1 Module 1: Ways of Knowing the Climate is Changing
This week we introduce ourselves and give students a chance to share a bit about themselves as well. Students will complete a positionality exercise. Instructors introduce students to Western and Indigenous Sciences as ways of understanding climate change.
Learning Outcomes
1. Define two-eyed seeing and affirm its importance in understanding climate change
2. Identify shared and unique aspects of Traditional Knowledge and scientific methods for understanding Climate Change.
3. Given a series of guiding questions, investigate, reflect on, and share aspects of your positionality.
4. Connect with others over shared and unique relationships to the environment
5. Explain the ethics around learning from Indigenous knowledges and stories, particularly outside of Indigenous contexts.
Introducing Connecting for Climate Change Action
In this video, the 4 instructors introduce themselves to the students. This introduction includes
- personal and family cultural and geographic background
- reasons for teaching the course
- a co-written land acknowledgment.
This video is highly tailored to our delivery of this course. If you are using modules from this course, we advise you create your own unique introduction following our recommendations.
Recommendations for Introducing Connecting for Climate Change Action
We recommend that you take the time to introduce yourself fully (personal family cultural and geographic background) at the beginning of your course. For some settlers, this may be a new way of introducing yourself, but in addition to being a common practice in many Indigenous cultures, communicating your family lineage situates you in relation to the students with whom you are interacting.
Additionally, your land acknowledgment will differ from ours, even if you are from the same geographic region. That’s because land acknowledgments are statements that reflect not only the land that you’re on, but your own relationship to the land, and the purpose of gathering for the course.
Lesson 1: Positionality and Climate Change
In this lesson students will complete:
- Video: Your Positionality and Climate Change
- Video: Seven Generations and Climate Change
- Individual Activity: the Power Flower.
- Small group activity: Learner introductions
Students will introduce themselves to their small group. The introductions include:
- Who you are
- A land acknowledgment for where you are from or where you are living. Use the information at Native-land.ca, or if you’re joining the course from outside of Canada, at LandMark Indigenous Community and Land Maps.
- One aspect of your identity that influences your interest in climate change. Use the Power Flower to inspire your answer, or use another aspect of your identity or interests in your answer.
Recommendation: How does your discipline address climate change?
The end of the video lists a great many people that need to be involved in addressing climate change. Consider adding some context about how people in your discipline or field of work are addressing climate change.
Recommendation: Facilitate small group introductions
This activity has an individual and a group component. Use any tools at your disposal for the small group component, such as forums, VoiceThread, or Teams, or, if in a blended environment, small group discussion. Assigning grades to completion of this task will help ensure that students participate.
Lesson 2: Ways of knowing the climate is changing
In this lesson we introduce students to some ways of knowing that are used to study climate change: 1) Euro-Western science; 2) Indigenous Knowledges and science, and 3) a framework that engages both approaches – etuaptmunk, or ‘Two Eyed-Seeing.’
In this lesson, students will complete:
- Video: The scientific framework and climate change with guiding questions and knowledge check
- Video: Seasonal changes in carbon dioxide
- Video: Indigenous ways of knowing to understand climate change with guiding questions
- Video: Boots on the Ground
- Knowledge check
Recommendation: Choose a relevant example of an Indigenous connection to land and climate change
We chose to show the mini-documentary about the Tłı̨chǫ Nation and the Ekwǫ̀ Nàxoède K’è (Boots on the Ground) caribou monitoring program. The purpose of showing this documentary is for students to see the changes that the Tłı̨chǫ are experiencing firsthand. However, the Tłı̨chǫ are one of thousands of Indigenous Peoples that are deeply connected to the land and whose ways of life are changing along with climate change. You may decide to include a more local (to you) example of Indigenous connections to climate change.