Exploring Indigenization and decolonization in cross-cultural education through collaborative land-based boundary education

ABSTRACT

This article considers the potential for collaboratively produced boundary education as an advancement of the boundary work concept in academia. The boundary work process aims to support collaboration that works around social, cultural, political, epistemological, and other forms of boundaries. We explore how education can act as a boundary object through the development and implementation of a pilot project for land-based educational programming offered through a university. In particular, we share observations arising through a land-based education initiative that engaged Indigenous land stewards from Wabaseemoong Independent Nation and students from The University of Winnipeg. Our approach is grounded in an extended conceptual framework and process for conducting boundary work in the context of collaborative educational design and implementation involving educators from academia and Indigenous community partners. The pilot project provided baseline insights for future boundary education collaborations and provided some direction for future work.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary education
• boundary work
• cross-cultural education
• land-based learning
• postsecondary curriculum

Acknowledgements

We would like to dedicate this paper to Dr. Aruna Kumar Malik, a dear colleague, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Gurajat National Law University, and participant in this study who succumbed to complications related to Covid 19. We would like to express sincere thanks to all students who participated in this study and would like to acknowledge The University of Winnipeg Experiential Learning Fund for their funding support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melanie Zurba

Melanie Zurba (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Studies and the College of Sustainability at Dalhousie University. Her work focuses on environmental governance projects that are developed and implemented in collaboration with communities. She is also the Chair for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Theme for Governance, Equity and Rights (TGER).

George Land

George Land is an Elder and Medicine Man from Wabaseemoong Independent Nations. He represents his community on multiple issues, including health, forest management and water contamination. He has led land-based learning for his community and visitors for over 20 years.

Ryan Bullock

Ryan Bullock is the Canada Research Chair in Human-Environment Interactions (Tier II), Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences and Director of the Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research at The University of Winnipeg. His research focuses on conflict and cross-cultural collaboration in multi-level environmental resource governance systems, policy and program analysis, and community-based research approaches. He works with northern and Indigenous communities to investigate options for building community resilience.

Bridget Graham

Bridget Graham (she/her) is a is originally from Beachburg Ontario, but she has lived in Mi’kma’ki for nine years. She has an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts Combined Honours degree from Dalhousie in Environment, Sustainability and Society and Canadian Studies and a Master’s in Arts in Canadian History. She is a Research Assistant with Melanie Zurba and is the Operations Manager at the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response network (MEOPAR).