Connecting Land and Kinship in a School-Wide Blackfoot Cultural Learning Journey

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Imagining, Embodying, and Enacting the Future of Indigenous Education

Abstract

This study explores the development of kinship between children, the land, and each other. The primary research question was this: How can cultivating kinship between land and more-than-humans offer possibilities for re-imagining educational experiences for children, teachers, and others? The research was also guided by these supporting questions: What happens to learning when children are invited to listen to the land, animals, plants, rocks, wind, and sky? What are the ways in which land is understood as pedagogical? This paper discusses the research methodology and data interpretations through three diverse perspectives of a Blackfoot Elder, school principal, and researcher. The data points to ground-breaking understanding of Indigenous-Settler relationships through active, transformative learning based on the land.

Authors

• Stephanie Bartlett, University of Calgary

• Randy Bottle, University of Calgary and Calgary Board of Education

• Cindy White, Calgary Board of Education