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Council on Anthropology and Education
Oral Presentation Session
Jrene Rahm
Université de Montréal
Building on the idea “that lives are led not inside places but through, around, to and from them” or what Ingold (2011) termed “wayfaring” (p. 148), I explore its implications for the development of an identity in science or becoming in movement. I assume that identity is continuously in the making, socially situated, and understood in the context of cultural, historical and political relations. Through two case studies, I show what such a conceptual framing entails and how it can inform future studies in science education. The first case offers a description of environmental stewardship in Nunavut, Canada. I show how indigenous ways of knowing and being, or what Inuit have always known to be true (e.g., Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit), are integral to understanding signs of climate change, and to engage in locally relevant environmental stewardship. Deeply grounded in a relational epistemology, I describe what environmental stewardship means in this particular context and address its implications for science education and identity work in science. The second case implies an analysis of a science curriculum that emerged from environmental stewardship projects led by Inuit in Inuit Nunangat. Attending to the curriculum’s place-based nature and blended approach of Indigenous and Western Science, analysis focuses on the curriculum’s implied wayfaring and becoming in science. The two cases offer rich insights into the manner self-determination and indigenous knowledge systems are key to disrupt narrow visions of identities in science that privilege certain practices that fail, however, to effectively respond to challenges of our times.