Land and Place as Principal Investigator: Turning the Research Spiral
Research Symposium:
2017 Research Symposium: San Juan, Puerto Rico (Virtual Symposium)Presenters
Marna Hauk,
Institute for Earth Regenerative Studies & Prescott College
Amanda Kippen,
City of Watsonville
Amanda Leetch,
Prescott College
Mandisa Wood,
Napa Valley College
Abstract
Imagine a future in which land and place increasingly serve as co-researchers or principal investigators in environmental and sustainability education research. Land-based pedagogy, critical place inquiry, indigenous knowledge systems and indigenous ways of knowing, feminist materialisms, bioculturally responsive curriculum development, nature as teacher, terrapsychology, living systems ethical research considerations, and Gaian methods converge. These slides and briefing paper help explore questions of consent, data-gathering, authorship, and ethics through experiential, collaborative dialogue with examples, paradigms, and methods. Participants walk away with knowledge of effective practice and a resource bibliography to continue to innovate away from anthropocentric assumptions in environmental and sustainability education and towards more inclusive paradigms, methodologies, lenses, and frames for higher quality research.