Storying Place: Exploring Land-Based Pedagogies in Teacher Education

• In Event: 47.095 - MTCC Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 47.095-6 - Troubling the Water: Innovative Epistemologies for Teacher Education

Abstract

This narrative inquiry explored how educators might integrate land-based pedagogies into their teaching practice. Graduate and undergraduate education students participated in a series of land-based activities on Coast Salish/Musqueam territory – what is now referred to as the University of British Columbia Point Grey campus and surrounding areas. After engaging in activities that prompted them to “story” local places, participants were asked to reflect upon a series of guiding questions. Questions prompted participants to consider how they might integrate Indigenous epistemologies into their own practice, with particular attention to the themes of land education, ecological recovery, and reconciliation. The 4Rs of respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility described by Kirkness and Barnhardt (1991) provided an ethical community protocol that directed the study.

Author

• Christine Bridge, University of the Fraser Valley