Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Education
Honoring The Gift: An Epistolary Exploration Of An Alternative Approach To Learning Grounded In Reciprocity And Gratitude, Tegan Keyes
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
In this project, I explore what it means to honor knowledge as a gift. This document includes a selection of letters I wrote to my teachers to express my gratitude to them, along with a written narrative in which I describe my vision of an alternative approach to undergraduate education that centers gratitude, reciprocity, and self-determination. This narrative weaves together lessons from emergence theory, Indigenous systems of education, and gift economies to tell a story of a life-sustaining education system that is grounded in the understanding that knowledge is a gift.
Eco-Justice Poetry: An Emotive Transgression, Nicola H. Follis
Eco-Justice Poetry: An Emotive Transgression, Nicola H. Follis
Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays
Dualistic value-hierarchies that are deeply embedded within Western culture assign certain identities, traits and ways of knowing as superior to others. According to eco-justice frameworks, these hierarchies allow some humans to be valued over others and all humans to be valued over the Earth. I specifically talk about the mind/body and human/nature split as two dualities present in Western discourse. Emotions are deemed inferior to the mind’s rational and objective ways of knowing while humans are considered separate and superior to nature. I argue that eco-justice poetry acts as a small transgression against a value- hierarchized culture that devalues emotional …
Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Empathy-Based Education In The Modern Zoo, Annika Brinkley
Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Empathy-Based Education In The Modern Zoo, Annika Brinkley
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Approximately 10,000 zoos exist in the world, attracting an estimated 600 million visitors annually. At the most basic level, these zoos are tourist destinations dedicated to assembling animals in confinement from around the world. The arguably most modern and conservation-minded zoos today form the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. In January of 2019, twenty AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums created the Advancing Conservation through Empathy Network (ACE). AZA facilities that are part of the ACE Network engage visitors through a process known as Empathy-Based Education (EBE). EBE encourages compassion and emotional connection to animals by having the visitor take the place …
Challenging Deficit Discourses: Human Services And Trauma-Informed Practice, Brielle Lamphere
Challenging Deficit Discourses: Human Services And Trauma-Informed Practice, Brielle Lamphere
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study by Kaiser-Permanente has significantly influenced trauma practice in many contexts. As a medicalized model, ACEs was intended to collect population information about traumatic experiences. However, many of its current applications are harmful in practice and in need of critique. More specifically, school systems must reconsider how ACEs is used in curriculum since providing screenings or “trauma-informed” models off of this study often portrays trauma as a deficit. By carefully examining my own education on ACEs and trauma theories at Western Washington University, alongside the experiences of other students and several professors, this deficit discourse …
The Queer Agenda: A Fluid Education, Charlee Corra
The Queer Agenda: A Fluid Education, Charlee Corra
Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays
Throughout this paper, I weave together various aspects of my identity in order to investigate how fluidity and questioning form an undercurrent of my being and therefore of the way I teach. Through metaphors and narratives of my experiences within environmental education and experiential learning I seek clarity and expansiveness rather than definitive answers, leaning into the certainty that change is inevitable and there are rarely any static answers. Using queerness, Judaism, and my scientific background as the layers of my unique identity lens and positionality, I explore the ways in which the power of questioning, critical thinking, democratic education …
Farm Camp Fun, Rebecca Moore
Farm Camp Fun, Rebecca Moore
Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays
This piece is a personal narrative about the journey of a young woman in the constant process of becoming an educator. The wonder of children is what drives this individual, discussed here through the lenses of thought of adultism and with a focus on play. The fallacies of higher education and the systemic injustices the US is built on are touched upon, with specific reference to the industrialized standardized school system. The author promotes the notion that this nation needs educators who see the inherent wisdom in children, because kids are the ones who are the hope for bringing this …
White Guy Hiking: How I Learned To Think Critically About My Ecological Identity, Nick Engelfried
White Guy Hiking: How I Learned To Think Critically About My Ecological Identity, Nick Engelfried
Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays
Our encounters with the “natural” world are made possible by a complex of historical, political, social, and economic forces that shape each person’s ecological identity, or the way in which we relate to nature. I grew up in a White, middle-class family with easy access to green spaces, and this contributed to my growing up to become an environmental activist and educator. I now realize the doors which opened to allow me to embark on this path did not do so by chance and that many other people are prevented from engaging with nature in the ways I did as …