Blenkinsop, S., & Piersol, L. (2013). Listening to the Literal: Orientations Towards How Nature Communicates. Phenomenology & Practice, 7(2), 41-60. doi:10.29173/pandpr21167This resource discusses the pedagogical practices at a public school in Maple Ridge, British Colombia with focus on place-based, ecological and imaginative learning. The methodology of the research is based on the assumption that the natural world is able to speak, suggesting that we be co-teachers with nature in a more-than-human world. By doing so, we connect to the active listening of other spiritual, sacred and Indigenous pre-linguistic states of knowing. This shifts the understanding of nature to be the ‘other’ and can thereby be utilized at the expense of human interests, instead encouraging an approach with our biospheres that stem from deep empathy, interconnectivity and responsibility. This resource also shares various modalities and ways of understanding expressed through the lived experiences of the elementary students. This resource is useful for teachers to expand and welcome diverse student orientations that are ecologically relational beyond traditional classroom structures.
Keywords: Indigenious knowledges, place-based learning, nature-based education, eco-pedagogy, BIPOC resilience
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