Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Trees In Our City How A Tree And A Small Patch Of Dirt Inspired A Classroom, Zuleika Hines

Occasional Paper Series

As a new Director in a new school, I knew that I wanted the children to have a curiosity for nature. But to lead the children to a place of discovery, they would need the opportunity to observe, play, and engage in elements of nature that would support hands-on activities both in the classroom and outside. When the opportunity came for me to build my own early childhood program, I knew that I had a unique opportunity to incorporate elements of nature in the design of the classroom. But I wanted nature to be local and the trees of our …

Arboreal Methodologies: Getting Lost To Explore The Potential Of The Non-Innocence Of Nature, Jayne Osgood, Suzanne Axelsson, Tamsin Cavaliero, Máire Hanniffy, Susan Mcdonnell

Occasional Paper Series

This paper recounts a workshop that took place in a polytunnel in a forest school in Sligo, North-West Ireland on a cold day in early-December. The event sought to materialize ‘arboreal methodologies’ (Osgood, 2019; Osgood & Odegard, 2022; Osgood & Axelsson, 2023) which are characterized by the enactment of feminist new materialist praxis to engage in world-making practices (Haraway, 2008) intended to unsettle recognizable tropes of biophilia that have come to frame both child and nature in narrow ways. The arboreal methodologies that participants were invited to mobilise were situated, material, affective, and involved metaphorical and material practices of ‘getting …

The Refugee Trees: Treescapes As Intercultural Bridges, Kostas Magos, Irida Tsevreni

Occasional Paper Series

Forests, groves, parks as well as any area with fewer or more trees can be a suitable field for students' environmental awareness. Even a single tree as a subject of thoughtful observation can give children opportunities for discussion around many issues such as those of environmental protection, endangered species, human's relationship with nature and many more. Ιn addition to environmental awareness, trees can also contribute to the intercultural awareness of students. In all cultures without exception, trees and plants have a particularly important place and there are many myths, stories and traditions associated with them. Also, the great variety of …

Treescapes, Alexandra Délano Alonso, Marco Saavedra

Occasional Paper Series

We’ve each been looking to the trees for a long time. One of us painting, the other writing, with, by the trees. In the middle of the city and its noise, finding the branches. Standing, inquiring, returning. Why the trees, how we belong to each other, is a question worth asking again and again. These paintings and poems are part of an ongoing conversation, of many layers, of many trees, of what we lose and find under their canopies, in blooms, in dirt & seasons. What walking among the trees has taught us is that every art is an invitation …

In The Park: A Treescapes Discussion With Rex, Melanie L. Riley

Occasional Paper Series

In this video, composed of still images and video footage, two-year-old Rex leads his mother on a playful exploration through a leafy area of Alexandra Park, located in the Stockport borough of Greater Manchester in England. The park has a wide range of amenities including a reservoir, wooded area, skate park, and play park, and offers a safe and calm but exciting space for visitors. Rex enjoys being among the trees. He imagines owls in the treetops and stops to admire the tree's bark, describing it as bumpy. Rex enjoys splashing in puddles, playing peekaboo behind a tree, and running …

Singing In Dark Times: Improvisational Singing With Children Amidst Ecological Crisis, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson

Occasional Paper Series

Through this research-creation project -- which is represented by a process-driven ten-minute video -- the author asks what ways of knowing emerge when children and adults, more-than-human, and inhuman engage in improvised singing together in an urban park? This project recognizes our current "dark times" within ecological collapse and operates from a space that hopes to build relationality with sonic ecologies through listening-and-singing experiences, while centering the voices of children and other singers within the ecologies we sing in-and-with.

Painting Our Treescapes: A Visual, Gretel Olson, Ingrid Olson, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson

Occasional Paper Series

Two children (ages 6 and 9) represent an afternoon spent in their urban, wintery treescape through visual art, photo documentation, and written narrative. The first piece, "My Imaginary Forest", considers the seasons, animals, and issues of artistic representation of nature. The second piece describes the relationship between a favourite tree and a child, and considers others -- both present and future -- who also occupy "Our Knotty Tree". All of the words, visual art, and photo selection are those of the children.

Trees And Us: Learning About/From Trees And Treescapes From Primary School Children In The United Kingdom, Samyia Ambreen, Khawla Badwan, Kate Pahl

Occasional Paper Series

In recent years, there is a growing interest for attending to children’s voice in environmental research. The theoretical developments in knowledge about children view them as social agents who can make sense of their own experiences in relation to the environment surrounded them. In this report, we add reflections from an ongoing project “voices of the future” which aims to reimagine future of treescapes in the UK. Using examples from two primary schools in the northwest of England, we discuss children’s knowledge about trees and how children talk about their lived experiences with trees. Centring on our field work experiences, …

Schools Are Where Trees And Children’S Livelihoods Go To Die: A Teacher’S Reflection On Revitalizing Land-Based Education, Tiffani Marie

Occasional Paper Series

Plainly said: schools are where trees and children’s livelihoods go to die; both cut down, gutted and their desecrated remains used for the maintenance and reproduction of the establishment. Through its critique of schooling—its ties to individualism, harmful social reproduction, colonial foundations, and centering of white supremacist ideologies, this paper makes the case for land-based education as a conduit toward healing, innovation and connection. It draws links between the irreconcilable nature of youth wellness and schooling, while centering pedagogical reverence for the natural world, particularly connection with tree spaces, as part of a critical educational trajectory toward symbiotic relationship with …

Traces Of Worms, Zoey Ashcroft

Occasional Paper Series

The setting was a day spent planting trees outside the school grounds. As Zoey and her classmates planted the trees, they also recorded the activity in their notebooks. The children noticed the worms that were wriggling in the ground. Zoey recorded an activity in which leaves and then worms were lifted from the earth, and the worms then explored the page where they were put. Afterward, the worms were lifted off the page and put back on the ground. The traces of the worms were left on the page. We were left with traces of worms.

Introduction: Learning With Treescapes In Environmentally Endangered Times, Samyia Ambreen, Kate Pahl

Occasional Paper Series

As we write this in a cool and rainy north of England, the planet is burning. Some of the highest temperatures in Earth’s history are currently being recorded in Death Valley, US. Italy is recording temperatures of 118 degrees farenheit (48 degrees Celsius). Rhodes is on fire. I (Kate) remember when I realized the extent of the disaster that is the climate emergency coming upon us. It was listening to a geologist describing the slow and then very fast loss of a glacier in the High Arctic. We are realizing our world is slipping away from us.

An Inquiry Into Hope And Imagination In Jesuit Education: Ignatian Design Thinking As A Lens For Exploration, Stacy Neier Beran, Patrick M. Green

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Hope and imagination are foundational to a Jesuit education, and as central tenets, inform teaching and learning through Ignatian pedagogy. The authors explore hope and imagination in the Jesuit context through the lens of scholar-practitioner inquiry, drawing from the local context and practice of an Ignatian design thinking course as a source of knowledge. This inquiry approach is rooted in practice-based research, and situates scholarly exploration through lines of inquiry and problems of practice, specifically exploring how design thinking fosters curiosity and creates space for teaching imagination and hope. The authors draw on their teaching experiences, course design, and professional …

Pursuing Happiness: Teaching Scientific-Based Strategies For Subjective Well-Being In The Ela Classroom, Adam V. Piccoli

New Jersey English Journal

Increased rates of mental health issues have hurt student engagement levels. This article offers research-based strategies designed to improve subjective well-being for students. Practical examples of how to apply these strategies in the English Language Arts classroom are provided.

Writing Philosophical Autoethnography: A Review, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

As a book reviewer, I am penning down my thoughts restlessly on the book, Writing Philosophical Autoethnography, with a diverse audience in mind, encompassing readers, writers, and researchers of all levels from various disciplines in the social sciences and education. This groundbreaking work, edited by Alec Grant and published by Routledge, masterfully blends philosophy and autoethnography (Grant, 2023). The book distinguishes itself through its philosophical depth, with each chapter demonstrating a profound engagement with philosophical debates and theories rooted in Western philosophical traditions. This approach sets it apart from other autoethnographic works where philosophical concepts often appear to be …

Secondary Science A Vehicle For Peace And Conflict Resolution Education, Pamelia N. Khaled

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

The Proposal’s Title

Secondary Science a Vehicle for Peace and Conflict Resolution Education

Keywords

peace, conflict resolution, secondary science, secular, religious, ethnography, Bangladesh

Abstract

This article is based on an ethnographic study in Bangladesh that analyzed Grade 10 students' perspectives on the learning of science regarding peace and conflict resolution, and the use of science in their everyday lives to negotiate peace and resolve conflicts. The in-class delivery of the secondary science curriculum in Religious and Secular educational streams was documented, including the teachers' pedagogical approaches to teaching science; the students' preferred approaches to learning science; and the students' conception …

Expanding Sites For Peacebuilding: Decolonizing Education And Research To Retrieve Cultural And Critical Sources Of Knowledge, Anya Russian, Marc B. Kuly, Heidi Lamb, Jennifer Tesoro

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

This panel considers the ideological, intellectual, personal, and practical dimensions of peacebuilding. It explores how various educational spaces, self-inquiry, and theory can bring attention to cultural predicaments and communities that are frequently neglected, omitted, or misunderstood in peacebuilding.

• In settler-colonial states, schooling is a process of naturalizing inequality which can be exposed and potentially interrupted through the application of peace and conflict studies methods and theories.
• As academic institutions seek to address gender-based violence taking place both on campuses and online, approaches may fall short in considering the institution’s continued entrenchment in colonialism. Further decolonization is needed to better address …

Teachers-As-Designer In Culturally Revitalizing And Sustaining Indigenous Education, Joshua Colin Krause

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Despite centuries of colonial attempts to assimilate and eradicate Indigenous ways of life and tongues through the institutions of schooling, communities, students, and teacher-designers are embracing culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogies to design curricula from community-driven outcomes backward. Sustaining and revitalizing curricula are place and people-specific and cannot be bought off the shelf, and research in original curriculum design points to the complexities that teacher-designers contend with as they seek community input and put pen to paper to design teaching and learning that is rooted in student identity, holistic wellness, and academic preparedness toward community ends. Research into expert teacher-designers' …

The Urgent Need For Preparing Anti-Oppressive Citizens In Elementary Social Studies: A Conceptual And Pragmatic Framework For Educators, Erin Piedmont

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Indeterminate Relationship Between Politics And Pedagogy. A Response To "Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community”, Derek R. Ford

Democracy & Education

In their article, Pechtelidis and Kioupkiolis added a case study to research at the intersection of politics, pedagogy, and the commons. Examining the Little Tree Community to deepen our understanding of how education can operate as a common practice, they raised key questions about the political possibility of subjectification in an education in the commons, leaving the question of politics and pedagogy open. Case studies in general, especially in the article format, require a delicate balance of theoretical exposition, contextual explication, data presentation, and analysis. In this response, I propose one way we might refine the politics assumed in the …

Land Education And Young People Working Toward Salamander: Collective Well-Being In Response To Bioindicators Of Socioenvironmental Justice, Rachael Arens, Ricardo Martinez

Democracy & Education

Our planet is facing many environmental challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and habitat, and pollution, while many of our populations are also experiencing marginalization due to poverty, race, gender, language, ability, and environmental injustices. Environmental hazards and policies often impact those in society who are most at-risk, creating a need for an environmental education (EE) movement that encourages students to challenge and regain control of a system that impacts them. Teachers can implement a reflection tool known as the SALAMANDER Collective Well-Being in Response to Bioindicators of Socioenvironmental Justice Framework to prompt students and other educators to place …