Incorporating Multiple Knowledge Systems: The Future of Education

What's next? 

Given our positive experience with the co-design process and the many scholars who recognize the power of co-design in generating innovative ideas and actions (Lam, Zamenopoulos, Kelemen & Hoo Na, 2017; Parsons, Fisher, & Nalau, 2016), we believe that engaging in a participatory co-design process (Bang & Vossough, 2016) is the most inclusive and ethical way to continue developing this series. We come from a variety of backgrounds, some of which hold power and privilege in our society (for example, we all identify as white, some of us as male), and as such cannot ethically be the sole designers of this series. The priorities of the Indigenous nations on whose lands we live and teach will be central to the decision making process moving forward and growing relationships with our Indigenous neighbors is the next crucial step in our design process. Specifically, we would like to grow relationships with the Duwamish and Suquamish Tribes as we engage in the participatory co-design process, as it is on their lands we live, learn, and teach. The need to form authentic relationships with our Indigenous neighbors and to honor their sovereignty while engaging with this work on their own terms cannot be understated. 

Your financial support for this project will strengthen our commitment to reciprocal relationships with our Indigenous neighbors. As we build our relationships we hope to identify tribal mentors who will work with us to coordinate the co-design process. We will honor our growing relationships through compensation for consultation and through traditions of gift giving as we create time and space to engage in crucial conversations around environmental injustice, equity, and the future of education. 

Goals: 

We honor the sovereignty and decision making power of Indigenous Tribes, and commit to use our privilege as white scholars to direct UW resources in support of Tribal goals. 

The long-term goals of the workshop series are to promote Indigenous futures by incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems in educational practices. Central to this is supporting UW Teacher Preparation programs in preparing teachers to teach directly on and with the Land. Guiding and supporting teachers as they learn about local Indigenous Tribes, knowledge systems, and sovereignty, while being honest about and critical of historical inequities and violence against Indigenous peoples is a step towards this goal. We are excited about potential opportunities to engage pre-service teachers at UW, teachers implementing the Since Time Immemorial Curriculum and teachers in outdoor education organizations and forestry schools in Washington in this work.

Short-term goals of this portion of the project include building partnerships with local Indigenous communities and designing an equitable participatory co-design process as we continue to develop the aforementioned professional development series. At the end of the funding cycle we will be ready to start co-designing, at which point we will seek additional sources of financial support. 

Theoretical and/or empirical justification: 

The narrow mainstream view of what counts as knowledge and teaching upholds systems of oppression, and it is these systems that we seek to disrupt. Even when teachers are pushed to imagine incorporating multiple knowledge systems into their practices, they are often ill equipped to do so. This workshop series has the potential to have a significant impact on the way teachers conceptualize their practices and place in the world, both culturally and environmentally. 

While nature-based education has been shown to enhance child development (Bratman, Hamilton, & Daily, 2012; O'Brien & Murray, 2007) and build a healthy environmental ethos (O'Brien & Murray, 2007; White, 2004), there is also risk for harm (Nxumalo, 2018). This includes non-reciprocal relationships with the environment and the perpetuation of messages of human dominance over nature by neglecting Native knowledges and ways to live in relation to the land. Moving toward a vision of living in reciprocity with all beings on Earth will not happen unless more teachers engage their students directly with the land and share more generative understandings of humanity's relationship with nature. 

To be accountable to sustainable growth in this field, the co-design process with Indigenous mentors is vital. Co-design recognizes the importance of ontological and epistemological differences (Parsons, Fisher, & Nalau, 2016), empowers groups who are typically underrepresented and creates opportunities for learning from and with community assets that already exist (Lam, Zamenopoulos, Kelemen & Hoo Na, 2017). 

Connection to UN sustainable development goals: 

Teaching about and with the land alongside the Indigenous peoples who have lived on and cared for the land since time immemorial provides great opportunities for teachers to promote a more sustainable relationship with Earth and with each other. This project aligns with many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals including Quality Education, Sustainable Cities & Communities, Life on Land, and Responsible Consumptions and Production Practices. 

Peoples' relationship with land has become disrupted in our fast-paced age of technology. A critical step in moving toward a more sustainable future is to deepen peoples' relationship to nature, forests, lands, waters, plants, animals and all beings that call Earth home. This professional development series will guide educators in guiding their students in deepening their relationships with these beings. People impacted by this series will know firsthand how to live more harmoniously with nature, understand the unjust histories and ongoing violence towards the Indigenous peoples on whose land they are learning, and be active in living in ways that center Indigenous peoples' ways of knowing, being, self-determination, and futures. 

Teachers will have the support of Indigenous partnerships to guide their students, who will guide their parents, who will encourage their children. As this cycle grows so too does our network of people who deeply understand our interconnections. These networks support each other as we care for all of those with whom we are connected to on Earth, human and more than human. We hope to spark significant pedagogical shifts in western teaching practices toward those that incorporate multiple knowledge systems which cultivate more reciprocal relationships with land. Igniting this spark is a significant step in moving toward a more sustainable future.