Sustainability and indigenous worldviews : a circle of beauty and wisdom from Mother Earth's Children's Charter School
department or school: Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Amber, Candice Anita
issued: 2018-01-31T17:28:06Z
issued: 2017
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This qualitative study celebrates Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School (MECCS), the first public Indigenous charter school in Canada and their Cree and Stoney Indigenous worldviews and Indigenous learners. This study reveals a sustainability ethos at the heart of their Cree and Stoney worldview as Sustainability is: “We are Mother Earth” and Sustainability is: “Relationality or Relationship”. The Cree and Stoney languages have no exact words for sustainability but rather deeply held beliefs that reveal a sustainability ethos through a circle of beauty and wisdom. The purpose of this study is to explore an enhanced and relational ethos of sustainability through respect for spirit, place, and humanity throughout non-mainstream worldviews (e.g. Indigenous). This study offers a broader concept of a sustainability ethos than the more limited European, Western, dominant definitions of sustainability that focus on variations of the pillars of people, place, and profit (e.g. commodity). The concept of sustainability cannot be compartmentalized because all people, livelihoods, and the planet are one and connected through relationships in life in the medicine wheel, circle of life, and seven sacred teachings. Therefore, this study replaces the notions of pillars with the circle of beauty and wisdom from the Cree and Stoney worldview as practiced and lived at MECCS. The circle of beauty and wisdom reveals the MECCS sustainability ethos as wisdom-on-the-ground experiences that celebrate thriving learners, the planet Mother Earth, and livelihoods. By foregrounding the circle of beauty and wisdom of Indigenous worldviews and validating Indigenous worldviews as equal to non-Indigenous worldviews makes possible the potential for a broader discourse of sustainability. As a non-Indigenous teacher with several years of involvement with Aboriginal Education, I deeply value and respect Indigenous perspectives. This study extends an invitation to learn from Cree and Stoney (Treaty 6)…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/64503
note: SUSTAINABILITY AND INDIGENOUS WORLDVIEWS: A CIRCLE OF BEAUTY AND WISDOM FROM MOTHER EARTH’S CHILDREN’S CHARTER SCHOOL by Candice Anita Amber Graduate Certificate in Education, The University of Calgary, 2012 M.Ed., The University of British Columbia, 1989 B.Sc.Ed., The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1980 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan Campus) December 2017 © Candice Anita Amber, 2017 ii The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: SUSTAINABILITY AND INDIGENOUS WORLDVIEWS: A CIRCLE OF BEAUTY AND WISDOM FROM MOTHER EARTH’S CHILDREN’S CHARTER SCHOOL submitted by Candice Anita Amber in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Carol Scarff, Faculty of Education Supervisor, Professor Dr. Margaret Macintyre Latta, Faculty of Education Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Philip Balcaen, Faculty of Education Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Martin Blum, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Judy Gillespie, Faculty of Social Work University Examiner Dr. Celia Haig-Brown, York University __________________________________ External Examiner December 2017 Date Submitted to Grad Studies iii Abstract This qualitative study celebrates Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School (MECCS), the first public Indigenous charter school in Canada and their Cree and Stoney Indigenous worldviews and Indigenous learners. This study reveals a sustainability ethos at the heart of their Cree and Stoney worldview as Sustainability is: “We are Mother Earth” and Sustainability is: “Relationality or Relationship.” The Cree and Stoney languages have no exact words for sustainability but rather deeply held beliefs that reveal a sustainability ethos through a circle of …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2018-02
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0363314
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/64503