Tracking Engagements With Caribou by Living Nunangat Pedagogies in Early Childhood Practice

• In Event: 34.073 - Stewardship of the Land, Water, and Ice: Implications for Education in Nunangat

Abstract

Objective: Relationships with caribou emerge while walking on the tundra, hunting, eating the meat and fat, preparing the skins, sewing clothing, sleeping on the fur and sharing stories. The objective of this paper is to direct our gaze to caribou, to think with caribou while considering a series of questions which include: What kinds of educational practices are available for Inuit children, youth and their families to develop meaningful relationships with nunangat (land, water and ice)? How can Inuit children and families live and experience Inuit qaujimajatuqangit? How can thinking with nunangat as a pedagogical strategy, disrupt ongoing colonialisms, require Inuit leadership, support self-determination and governance, and ensure local knowledge mobilization?
The theoretical framework of this presentation is based in an understanding that living Nunangat pedaogies in early childhood practice opens to the possibility of engagements with caribou and experiences of Inuit qaujimajatuqangit, in educational endeavours. This focus arises from a deep frustration with contemporary educational practices which operate to perpetuate colonialisms, through regulatory structures, teacher training programs, curricula, buildings and books. This theorizing emerges from an understanding that by thinking with Nunangat, Inuit ways of knowing and being may become centred in pedagogical practice.
Methods: Living Nunangat pedagogies in early childhood practice involves being with Nunangat, working directly with Elders and hunters in relationship with children, educators, and nunangat; speaking, writing, and reading in Inuktitut; focusing on the local; making and using materials of the place; and documenting the action in multimodal ways (Author, 2015a; 2017). Tracking engagements with caribou will be done by drawing on an Inuktitut language story book (Puttayuk, 2008), a curriculum guide (Avataq Cultural Institute, 2006); and data sources from an action research project including: video clips, photos, learning stories, field notes, interviews and a research journal.
Results: By tracking engagements with caribou through living Nunangat pedagogies, stories about caribou that have the potential to guide future action and transform education will be shared. By making accessible multi-modal narratives as a strategy to democratize evidence and link the pieces, ways in which educators can work to support sustained learning and re-engagement with Inuit language, culture and community will be demonstrated.
Scientific significance: The expected result is to disrupt ongoing colonialisms and make visible tangible strategies for engaging Inuit leadership and participation; to live Inuit qaujimajatuqangit in educational endeavours; to support Inuit self-determination and governance ,and to ensure local knowledge mobilization.

Author

• Carol Rowan, Carleton University