Teaching the Kinship Worldview without Misappropriating Indigeneity

In this episode of the BustEDpencils Pod, Tim and Johnny are joined by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) to explore the connections between Indigenous ways of Knowing and the act of teaching and learning in traditional public schools. 

What can an American fifth-grade science teacher do when confronted with the goal of planning to teach state standards while at the same time teaching nature and spirit-based ecology unit?  Run away right?  Don’t Misappropriate! Stick to the standards and play it safe?

Here is an invitation from Four Arrows to lean into the “spirit” of transformative teaching and learning. 

Why should you accept this invitation? 

Who else is going to save the world?

 

Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), also known as Don Jacobs, has been an educator for four decades. Previously Director of Education at Oglala Lakota College, he is currently a professor in Fielding Graduate University’s Educational Leadership for Change doctoral program. Selected by AERO as one of “27 visionaries in education” he is the author of 24 books, including Restoring the Kinship Worldview, selected by UC Berkeley’s Science Center for the Greater Good as one of the top “Thought-provoking, inspiring and practice” science books of 2022. A musician, surfer, horseman and environmental activist, he lives in Jalisco Mexico where he uses Indigenous worldview as part of his work in creating a marine sanctuary on the Pacific coast of Jalisco.

Resources:

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/biodiversity-un-report-indigenous-worldview/

 

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/our_favorite_books_of_2022

 

https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/186438

 

https://youtu.be/QkQTeVmHn7M

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(Quinn_novel)