EDDE806 Winter 2024

Athabasca University

I'll start by responding to T''s email to those of us who were there. We were looking at the research onion and the idea of abductive reasoning. T points out that abduction "is derived from induction" coming forth as the most likely result or cause given the information at hand and the circumstance one is in. From an anatomy perspective, to abduct is to move the limb away from the body and to adduct is to bring the limb to or across the body. To abduct is to take away -- you have a puzzle, rule out what it's not and decide what it might be... what is your best guess -- and is it the best guess given the information and circumstance at hand? Here we bring a thread of abductive, or diagnostic reasoning into the research onion...Here we support the development of critical thinking.

AG presented her research tonight. The topics she and I tackle are not for the timid and must be approached with care and respect. AG takes and invites others to take a hard look in the mirror as she seeks to understand barriers to implementing Indigenous ways of knowing in the blended K-12 classroom. She moves toward exploring implicit bias with non-Indigenous educators to better understand their resistance to bringing Indigenous ways of knowing into K-12 blended learning environments. Her goal is to support teachers to take that look into the mirror Paulette Regan (2010) talks about in Unsettling the Settler Within when she asks:

How can we, as non-Indigenous people, unsettle ourselves to name and then transform the settler - the colonizer who lurks within - not just in words but by our actions, as we confront the history of colonization, violence, racism, and injustice that remains part of the IRS legacy today? (p. 11).