‘Opening the door’: An authentic approach to decolonizing arts education in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Educators in universities in Aotearoa/New Zealand have the responsibility to ‘live and model’ the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. However, tertiary education has often treated the principles in an inauthentic way. There are few courses in art, design and communication in New Zealand that integrate the principles authentically. This article showcases features of a course – Mahitahi | Collaborative Practices – that engages with Te Tiriti principles by teaching collaboration from te ao Māori (the Māori world). Our findings draw from a focus group we conducted with academic staff who taught into a pilot iteration of the course. Three central themes emerged from the focus group relating to the issue of decolonizing arts education. First, that regardless of the educators’ intentions to design a course that privileges te ao Māori, the features of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s colonial reality are still present. Second, the students’ primary learning activity was principled reflection, where they successfully engaged with te ao Māori in an authentic way. Third, students’ connection to te ao Māori was jeopardized by designing part of the assessment that took on a Pākehā (non-Māori) world-view. Consequently, students may have missed the opportunity to engage more fully with educative experiences relating to lifelong learning. We argue that to maintain an authentic connection to te ao Māori, the curriculum should be consistently designed around principles embedded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

ASPECTOS METODOLÓGICOS DE PRÁTICA EDUCATIVA COM CARTOGRAFIA TÁTIL

Este artigo apresenta aspectos metodológicos de prática educativa com Cartografia Tátil desenvolvida com licenciandos, do segundo ano de Geografia/Licenciatura, na disciplina de Cartografia Escolar, na UNIOESTE. O objetivo é discutir as possibilidades de ensinar por meio de mapas táteis e de atividades que se constituem em orientações metodológicas a respeito da educação inclusiva, com questões gerais sobre a linguagem na Cartografia Tátil, especificamente a leitura de mapa. Para tal, foi elaborado o mapa tátil da região Sudoeste do Paraná, com destaque para o município de Francisco Beltrão. Esta experiência vem sendo desenvolvida por pesquisadores no Laboratório de pesquisa RETLEE (Representações, espaços, tempos e linguagens em experiências educativas), cujo intuito é de trabalhar o ensino de Geografia com estudantes cegos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE Geografia, Linguagem, Cartografia tátil. METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE EDUCATIVE PRACTICE WITH THE TACTILE CARTOGRAPHY ABSTRACT This article presents methodological aspects of the educative practice with the Tactile Cartography develops with the graduates, of the Geography Degree second grade, in School Cartography discipline, in UNIOESTE. The objective is discuss the possibilities to teach through tactile maps and activities that constitutes in methodological guidelines to respect the inclusive education, with general issues about the language in Tactile Cartography, specify the map reading. For this, was elaborating the tactile map of the Parana’s southwestern region, with emphasis to the Francisco Beltrão municipality. This experience has been developed by researchers in RETLEE Research Laboratory (Representations, spaces, times and languages in educative experiences), whose intention is works the Geography education with the blind students. KEYWORDS Geography, Language, Tactile Cartography.

The commercial transformation of America’s schools

A school-focused commercializing process over 100 years in the making has been turbo-charged by the rise of data-collecting digital educational platforms and a pandemic that has forced widespread use of distance learning. Alex Molnar and Faith Boninger explain how advertising to students creates what John Dewey would call “mis-educative experiences.” They describe how private companies have made inroads into public schools by offering funding and free resources, while using their interactions with schools as an opportunity both to directly market to students and to collect data on them that can be used for future marketing or other unknown purposes.

An urban walk as a teaching strategy and investigative instrument in art education

This article explores interactions among three topics: the city, visual arts and education, all interconnected through an urban and artistic practice of walking. This reflection is carried out in three fields of thought: education, investigation and artistic creation. On an educative level, one questions how a path through the city can be a strategy for art education learning. In the research field, thanks to analysis of artistic and urbanism methodologies applied to the city, research is carried out using walking maps as tools of art and urban planning investigation. On an artistic level, aesthetic results are desired from the investigation as a result of teaching practice designed to be a creative reflection on the city. We analysed current tendencies in art education through the use of the walking path around the city and investigation using maps. We present the three educative experiences validating the use of urban walks as pedagogic strategies and instruments of investigation.

Transforming the Classroom Experience Through Transhumanism

This chapter examines the intersection of transhumanism and the use of technology as a cognitive tool in education. Transhumanism is explored as a pedagogical philosophy to transform the limits of self by using educational technology tools to expand global networked knowledge. These tools include technologies that stimulate learning to expand and extend cognitive and metacognitive capabilities. The role of pedagogy is to create educative experiences that provide meaningful opportunities for students to cultivate deeper conceptual understandings. Students learn necessary skills and develop knowledge to improve conceptual competencies and cognitive capabilities. When human thought and capabilities are used in conjunction with technology as a cognitive instructional tool, the learning experience is transformed. The potential exists to extend the conceptual competencies of the learner, thus realizing the transhumanists' goal of transforming learning experiences and improving student potential.

Retaining change in attitudes and emotions toward coyotes using experiential education

Context Education programs concerning wildlife conservation and safety typically include the biology of the wildlife species and public safety information. Information retention using traditional means such as signs, pamphlets and static presentations have been shown to be minimally effective at changing attitudes and behaviour when it comes to human–wildlife interactions. Aims An experiential education program with interactive modules was designed to support information retention in participants. On the basis of previous research, a targeted experiential education program focusing on perceptions of risk and preventative behaviours was produced to increase people’s comfort level when in coyote habitat. Methods Pre-, post- and retention-test questionnaires were used to study differences in attitudes and risk perception instantly following (post-test) as well as 1 year after participating in the program (retention test). Key results Overall, the program had significant positive effects on participants’ attitudes, and significant decreases in their overall perception of risk in terms of potential interaction with coyotes. These positive effects were observed instantly and 1 year after participants were surveyed. Conclusions Targeted and interactive educative experiences can have impacts on participants’ perceptions over the long term. This technique might be useful when dealing with human–wildlife interactions. Implications Designing targeted educative experiences for people may also support lasting positive change in human–wildlife interactions.

Formarse en la Investigación Educativa: una Comunidad de Pensamiento en Torno a la Escritura de la Tesis Doctoral

This article explores educative experiences we had as doctoral students in a community of knowledge inside the University of Barcelona. We deepen understandings around the process we lived for five years, as well as we point out theoretical and methodological aspects that framed the process itself. Embracing narrative inquiry as methodology, we enhance the need of shifting some of the doctoral training practices that traditional academic systems still hold. Through our stories, we show bumps and tensions that might emerge in living and working in a community of knowledge. We also raise challenges that beginning researchers are currently facing in the educational landscape. Those challenges are related to the ways in which we inquire, approach, attend to, and name the research experience in the context of increasingly high academic demands.