New Online Material: Land and Place as Principal Investigator: Turning the Research Spiral

Dr. Hauk collaborated with three other scholars to generate a briefing paper and slide presentation as part of the 14th Annual Research Symposium of the North American Association of Environmental Education on the topic of "Land and Place as Principal Investigator: Turning the Research Spiral." As a deepening of applying Gaian methods in research, this work explores the rich intersection of converging movements to invert human-centered research approaches. Co-authors included Mandy Leetch, Mandisa Wood, and Rachel Kippen.

The abstract:

Imagine a future in which land and place increasingly serve as co-researchers or principal investigators in environmental and sustainability education research. Land-based pedagogy, critical place inquiry, indigenous knowledge systems and indigenous ways of knowing, feminist materialisms, bioculturally responsive curriculum development, nature as teacher, terrapsychology, living systems ethical research considerations, and Gaian methods converge. These slides and briefing paper help explore questions of consent, data-gathering, authorship, and ethics through experiential, collaborative dialogue with examples, paradigms, and methods. Participants walk away with knowledge of effective practice and a resource bibliography to continue to innovate away from anthropocentric assumptions in environmental and sustainability education and towards more inclusive paradigms, methodologies, lenses, and frames for higher quality research.


The slides are available on Slideshare. 
The briefing paper is available online as a google doc.