Presencing Ourselves to the Living Earth as a Collaborative Partner in Educational Research

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: Presencing Beyond Borders of Self/Others

Abstract

Amid widespread efforts to decolonize and Indigenize curriculum, we must reposition ourselves with the living earth. Employing a spiritual exchange process, this paper inquires how we might transform education to restore and renew kinship relations through the enactment of presencing. By forming an ethical space of engagement for dialogue across cultural and corporeal difference, we study presencing by bringing the knowledges of our bodies and hearts to life. We uncover that presencing requires a recognition of everything in constant motion, that all beings are storied and exist within an interconnected web, and that kinectics between theory and practice, intellectual and emotional, must be honoured. We offer pedagogical and curricular implications to invite and support others to take up these practices.

Authors

• Jennifer Macdonald, University of Calgary

• Victoria Bouvier, University of Calgary