Using questions to spark learning
“As educators use decolonization to challenge educational and cultural hegemony, we must also replace it with Indigenous perspectives and values that guided us for most of human history in ways that cultivate more peaceful, healthy and happy relationships in and with the world.”
Four Arrows
The approach to teaching offered in this website uses quotations and pictures to invite deep dialogue as a means to co-learning about how we become human and sustain ourselves on a living planet. Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, defined this inquiry-based co-learning paradigm as “praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” Freire’s work was highly influenced by the French West Indian scholar, Frantz Fanon who argued for “a mutual current of enlightenment and enrichment”.
Fanon and Freire’s co-learning work is both distinct from and related to many traditional ways of knowing. These ways of knowing are rooted in a wide range of practices that often include oral histories through storytelling by elders, mentor/apprentice relationships and reflections on direct experience. Asking questions has often been part of how elders transmit knowledge. Each collection includes three questions for each quotation/image “code.” The intention of these dialogue codes is not to simplify by providing quick answers from any one oracle. Proven Sustainable is designed to welcome complex thinking and deepen understanding by inviting questions from a collective of co-learners. The questions are created to be self-reflective and dynamic, with each answer organically leading to the next set of questions.
“Our method (is) to be based on dialogue, which is a horizontal relationship between persons.
A with B = communication and intercommunication
Relation of “empathy” between two “poles” who are engaged in a joint search.
MATRIX: Loving, humble, hopeful, trusting, critical”
We encourage educators to be fluid, flexible and creative in using these codes and questions, adapting your teaching practices to the needs and curiosities of your particular group. For example, for use in a gathering with young media makers, you might choose a handful of the media literacy questions to invite reflection and action on whether and how to communicate traditional wisdom on digital platforms. A community meeting to discuss land rights issues could use some of the text and image questions for the dialogue codes related to sovereignty to spark discussion about how other Peoples have considered these common concerns. A social studies teacher might select two or three dialogue codes as a basis for constructivist media decoding using all three questions as a springboard to help students develop their own habits of inquiry.
Crediting & Fair Use
All speakers and image-makers are credited on the second slide or page of each dialogue code. A photo credits page also acknowledges the photographers of the images shown on this website’s pages.
Visitors are encouraged to seek out the original source material whenever possible to deepen awareness and appreciation of the wisdom and images in their original context. Please inform us if any of the credits are in error. Every quote and photo has been previously posted online.
All of these materials are offered on a fair-use basis. They are repurposed for non-commercial, educational purposes and offered without charge. Each quote and image is accompanied by three questions with the intention of transforming these for deepened awareness and classroom dialogue.
If you have any questions about the fair use purposes or citations please contact us.
Cultural Respect
Teacher and earth steward Robin Wall Kimmerer has articulated the Honorable Harvest as a “canon of indigenous principles that govern the exchange of life for life…“rules” of sorts that govern our taking, so that the world is as rich for the seventh generation as it is for us.“ Kimmerer names these as principles to be applied when harvesting seeds and plants. They can also apply to the exchange of words and images as offered in Proven Sustainable. Here are some of Kimmerer’s principles for the honorable harvest and notes on the ways that they apply to this Proven Sustainable initiative:
"As the remaining people choose the path toward life, they will turn back along the road from which they have come and begin to pick up the pieces that have been scattered along the road – remnants of language, the old stories and songs, seeds and ragged patches of plants, wandering animals and birds, and, collectively, they will put the world together again.”
Robin Kimmerer
Ask permission of the ones whose lives you seek. Abide by the answer. - We have made a good faith effort to contact each speaker or their appointed advocates to get their permission to recirculate their words.
Take only that which is given to you. – These words and images of wisdom were originally shared for dissemination with the approval of the individuals. We will not share protected knowledge that has not already been offered to the wider world.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. – We name the foundational precept of “Do No Harm” when using these words and images in education settings.
Share it, as the Earth has shared with you. – These wisdom offerings are meant to be shared with others to deepen our collective understandings of what it means to live together and to persevere on a living earth.
Reciprocate the gift. - We encourage all visitors to reciprocate these gifts by donating to the projects created by these Peoples for the sustenance of their communities and our earth island.
Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever. – Spread the word to others about the histories and needs of the Peoples who have demonstrated to us what it means to be sustainable and resilient in the face of enormous changes and relentless opposition.
Do No Harm
While using this material, it is imperative to be grounded in the concept of “Do No Harm,” which we define as a persistent awareness of the ways in which words and actions can hurt others, often without conscious intent. “Do No Harm” consciousness requires humility and deep listening – a consciousness that what I think I know about another is not what they may know to be true about themselves. When listening to Proven Sustainable, Proven Resilient and Proven Free Peoples there are inevitably aspects of their lived experience that others cannot know. This is especially true for the countless ways that the Peoples have suffered, endured and prevailed against the forces of empire and “progress,” forces that have tried so constantly and consciously to erase the People from their land, their language and their lives.
“On this continent our world changed from one where every place and thing mattered and was loved, into a world defoliated, where nothing, human or other, mattered…”
Linda Hogan
When I first shared these codes with my brother he said, “It is emotionally difficult for me to see, to read and to consider all of this.” Sharing these words and images may well bring up challenging feelings. When we share with others in a classroom or community setting we need to be prepared to deal with strong emotional reactions that may arise in any number of ways. It’s likely that members of the Peoples will have strong feelings that differ from the emotions experienced by non-indigenous people. Those who offer these codes to others should consider in advance how they might practice “Do No Harm” in the face of reactions of anger, hurt, shame and defensiveness among their co-learners.
Most of us have little experience facilitating discussions, particularly cross-cultural dialogues, on the topics raised in Proven Sustainable. We can look to leadership from local Peoples who have such experience to help us practice “Do No Harm” principles. Among many Aboriginal Australian Peoples, for example, it is important to warn people that these codes may contain names, images and words of people who have passed away. One might not know of this caution unless they’ve already had discussions with Aboriginal Australians about how best to share words and images from their traditions in groups where Aboriginal Australians may be present. It is always best to seek out local leaders and ask their guidance in implementing “Do No Harm” protocols while practicing self-compassion and courage as foundational to our inquiry.
Glossary
Dialogue code – a quotation from an individual and an accompanying image intended to inspire collective reflection and action about how we might sustain ourselves on a living planet.
Proven Sustainable – collections of dialogue codes of individuals expressing beliefs and practices of Peoples living in place for 500 years or longer, stewarding their land while making no efforts to colonize distant peoples.
Proven Resilient - collections of dialogue codes of individuals expressing beliefs and practices of Peoples defending their land and people against the immense powers of settler colonialism and the modern nation state for 500 years or longer.
Proven Free - collections of dialogue codes of individuals expressing beliefs and practices of Peoples of African descent living in place in the Caribbean and the Americas while stewarding and defending their African roots and land against white supremacy for 150 years or longer.
Slide deck – a collection of eight dialogue codes from individuals of a particular People with associated introductory and resource materials.
The Peoples –cultural groups and ethnic communities that fit the definitions for the Proven Sustainable/Proven Resilient/Proven Free project.