Wahkotowin (Relationality)
ᐊᐧᐦᑯᐦᑐᐃᐧᐣ
"Knowledge itself is held in the relationships and connections formed with the environment that surrounds us."
— Shawn Wilson, (2008) in Research is Ceremony
— Shawn Wilson, (2008) in Research is Ceremony
"[The] more relationships between yourself and [others], the more fully you can comprehend ... and the greater understanding becomes."
— Shawn Wilson (2008) in Research is Ceremony
— Shawn Wilson (2008) in Research is Ceremony
HEALING
As a teacher, I strive to embody care in classroom and other learning spaces. As my work aligns with abolitionist principles, punitive responses to students only feed the literal school to prison pipeline and maintain a pedagogy of punishment as opposed to restorative practices found most often in collaborative teaching styles.
RESISTING ISOLATION
One of the ways I embody this in practice is through valuing collaborative work as opposed to individual achievements. I offer students opportunities to engage in “group work” assignments, but instead shared them as "collaborative activities" where knowledge may grow as new ideas are shared. In turn, I offered students a small percentage increase on each of their individual grades for any collaborative assignments as a way of valuing community over competition and individualism. An example of this is included on a sample syllabus on my Learning page.
The development of collaborative agreements near the start of the semester is probably the most foundational to this style of teaching. Instead of laying out ground rules for class discussion, I ask students to share ideas for how we can make the classroom dialogue move us to think critically and to support justice-oriented education. Students tend to value respect, listening to others, being open-minded, being mindful to allow others to share, valuing others’ opinions, and related tenets of community guidelines. We spend time grappling with, defining, and reviewing materials related to equity and equality or dialogue and debate to further refine what these mean.
As a teacher, I strive to embody care in classroom and other learning spaces. As my work aligns with abolitionist principles, punitive responses to students only feed the literal school to prison pipeline and maintain a pedagogy of punishment as opposed to restorative practices found most often in collaborative teaching styles.
RESISTING ISOLATION
One of the ways I embody this in practice is through valuing collaborative work as opposed to individual achievements. I offer students opportunities to engage in “group work” assignments, but instead shared them as "collaborative activities" where knowledge may grow as new ideas are shared. In turn, I offered students a small percentage increase on each of their individual grades for any collaborative assignments as a way of valuing community over competition and individualism. An example of this is included on a sample syllabus on my Learning page.
The development of collaborative agreements near the start of the semester is probably the most foundational to this style of teaching. Instead of laying out ground rules for class discussion, I ask students to share ideas for how we can make the classroom dialogue move us to think critically and to support justice-oriented education. Students tend to value respect, listening to others, being open-minded, being mindful to allow others to share, valuing others’ opinions, and related tenets of community guidelines. We spend time grappling with, defining, and reviewing materials related to equity and equality or dialogue and debate to further refine what these mean.
“To engage in dialogue is one of the simplest ways we can begin as teachers, scholars and critical thinkers to cross boundaries, the barriers that may or may not be erected by race, gender, class, professional standing, and a host of other differences.”
— bell hooks (1994) in Teaching to Transgress
— bell hooks (1994) in Teaching to Transgress
What do we mean when we say we value inclusivity and diversity? What is the difference between equity and equality or between dialogue and debate? How can we construct arguments and what is the difference between a critical claim and an opinion? What does respect mean and what are examples of what it might look like in our classroom spaces? These are questions I pose early on for students to have a dialogue about what our educational space could look like. An example of a collaborative agreement students co-created with me is included on my Learning page.
Our collaborative agreements are designed so that students embrace discomfort in the classroom. Discomfort means we are challenged by encountering something new. Discomfort is not the same as a lack of safety. The safety of students typically most marginalized from institutions of education—namely Black, Indigenous, and other students of color—is prioritized and named in my classroom spaces. We recognize that Indigenous education, for example, has often been appropriated at the expense of Indigenous bodies, land, and epistemologies and therefore may need to center in our conversations in order to interrupt the canon. To be able to learn is a gift, even and especially when it makes us uncomfortable because it means we are growing.
Safety is again taken extremely seriously. I name early on that racism against people of color, transphobic, or other related language is not tolerated. After years of providing feedback on student papers, I created what is still a living, breathing document that captures language that may not seem like hate speech, but constructs ongoing, harmful realities. This document (Key Terms and Concepts on my Learning page) I review piece by piece with students as I give them support in as well as feedback on their writing assignments. These terms move us toward recognizing that diversity does not mean we just add and stir, but rather need to examine history, where power has been awarded and from where it has been denied, and contextualize experience in the larger systems of colonialism, white supremacy, cis-heteropatriarchy, and capitalism that impact institutions of education. In all of this, relationality is again central because the relationships between self and each other, self and power, and self and the land inform who we are, what we experience, and how we make meaning.
Our collaborative agreements are designed so that students embrace discomfort in the classroom. Discomfort means we are challenged by encountering something new. Discomfort is not the same as a lack of safety. The safety of students typically most marginalized from institutions of education—namely Black, Indigenous, and other students of color—is prioritized and named in my classroom spaces. We recognize that Indigenous education, for example, has often been appropriated at the expense of Indigenous bodies, land, and epistemologies and therefore may need to center in our conversations in order to interrupt the canon. To be able to learn is a gift, even and especially when it makes us uncomfortable because it means we are growing.
Safety is again taken extremely seriously. I name early on that racism against people of color, transphobic, or other related language is not tolerated. After years of providing feedback on student papers, I created what is still a living, breathing document that captures language that may not seem like hate speech, but constructs ongoing, harmful realities. This document (Key Terms and Concepts on my Learning page) I review piece by piece with students as I give them support in as well as feedback on their writing assignments. These terms move us toward recognizing that diversity does not mean we just add and stir, but rather need to examine history, where power has been awarded and from where it has been denied, and contextualize experience in the larger systems of colonialism, white supremacy, cis-heteropatriarchy, and capitalism that impact institutions of education. In all of this, relationality is again central because the relationships between self and each other, self and power, and self and the land inform who we are, what we experience, and how we make meaning.
“...[I]n the academy...we have elevated the concept of understanding without also insistently holding up humility as its counterpart...This is the paradox of learning: the more we learn, the less we know.”
— Daniel Heath Justice (2016) in “A Better World Becoming”
— Daniel Heath Justice (2016) in “A Better World Becoming”
CRITICAL THINKING
Indigenous education values curiosity, not mastery. I invite students not to come to me with answers, but instead more questions in their discussions, writing, and other work. Answers often tend to make moves toward permanence and thus limit the possibilities of re-examination. Indigenous education embraces curiosity, not mastery. We ask questions of the world around us and we seek to understand through bridging our relationships to each other—and our other-than-human relatives.
LAND PEDAGOGY AND HOLISM
Our other-than-human relatives (i.e. the land) are a source of knowledge; they are entities to which we are in relationship. One of the ways we can communicate (or dialogue) to better make meaning from these relationships with the land is to embrace a holistic approach to learning that values emotions and multi-sensory inquiry. I value and encourage creative projects from students, bring different media into teaching to help engage students in different ways of learning, and center their well-being and relationships to each other as crucial for how they come to new knowledge and make meaning from our time together.
Indigenous education values curiosity, not mastery. I invite students not to come to me with answers, but instead more questions in their discussions, writing, and other work. Answers often tend to make moves toward permanence and thus limit the possibilities of re-examination. Indigenous education embraces curiosity, not mastery. We ask questions of the world around us and we seek to understand through bridging our relationships to each other—and our other-than-human relatives.
LAND PEDAGOGY AND HOLISM
Our other-than-human relatives (i.e. the land) are a source of knowledge; they are entities to which we are in relationship. One of the ways we can communicate (or dialogue) to better make meaning from these relationships with the land is to embrace a holistic approach to learning that values emotions and multi-sensory inquiry. I value and encourage creative projects from students, bring different media into teaching to help engage students in different ways of learning, and center their well-being and relationships to each other as crucial for how they come to new knowledge and make meaning from our time together.