Towards gentle futures: co-developing axiological commitments and alliances among humans and the greater living world at school

ABSTRACT

Maturing into ethical human beings is not just an important dimension of human development, it is central to the continued survival and thriving of our species. Viewed through experiences of Arm (student) and Noom (teacher) in an urban Indigenous school in Thailand, this article uplifts gentle ways of being and becoming as important pathways toward enacting more social and ecologically just worlds. I consider the ways the pair became gentle learning environments for the other and how homeland lessons designed and taught by Indigenous students to their teachers created conditions for the joint development of axiologies and alliances with the natural world, and ultimately Indigenous futures. I ask: How might we “unpack the signs” of relational becoming in interaction – the axiological and alliance-building work among humans and others in the natural world? I present three episodes between Arm and Noom as they co-develop ethical stances, specifically human-fish relations. I find the pair engaged in various gentle futurity gestures – poetic, dialogic, responsive practices that attune to the dynamic agency of living beings in everyday ways. I illustrate how political possibilities of re-designing schools emerge from these gentle gestures and carry with them renewed possibilities of cultivating more liveable worlds.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the young people, families, teachers, and school leadership with Ajarn Amornrat Pinwanna at Sahasatsuksa for the opportunity to design different futures together. Aw bon ui ja Kru Sukanda, Panthiwa, Alison, Pam this would not be possible without you. Biz Wright, Emma Elliott-Groves, Aireale Rodgers, Adam Bell and Megan Bang, and the special issue editors, your guidance has made this paper better.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. In practice, teachers form learning networks in their classrooms where every participant in the network – student, teacher, family, education leader – has the responsibility to teach and learn. A Tutoría dialogue works in this way: the learner chooses a topic, or Tema, of interest from their tutor’s catalog of growing expertise, they begin engaging in personalized dialogue together, seeking to disrupt normative power paradigms to honor heterogeneity and enact more mutually sustaining learning relationships in each line of inquiry. The learner then reflects on their learning process, presents it to their larger learning community and then teaches it to another within the network (See, Meixi & Morales Elox, 2019; Rincón-Gallardo & Elmore, 2012 for more detailed information).

2. The 13 groups consist of Akha, Lahu, Karen, Hmong, Lisu, Yao, Chan, Thailue, Lawa, Chinese, Khmu, Plang, and Northern Thai. With the exception of northern Thai students, all these ethic groups are part of the Network of Indigenous People in Thailand (Prasit & Meixi, 2018).