Volume 9, Number 2, 2023

EN:

This article aims to offer a broad theoretical engagement with the Haudenosaunee Ohén:ton Karihwatéhkwen (Thanksgiving Address) and the practice of giving thanks as a foundational Indigenous Knowledge education practice for elementary school age children. We propose a critical rethinking of the practice of the Land Acknowledgement and instead put forward the Thanksgiving Address as a way to center Indigenous Knowledge practices and education in school systems. We provide a brief overview of the history and practice of the Thanksgiving Address, and a critical examination of institutionalized land acknowledgments. The work of educators at the Jackman Institute for Child Study with land acknowledgements and the Thanksgiving Address offers insight into land and place-based pedagogical approaches that take up Indigenous knowledge education and challenges coopted practices of Indigenous education.

EN:

Although a child’s prerogative to know their rights is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and other documents such as the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child, child rights are rarely introduced to children as part of their formal learning experience in school. Children are deemed unable to understand the concepts of rights and responsibilities (Alderson, 2008; Jerome, 2018) and educators do not know how to integrate them into their teaching. This lack of child rights education means children do not possess the awareness and knowledge needed to claim and exercise their rights (Covell et al., 2017; Wabwile, 2016). Drawing on a case study conducted in Uganda and Canada, this paper explores ways that participatory, empowering, multimodal, and contextually responsive approaches to child rights education enables children and their teachers to meaningfully explore and learn about children’s rights.

EN:

This article draws on Paul Farmer’s ideas of accompaniment (2011) and “expert mercy” (2020, para. 2) and La Paperson’s (2010) notion of the “violence of mercy” (p. 25) to demonstrate how the short-term, outsider service-learning response to the 2010 Haitian earthquake does not benefit community-identified needs. This is done by investigating the best practices of the Haiti Compact, a cohort of U.S. colleges and universities and an alternative break nonprofit operating short-term, outsider service-learning initiatives in post-earthquake Haiti in thoughtful ways intending to help with the recovery efforts while meaningfully contributing service via the routine presence of international volunteers. Despite good intentions, their material practices of service-learning risk harm for community partners and fail to meet established best practice goals. By examining the work of service-learning educators who commit to best practices, we can understand the limits of possibility for the pedagogy and point to alternatives that offer merciful responses to communities in crisis.

EN:

This field report documents—through the use of graphic recordings—the “Leading in Extraordinary Times” webinar series that ran throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Hosted by a team in the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, Canada, this series was notable for its use of a graphic recorder who joined each webinar and produced an image drawn in real time. We felt it was essential to document stories from this historical moment, not only through words and audio-visual recordings, but also through images. Following the webinar, each image was shared with participants, along with the video recording. At that time, free special topic webinars open to the public were still relatively novel. The success of this webinar series demonstrated that people were yearning for meaningful ways to connect online to reduce isolation and continue learning as wave after wave of the pandemic hit. We, therefore, saw a role we could play in both engaging and building community while hosting relevant, helpful, and timely dialogues throughout the pandemic. A summary of each webinar topic, together with the graphics and links to webinar recordings, are included in the report.