Six Touchstones for Wild Pedagogies in Practice

Abstract

• Was I able to notice, respond to, and support students who were trying out new habits? • How can I maintain and nurture my own practice of immersing in and building relationships with the places and beings I encounter? • Am I noticing my practice, trying new things, reflecting on what has been attempted? • Were there opportunities for my students to develop their intuition? Touchstone #5: Socio-Cultural Change Stepping ashore on Iona takes us deep into the Archean gneisses at the core of the country. These appear where the earth has been moved alongside ancient schists. Sprinkled across the surface are Silurian and Devonian granites brought much later as glacial erratics. We find all these rocks carefully positioned in the islanders' stonewalls and the abbey buildings celebrating St. Columba. * * * We believe that the way many humans currently exist on the planet needs changing, that this change is required at the cultural level, and that education has an important role to play in this project of cultural change. We also believe that education is always a political act, and we see wild pedagogues embracing the role of activists as thoughtfully as they can. Current norms of the dominant Western culture, many of which infuse mainstream education, are environmentally problematic. In response, we seek wild pedagogies that are actively and politically aimed towards telling a new geostory of a world in which all beings can flourish.