Wayfinding for the Continuation of Life: A Curriculum Inquiry to Enrich Experiences and Renew Relations in Outdoor Education
Date
2022-08
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Abstract
This research addresses the crucial concern that dominant cultural values, naturalized in curriculum and pedagogy, support experiences that reinforce a type of human being who has lost their way within an ecological web. Deep separations exist between humans and wider kinship relations which reinforces human-centric individualistic understandings of wellness. In outdoor education, this tradition often makes place-based ecologies a passive backdrop to human pursuits. This inquiry is committed to a deeper learning process—wayfinding—to enliven places as living curriculum and to attend to healthier, more ethical, relationships with what gives and sustains life. As a non-Indigenous, Canadian, researcher and educator coming into relationship with Indigenous wisdom teachings, wayfinding is framed by tenets of hermeneutic philosophy and nuanced by teachings of sacred ecology and being a good treaty relative. Kindled through visits with nêyihaw Elder, Bob Cardinal, holistic understandings come into dialogue with two curriculum-linked outdoor education programs, including three different trips. With 16 secondary school students, this inquiry involved eight-days canoeing in Killarney Provincial Park, seven-days backpacking in the Adirondack High Peaks, and 28-days sea kayaking along the coastline of Anticosti Island. Embodying the process alongside students, by way of humbly enacting teachings from Elder Cardinal, practices of narrative mapping, group conversations, observations and field notes, and interviews gathered understandings of how students perceive and interact with the more-than-human world. The immersion surfaced distinct yet layered pedagogical insights: understanding the problem of relationship denial, coming to recognize relations, experiencing the flow of kinship relationality, and sustaining good relations. This dissertation responds to the question: What is the curricular and pedagogical significance of wayfinding as an experience in outdoor education? By reflecting on the learning with students, and connecting it to wider curricular conversations, principles for wayfinding are offered to inspire renewed relations and to support more balanced ways of experiencing toward the continuation of life.
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Wayfinding, Curriculum, Relationships, Kinship, Treaty, Outdoor Education, Holism, Experiences, Hermeneutics
Citation
MacDonald, J. C. (2022). Wayfinding for the continuation of life: a curriculum inquiry to enrich experiences and renew relations in outdoor education (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.