A Pedagogy of Unbecoming for Geoscience Otherwise

Abstract

White supremacy and human exceptionalism are the epistemological and political foundations of contemporary geosciences. Disciplinary norms and ways of being call forth the geoscientist as “man of reason.” How do we, as educators, invite students to analyze and act on the interconnected political ecological challenges of the current environmental crisis without reinforcing the man of reason, now refashioned as the reformed and greener “ecosystem man-ager”? What do we need to unlearn, to unbecome? Where and how can we do this unlearning and unbecoming? This article positions pedagogy as a site of disciplinary and institutional transformation. We outline an antiracist, anticolonial pedagogical framework—what we call a pedagogy of unbecoming—that nurtures an extrarational, embodied, and relational geosciences otherwise. We share our experience, as white settler educators in persistently white disciplines, of enacting this pedagogy of unbecoming and outline specific protocols we used in course design. In the end, our efforts to transform the look and feel of geographic knowing are pragmatic attempts to walk alongside endeavors led by marginalized communities—inside and outside of academia—to build worlds otherwise. We invite peers to join in an ongoing process of unbecoming to build the ontological and epistemological conditions necessary for mutual flourishing.

白人至上主义和人类例外主义是当代地球科学的认识论基础和政治基础。学科规范和存在方式将地球科学家称为“理性人”。现在, “理性人“被重新打造成改革后的更加环保的“生态系统管理者”。作为教育工作者, 我们如何在弱化“理性人”的情况下, 让学生分析当前环境危机中各种相关的政治生态挑战, 并采取行动？我们需要忘却什么、拒绝什么？我们在哪里、如何才能做到忘却和拒绝？本文将教学方法定位为学科转型和机构转型的场所。概述了一个反种族主义、反殖民主义的“拒绝教学方法”框架（pedagogy of unbecoming）, 旨在培育非理性的、具身化的、关系型的地球科学。作为白人学科的白人定居者教育工作者, 我们分享了”拒绝教学方法”的经验, 列举了课程设计的具体方案。最后, 我们务实地去尝试改变地理认知的外在和感觉, 旨在与学术界内外边缘化群体的努力保持一致, 从而构建不同的世界。我们邀请同行们参与这个拒绝过程, 建立相互繁荣所必需的本体论和认识论基础。

La supremacía blanca y el excepcionalismo humano son los fundamentos epistemológicos y políticos de las geociencias contemporáneas. Las normas disciplinarias y los modos de vida reivindican al geocientífico como “un hombre de razón”. ¿Cómo podemos, como educadores, invitar a los estudiantes a analizar y a actuar ante los desafíos políticos y ecológicos interconectados de la actual crisis ambiental sin que se refuerce al hombre de razón, ahora remodelado como “el hombre-gestor del ecosistema”? ¿Qué necesitamos desaprender, en qué deberemos convertirnos? ¿Dónde y cómo podemos llevar a cabo este desaprendizaje y esta desarticulación? Este artículo posiciona la pedagogía como un escenario de transformación disciplinaria e institucional. Aquí esbozamos un marco pedagógico antirracista y anticolonial–lo que denominamos una pedagogía de la desapropiación– de la cual se nutre lo que sería otro tipo de geociencias extrarracional, personalizada y relacional. Compartimos nuestra experiencia, la de educadores del colonizador blanco en disciplinas obstinadamente blancas, la de aplicar esta pedagogía del no llegar a ser y delinear los protocolos específicos que usamos para diseñar el curso. En últimas, nuestros esfuerzos por transformar la apariencia y sentir del conocimiento geográfico son meros intentos pragmáticos de acompañar los propósitos que animan a las comunidades marginadas –dentro y fuera del mundo de la academia– para construir mundos impensados. Invitamos a nuestros compañeros a que se nos unan en un proceso continuo de impropiedad para construir las condiciones ontológicas y epistemológicas necesarias para el florecimiento mutuo.

Key Words:

• Anthropocene
• geosciences otherwise
• human exceptionalism
• pedagogy of unbecoming
• white supremacy

关键词:

• 人类世
• 地球科学
• 人类例外主义
• 拒绝教学方法
• 白人至上主义。

Palabras clave:

• Antropoceno
• excepcionalismo humano
• las geociencias sin columbrar
• pedagogía de la impropiedad
• supremacía blanca

Notes

1 Per Liboiron (2021b), “land” relations assume access to Indigenous territory and knowledge “for settler colonial goals” (5); and, land entails “a colonial worldview whereby landscapes are common, universal, and everywhere, even with great variation” (6). In contrast, “Land” relations are specific to place and center interdependency; Land is understood as “the unique entity that is the combined living spirit of plants, animals, air, water, humans, histories, and events” (6).

2 UBC’s Sustainability Institute’s Interdisciplinary Education Grant supported the development of this seminar.

3 Inspired by Gilmore (2007), we use “nonreformist reform” here to signal the necessary, but insufficient, building blocks for systemic transformation. These are reforms made to racist and capitalist institutions and practices to improve equity and justice for people today, but remain grounded in longer term agendas for decolonization and abolition.

4 See https://blogs.ubc.ca/course1c3754cc5f5660c3e90f9304f699c4a54043aa63/about/.

5 For guidance on developing community agreements, see https://www.nationalequityproject.org/tools/developing-community-agreements.

6 See Liboiron’s work on the CLEAR Lab Book for an excellent example of how to do this, and how to do it iteratively and with unwavering commitment.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Reimer

CHRISTOPHER REIMER is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include political ecologies of race, abolition geographies, and critical pedagogy.

Sarah-Louise Ruder

SARAH-LOUISE RUDER is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research examines power, justice, and sustainability in the context of food systems and technological change in Canada.

Michele Koppes

MICHELE KOPPES is Professor in the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research focuses on how glaciers, landscapes, and the people who dwell within them are responding to ongoing climate change.

Juanita Sundberg

JUANITA SUNDBERG is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include more-than-human geographies at the U.S.–México border and vegetal politics in relation to climate change and extinction in México.