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Learning Cycles: Enriching Ways of Knowing Place

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2020

Sandra Wooltorton Open the ORCID record for Sandra Wooltorton [Opens in a new window] ,
Peta White Open the ORCID record for Peta White [Opens in a new window] ,
Marilyn Palmer  and
Len Collard
Sandra Wooltorton*
Affiliation:
Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia, Broome Campus, Broome, Western Australia
Peta White
Affiliation:
School of Education, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Marilyn Palmer
Affiliation:
Edith Cowan University, Bunbury, Western Australia
Len Collard
Affiliation:
4School of Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Email: Sandra.Wooltorton@nd.edu.au
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Abstract

We share a story about a katitjin bidi, a learning journey in a bioregion with a multimillennial Aboriginal history. As part of this katitjin bidi, three environmental educators implemented a place-based pedagogy called ‘becoming family with place’, while a fourth participated in the preplanning and final reflective stages. Our story includes cycles of ways of knowing, resulting in an enriched practice of being-with our place. Our story is underpinned by Aboriginal epistemologies to reimagine regenerative futures linked with those of ‘the long now’ — the past, present and future here now. Ours is a particular story that lives in a particular southwest place. There are layers of meanings that live right across the landscapes in the southwest of Australia — and many of them are hiding in full view. You might like to try this pedagogy in school learning, teacher education, and community education contexts.

Keywords

culturejusticeenvironmental educationepistemologymethodologyplaceecological spirituality
Type
Research-Practice Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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