Disruptions at the edges: Ecotone crossing with Black and Indigenous creative pedagogues

Abstract

In this article, I lean toward the ecological site of ecotone and the act of crossing to think about the pedagogical decisions I made as a scholar and practitioner teaching Black studies and English education classes. Within the classroom, I suggest centering Black and Indigenous women’s poetry to help students think about interdependence, ecological precarity, and ethical engagements. Black and Indigenous poets invite us to move beyond our disciplines into a cultivated ecotone, or space where we can unearth anti-Blackness in environmental education and invite intellectual curiosity and self-reflection. What is documented here is how I used my location between two disciplines, and intellectual curiosity in other fields/disciplines, to activate ecotonal crossings with my students that can move us toward more transformative ways of teaching, learning, and knowing.

Keywords:

• Black studies
• critical literacy
• curriculum studies
• ecotones
• land education
• poetry
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 I am deeply grateful to Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez (2020) and Briona S. Jones (2021) for introducing me to The Edge of Each Other’s Battles. As a guest lecturer in my African American & African Studies course (BlackGirlLand), Jones helped us reconceptualize Audre Lorde as an ecology pedagogue. In highlighting this portion of Lorde’s speech, alongside two of Lorde’s poems, Jones demonstrated how Lorde teaches us about land, bodies, and memory.

2 Throughout this piece, I use “we” and “us” as an invitation. “We” and “us” includes educators writ large. For me, educators include artists, theorists, elders, youth, cultural workers, parents, guardians, and anyone who is committed to more liberatory education and engagements. I hope that in reading this, you will see yourself as part of the collective “we.”