In this article, we revisit the contentious history of personification to explore its potential for shifting the aesthetics of science education. We argue that personification can act as a boundary object to open up new aesthetic possibilities for science and education, toward an aesthetics of personhood. Drawing on philosophy, Indigenous…

This article is framed in decoloniality and responds to calls for educational systems, curricula, and classroom instruction in sub-Saharan Africa and other Global South contexts to be decolonized. The article proposes the adoption of a Dagba? Indigenous philosophy--"Bilchiinsi" (ethical living)--as a relational pedagogy for transforming…

The author of this paper uses Indigenous-informed literature and explores the use of a Multispecies Collaboratory to hear place-based voices and practice ways of knowing often denied value by the mainstream. In the Indigenous nation of Australia, the author sets out to learn ways to practice environmental education that build upon aeons of…

The domestication of plants to make them suitable for consumption is a cultural event in many Indigenous cultures. The cultivation and production of food forms an important part of the worldview of Indigenous peoples. Its inclusion in formal education therefore addresses several cultural issues, fostering understanding of Indigenous life systems,…

This article focuses on a higher education pedagogy of reading the exemplary novel of Indigenous Australia, "Carpentaria" (2006) by Waanyi author, Alexis Wright. The multiply awarded and multiply translated novel gives an epic view of contemporary Aboriginal life. Its dramatization of listening relations is profoundly insightful for the…

This conversational paper between Ashwani Kumar and Shane Theunissen explores how meditative inquiry in teaching and learning can foster reverence for nature, life, and learning. Through an organic and reflective conversation rooted in Dialogical Meditative Inquiry (DMI), the authors offer a holistic exploration of the intersections between…

Calls to Indigenize the curriculum have been occurring and, indeed, increasing across Canadian universities since the release in 2015 of the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC, 2015). The present article documents the emergence at two universities of a support program for Indigenous curriculum, in the form of digital…

Purpose: Poetic inquiry is an approach that promotes alternate perspectives about what research means and speaks to more diverse audiences than traditional forms of research. Across academia, there is increasing attention to decolonising research. This reflects a shift towards research methods that recognise, acknowledge and appreciate diverse…

Science knowledge is deeply intertwined with human values, ethics and societal needs. While science is often perceived as value-neutral, the authors argue that the intertwined nature of science and values can be modelled from the early stages of education. This article shares examples of how individual, collective, and planetary values can shape…

This paper leans into alterlife (Murphy, 2017) and connectivity ontologies (Harrison, 2015) to consider the implications of more-than-witness(es/ing) (our term) on social studies education. Taking a narrative approach, we engage with three more-than-human bodies (e.g., Boulder, Forest, Document(s)) in an effort to expand how act(or/ion)s of…

In 2011, the Australian national curriculum called for the inclusion of Indigenous histories, cultures and perspectives/knowledges, prompting Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers in schools and academics within higher education have experimented with and reported upon different purposes and ways of teaching Indigenous Games. However,…

This article shares findings from an 18-month research project at Te Whai Hiringa, a primary school in Hawke's Bay, where over 90% of learners identify as Maori, or Pacific peoples. The project explored how play-based learning and culturally sustaining pedagogy can be integrated into a single, purposeful approach. Drawing on the Play-Based…

Education is the pillar of social development. Higher education in particular teaches how to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. For the better opportunities of tomorrow, forward-looking nations formulate inclusive education policies today. However, it is not uncommon to see authoritarian regimes control knowledge production and…

Indigenous umbrella scholarship speaks about Indigenous Peoples, knowledges, and cultures as a monolith instead of recognizing the specific Indigenous nations from which these peoples, knowledges, and cultures come. Indigenous umbrella scholarship was long a necessity due to the scarcity of nation-specific scholarship. In recent years, Indigenous…

This paper explores the potential for extending relational ontologies to include a specific focus on human-plant relations. We theorise the emergence of a vegetal ontology, as a novel way of working and remaking theories around human-plant relations that can be applied to the field of environmental education. A vegetal ontological approach, as…