the humancentric developmental theories, based in colonizing thought, that are at the root of the current environmental crisis (Pacini-Ketchabaw & Taylor, 2015). We are engaging with multispecies ethnography as a way to get deep inside of relational histories, to support educators in considering issues related with environmental justice, and to support children in inheriting ecologically and socially challenging times (Pacini-Ketchabaw, di Tomasso, & Nxumalo, 2013).
In the fall of 2014, I spent two months in an Inuit community on the shores of Hudson Bay in the Canadian Arctic. The focus of the research had been developed within the community over a period of several years and the methods included a case study, action research approach in which about 100 children, 50 parents, 18 educators, 3 Elders, 5 hunters, the pedagogical counsellor and centre director were involved. Data sources included a daily journal, observation notes, interviews, informal conversations, meeting notes, educator made learning stories, photos, videos, and materials harvested during the process of about 20 outdoor excursions that were then transformed into objects during other indoor events.
In this presentation, I will share narratives generated through the making of a sedge grass basket in order to explore relationships facilitated by thinking with snow, land, ice, grass, Elders, children and educators. I will also discuss the possibilities that these encounters propagate in terms of interrupting colonial patrimonies, and proposing new pedagogies that fortify multi-species relationships.

Author

• Mary Caroline Rowan, University of New Brunswick