Narratives of Negotiation: Unpacking Acts of "Staking" at a Faculty of Education Outdoor Learning Space/Garden

• In Event: 50.010 - University Learning Gardens: Cultivating the Margins, on Borrowed Land and Time

Abstract

Through narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004), this presentation explores a series of pedagogical and administrative encounters that overview the story of a large Quebec university’s Faculty of Education Outdoor Learning Space, from its inception in 2013 to present day. The significance of exploring key moments in the creation of this learning space lies in the claims for truth in this overarching session: neoliberalism, sustainability, Indigeneity, and environmental justice. By exploring six encounters that speak to the identified claims, we conceptualise these as acts of staking (i.e. claiming ownership over) of what was intended to be an emergent, grassroots, community-centered space. The conflicting truths of various stakeholders are explored in this presentation as it questions the essence of the agential relationships that humans have with ourselves, others, places and spaces (Graham & Arshad-Ayaz, 2016; Tuck, 2013).
The key events that will be presented in relation to neoliberalism, sustainability, Indigeneity and environmental justice include: the process for applying and receiving approval for a suitable space; the creation of the 3 sisters garden; a claim by another Faculty to the space during an event on Indigenous Education; the space being designated by the institution as an outdoor classroom, which requires booking; competing uses of the space; and the institutional removal of garden/leisure materials from the space. Questions that emerge from these concerns include: What is at the centre of the negotiations amongst faculty, staff, students and administration when navigating spaces for outdoor learning on University campuses? What are the lived experiences of faculty, staff and students in creating and maintaining the outdoor learning space? How might the contentious use of space be reflective of other top-down social processes like gentrification? What social, institutional, and political-economic factors influence people’s experiences of access to garden space opportunities within the institution?
Using field notes, observations, email documentation, website materials, photographs, images, artistic renderings and interview data over a five-year period, we critically explore the challenges and steps forward that have been inherent during the creation, maintenance, community expansion, and plans for the long-term sustainability of this outdoor learning space.

Authors

• Mindy Roberta Carter, McGill University

• Mitchell McLarnon, McGill University