Nicholas Ng-A-Fook

Provoking EcoJustice—Taking Citizen Science and Youth Activism Beyond the School Curriculum

In this three-part chapter, the authors draw on their own educational experiences to exemplify how ecojustice, citizen science, and youth activism come together to be enacted in three different (but interconnected) settings: a youth expedition to the Arctic (Part I), a class of elementary student teachers working on a media project in collaboration with a local aboriginal community (Part II), and a lesson on the social aspects of “genetic disorders” with a class of high school biology student teachers (Part III). Adopting a broader definition of education (in opposition to schooling) across all sections, we seek to illustrate ways in which teachers, students, and community members can collaboratively expand the implications of science education for promoting a society that is more socio-environmentally sound.

Living a Curriculum of Hyph-E-Nations: Diversity, Equity, and Social Media

Abstract This study considers the complexities of living a cross-cultural curriculum within the multicultural contexts of Canada through following the experience of some first generation immigrants in a project that employs the multi-dimensional space of the Internet and cyber social communities within a vocational public school in Ontario. Disrupting traditional conceptions of students’ production of literacies, the project seeks to rework the boundaries that define multiculturalism as a series of homogeneous hyphenated spaces from which students who are racialized as non-white are expected to speak. Here we consider, “what is at play in the hyphen?” and “how might the networked classroom space be considered a hyph-e-nation?” To explore these questions, we begin with an overview of multicultural education in Canada. We then employ a reading of Third Spaces and quantum physics to reread how students might open up dual Third Spaces through self representations in a social networking space: first through the social network as a Third Space and second, as certain kinds of learners caught in the hyph-e-nated middle of Canadian multiculturalism in an Ontario classroom. The case studies are followed by a discussion that problematizes discourses of comparison between cultural communities of which students with many cultural backgrounds and experiences are members.

Fishing for Knowledge Beyond Colonial Disciplines

In my language hunting means making love with the animals. The hunt is a courtship, a sexual act. It is all a matter of disguise and smell. Make yourself attractive to your prey. Paint yourself in colors that arouse them. We know which scents attract which creature. We know which fish like to be tickled and where…we know how to remove our own scent so that an animal will not get wind of us. We rub ourselves as a sexual partner. It is always necessary to study which animal will risk his hide for what. You have to understand the desires of your prey.

Indigenizing Ivory Towers

Last year we gathered on unceded ancestral Anishinaabeg territories of the Algonquin (Omaamiiwininii) First Nations people at least once a month to share stories. We discussed our progressive struggles in relation to our respective programs, positionality as Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues. We shared conversations about different Indigenous readings and witnessed the sustenance of our collegial relationships transform into valued friendships.

Doing Oral History Education Toward Reconciliation

In this chapter, we explore the (im-)possibilities of using oral histories with teacher candidates as a praxis of reconciliation. As part of a larger research project looking at the role of technology in history education more broadly, we sought to better understand how the production of oral histories by a cohort of teacher candidates with Aboriginal community members both helped students develop a relationship with the production of oral historical content and, concurrently, helped students develop an understanding of the need to listen to the stories of indigenous community members as part of a broader ethical commitment to reconciliation. We begin by looking at results from a survey that highlights gaps in teacher candidate knowledge about the history of residential schooling. Following this, we critically engage history education practice in Canada with a specific discussion about the proliferation of historical thinking and its ethical limits as they pertain to teaching something like the history of residential schooling. In the final section, we explore how oral history education might enhance teacher candidate capacities to address the ethical obligation to reread and rewrite the past as a praxis of reconciliation.