EDDE806 Winter 2024

Athabasca University

I loved Dr S's question to Dr. T about educational research ethics in the context of K-12 students and how artfully he responded. It strikes me that co-design might be a path toward including more students in educational research (McKercher, 2020).

In response to Dr. T's question of learning theory. It is not so simple as to name a learning theory. My scholarship of teaching and learning is underpinned by the idea of living pedagogy (Coleman, 2017). My theoretical lens’ begins wide, weaving a tapestry of critical, emancipatory, transformative, interdisciplinary theories into my understanding of intersectional ecofeminism (Brown & Brown, 2009; hooks, 1994, 2000, 2003, 2010; Plumwood, 2003; Meadows, 1989, 1999; Styres, 2017; Vergès, 2021; Zinga, 2019). I move toward anti-colonial, post-human theories as ground shifts and reshapes in other directions during the mid third decade of the twentieth century. These are not the good times as war rages in many parts of the world, children are hungry, exploited, used as human shields, and taken from families (United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF], 2023). Women's rights are at risk or lost in many parts of the world, faith informed hate is on the rise as the poisonous pedagogy of righteousness and supremacy threaten social justice and the future sustainably of our planet; Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLBGTQ+ people continue to go missing and murdered (Commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls [CNIMMIWG], 2019; CNIMMIWG, 2019a; Working Group on the Discrimination against Women and Girls [WGDWG], et al., 2023). 

Soaked in a relational ontology, I engage in activism by way of a digital dissertation to open space to reimagine and disrupt the dissertation into the 21st century (Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, 2018; Carnagie Project on the Education Doctorate, n.d.). 

I create this digital space to invite you to be an "active participant, not a passive consumer" (hooks, 1994, p. 14) of EDDE806 during the winter 2024 term. I have long been a fringe traveler, a border walker, a boundary traveler, a disruptor, a co-conspirator. Here, I invite you to consider your relationship with open and distance learning as I offer these questions as an informal invitation into collaborative autoethnography:

What qualities or values come to mind when you think about what culturally safe online learning space looks like? (this informal poll remains open if you want to add words):   https://www.menti.com/aletm3pp4dgf 

References:

Brown, F., & Brown, Y. K. (2009). Staying the course, staying alive coastal First Nations fundamental truths: Biodiversity, stewardship, and sustainability. In Biodiversity British Columbia. http://www.biodiversitybc.org/assets/Default/BBC_Staying_the_Course_Web.pdf

Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. (2018). Canadian Association for Graduate Studies : Report of the Task Force on the Dissertation. https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.150.136/bba.0c2.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CAGS-Dissertation-Task-Force-Report-1.pdf

Carnagie Project on the Education Doctorate. (n.d.). What is the CEPD Framework. https://cped.memberclicks.net/assets/CPED_Documents/Marketing_Promotion/CPED_Framework_Poster_Final.pdf

Coleman, K. (2017). An A/R/Tist in wonderland: Exploring identity, creativity, and digital portfolios as a/r/tographer [University of Melbourne, Australia]. http://www.artographicexplorations.com/

Commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Reclaiming Power and Place. Volume 1a (Vol. 1a). https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf

Commissioners of the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019a). Reclaiming power and place: National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Volume 1b (Vol. 1b). Author. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf

hooks,  bell. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.

hooks,  bell. (2000). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. South End Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743189-3

hooks,  bell. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge.

hooks,  bell. (2010). Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical wisdom. Routledge.

McKercher, K. (2020). Beyond sticky notes. Doing co-design for real: mindsets, methods, and movements. Beyond Sticky Notes.

Meadows, D. (1989). Thoughts while cleaning the living room: Domestic work is undervalued - but doesn’t need to be. Donella Meadows Archives. https://donellameadows.org/archives/thoughts-while-cleaning-the-living-room-domestic-work-is-undervalued-but-it-doesnt-need-to-be/

Meadows, D. (1999). Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system. https://donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Leverage_Points.pdf

Plumwood, V. (2003). Feminism and the mastery of nature. Routledge.  https://takku.net/mediagallery/mediaobjects/orig/f/f_val-plumwood-feminism-and-the-mastery-of-nature-pdf.pdf

Styres, S. (2017). Pathways for remembering and recognizing Indigenous thought in education: Philosophies of Iethi’nihsténha Ohwentsia’kékha (land). University of Toronto Press.

United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF]. (n.d.). UNICEF in Emergencies. https://www.unicef.org/emergencies

Vergès, F. (2021). A decolonial feminism (Translated). Pluto Press.

Zinga, D. (2019). Teaching as the creation of ethical space. In H. Tomlins Jahnke, S. Styres, S. Lilley, & D. Zinga (Eds.), Indigenous education: New directions in theory and practice (pp. 277–309). University of Alberta Press.