Abstracts
Abstract
Learning spaces in higher education are fraught with colonial barriers such as teacher-centered, front facing, stark, feelingless, and unwelcoming classrooms that diminish students’ feelings of well-being. For pre-service teachers, these are also the types of classrooms that they often inherit as they foray into the profession. Three Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) assistant professors investigate how pre-service teachers’ well-being shifted when collectively (re)imagining and (re)envisioning a colonial university classroom space in a faculty building that is over 100 years old. They then share the findings of their a/r/tography, action research inquiry that captured the co-living, metabolic experiences and relational meshworks of both participants (n=11) and researchers documented through reflexive journaling, artistic artifacts, interviews (n=3), and contemplation. The researchers embody decolonizing praxes through intentional interpretation and writing scholarship as they weave their storied inquiry. They conclude with transformative urgencies for how B.Ed programs can recalibrate their physical learning spaces to better support and sustain teachers’ well-being in their future profession.
Keywords:
- Arts-based action research,
- Co-living learning spaces,
- Decolonization,
- Meshworks,
- Metabolism,
- Pre-service teachers,
- Well-being
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Erin Keith, EdD, is an assistant professor at Cape Breton University, previously working at St. Francis Xavier University. She is an author, teacher, researcher, and award-winning instructor. Her teaching and research focus on pre-service teacher education, EDIIADB (equity, diversity, Indigeneity, inclusion, accessibility, decolonization, belonging) literacy related to special education and mental health, culturally responsive and relevant pedagogies including engaging families and caregivers as partners, and supporting students through an intersectional, strength-based lens. Erin uses a decolonizing praxis in her research methodologies inspired and guided by many Indigenous, Black, and racialized scholars. She obtained her Doctor of Education from Western University, her Master of Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and her Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University.
Carolyn Clarke, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at St. Francis Xavier University. She has been involved with education for more than thirty years. She began her teaching career in the province of Newfoundland Labrador. Carolyn’s previous experiences include working as a Primary and Elementary teacher, District Leader in Literacy and Elementary Education, Vice Principal, Principal and Senior Education Officer (Family of Schools). She earned a B.Ed. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a M.Ed. and M.A.Ed. from Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, and a PhD in Literacy Education at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Carolyn’s research interest includes homework, the work of female caregivers in supporting their children’s education, and critical literacy.
Allison Tucker, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at St. Francis Xavier University. Her teaching includes classroom teaching and leadership, and spans British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia. Situated in contexts from public school to post-secondary classrooms, Allison’s research embeds the Reggio Emilia inspired belief that learners are capable and competent protagonists of their own learning. This belief underpins her teaching practice and her research in teacher identity, assessment, and teacher/leadership professional learning.