Knowledge Mobilization and Environmental Stewardship: A Place-Based Curriculum for Nunavik

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

Abstract

Objective & theoretical framework: Relating closely to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s recent vision statement for research in Inuit Nunangat (ITK, 2017), the education mandate of the Arctic Eider Society (AES) aims to ensure knowledge mobilization, lessen inequalities and provide educational opportunities in arctic research. AES has created core curriculum resources that are accessible for students and support the empowerment of Inuit in research projects through education and training opportunities. AES supports the implementation of multi-generational Inuit Knowledge coupled with current research practices promoting the health of entire communities, northern ecosystems and self-determination (Kattuk, 2016; Sheramata, 2017). In this paper we describe this initiative and discuss some of the impacts on communities, teachers and students.
Method: AES works to build capacity for self-determination in research by having Inuit set research agendas, direct programs, interpret results, and engage in a holistic approach to education, stewardship and research (McDonald et al., 1997). Community-driven research results are used to teach STEM concepts in a culturally responsive context while additional opportunities for land-based skill development are provided partnering students with hunters while they conduct research on the sea ice. Arctic Eider Society has implemented strategies to measure impact and the scope reached; surveys and questionnaires completed by students and teachers as well as AES personnel during workshops. We are also pursuing an outside evaluation and impact assessment of our program. In this presentation, we focus on a description of the Arctic Sea Ice Education Package (ASI EP) and the successes and challenges of its implementation in Nunavik.
Results: The ASI EP, is a resource rooted in the Arctic environment and its people who are currently experiencing both cultural and environmental change while navigating stewardship relationships based on extensive Inuit knowledge practices. To address these challenges, the education package contains lesson plans that help students better understand STEM concepts giving them the tools and background to work with and provide self-determination in research. Using interactive resources such as high definition underwater video, an interactive food web and 360º icescape imagery, students will explore Arctic ecosystems and remote sea ice habitats. This resource utilizes SIKU, the Arctic Eider Society’s Indigenous knowledge wiki and social mapping platform, enabling students to study results collected by Inuit hunters during community-driven research projects (Inuit Siku Atlas, 2018). Partnered with the Land-Based Survival team at Kativik Ilisarniliriniq (KI), the ASI EP is being adopted into core curriculum for reach across the Nunavik region of Northern Quebec.
Scientific significance: Rolling out in the fall of 2018, this curriculum extends to meet a geographically isolated population with place-based, culturally-responsive, environmental science resources. We have an almost exclusively Indigenous audience with a high participation percentage being female students. Available resources in Nunavik are still too frequently grounded in Western values without association to the places that are familiar to Inuit students. Building a curriculum on significant local knowledge systems and culture encourages students to be active in their learning, build knowledge in a familiar context and become contributing citizens of their own communities.

Author

• Jackie Kidd, Arctic Eider Society