Abstract
Our chapter presents a thematic analysis of a large, qualitative dataset collected during a two-year “critical ethnography” (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005, p. 324), at one Ontario, Canada university campus1. As social science researchers in a political and cultural context increasingly viewed with skepticism and dismay throughout the world (Ralston Saul, 2008; Suzuki, 2010), we draw upon epistemological, ontological and methodological approaches from across and outside disciplinary boundaries, including Indigenous frameworks, to introduce and understand our study.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Albrecht, G., Freeman, S., & Higginbotham, N. (1998). Complexity and human health: The case for a transdisciplinary paradigm. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 22(1), 55–92.
Apgar, J. M., Argumedo, A., & Allen, W. (2009). Building transdisciplinarity for managing complexity: Lessons from indigenous practice. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 4(5), 225–270.
Arabena, K. (2006). The universal citizen: An indigenous citizenship framework for the twenty-first century. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 36–45.
Arabena, K. (2010). All knowledge is indigenous. In V. A. Brown, J. A. Harris, & J. Y. Russell (Eds.), Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination (pp. 260–267). London, UK and Washington, DC: Earthscan.
Benjamin, A. (2008, May 23). Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation. TheGuardian.com. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
Bowers, C. A., & Apffel-Marglin, F. (2008). Rethinking Freire: Globalization and the environmental crisis. New York, NY: Routledge.
Bradshaw, J. (2013, September 18). Specialize or risk losing funding, Ontario tells universities and colleges. The Globe and Mail (online). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/specialize-or-risk-funding-ontario-tells-universities-and-colleges/article14393294/
Brock News. (2009, November 27). New audit will size up Brock’s carbon footprint. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.brocku.ca/news/6725
Brock News. (2011, March 1). Brock launches new unit for environmental sustainability. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=8412
Brock News. (2014, June 25). Brock launches UNESCO chair in community sustainability. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=28727
Brock University. (2013). Strategic mandate agreement (Draft Submission to Ontario Government). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from https://www.brocku.ca/webfm_send/29427
Brock University. (2014). Trans-disciplinary research: Beyond boundaries. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://brocku.ca/trans-disciplinary-research
Brock University and Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. (2014). Brock university strategic mandate agreement (2014–2017). Toronto, Ontario: Queen’s Printer. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/vision/BrockAgreement.pdf
Brown, L. R. (2013). Can we save our civilization? In J. A. Crone (Ed.), 15 Disturbing things we need to know (pp. 13–20). Los Angeles, Australia, London, UK and New Delhi, India: Sage Publications.
Brown, V. A., Harris, J. A., & Russell, J. A. (Eds.). (2010). Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination. London, UK and Washington, DC: Earthscan Publications.
Canadian Association of University Teachers. (2012, September 21). Assault on labour rights and postsecondary education (Memorandum from Executive Director James L. Turk). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from Queen’s University Faculty Association website: http://qufa.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/caut-memorandum-assault-on-labour-rights-and-post-secondary-education-21-september-2012/
Canadian Broadcasting Company. (2014, October 14). Naomi Klein wins 2014 Hilary Weston prize. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/10/naomi-klein-wins-2014-hilary-weston-prize.html
Canadian Science Writers Association. (2014). Meet Ian Mosbey, the man who exposed Canada’s experiments on Aboriginals. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://sciencewriters.ca/2013/10/30/meet-ian-mosby-the-man-who-exposed-canadas-experiments-on-aboriginals/
Carrington, D. (2014, November 2). IPCC: Rapid carbon emission cuts vital to stop severe climate change impacts. The Guardian. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/02/rapid-carbon-emission-cuts-severe-impact-climate-change-ipcc-report
Christie, M. (2006). Transdisciplinary research and aboriginal knowledge. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 35(1), 78–89.
Council of Ontario Universities. (2009). Ontario universities going greener. Report of campus sustainability initiatives. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.cou.on.ca/news/commentary-events/events/events-pdfs/going-greener-full-report-on-sustainability-init
Crone, J. A. (Ed.). (2013). 15 disturbing things we need to know. Los Angeles, Australia, London,UK and New Delhi, India: Sage Publications.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. London, UK:Bloomsbury Publishing.
Dincã, I. (2011). Stages in the configuration of the transdisciplinary project of Basarab Nicolescu. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://basarab.nicolescu.perso.sfr.fr/Basarab/Docs_Notice/Irina_Dinca.pdf
Elgie, S., & McClay, J. (2013). BC’s carbon tax shift is working well after four years (attention Ottawa). Canadian Public Policy, 39(Supplement 2), S1–S10.
Esguerra, M. (2014, November 13). US, China pledges milestone agreement versus climate change. The Daily Energy Report. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/us-china-pledges-milestone-agreement-versus-climate-change/
European Commission. (2013). Bees & pesticides: Commission goes ahead with plan to better protect bees. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://eurlex.eropa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:139:0012:0026:EN:PDF
Ferrarin, A. (2001). Hegel and Aristotle. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Fine, M. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies (Review of the 2nd ed.). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/node/16704
Flood, A., & Irvine, L. (2009). Outstanding ‘complexity’ wins Naomi Klein £50,000 inaugural Warwick prize. The Guardian News (online). Retrieved December 15, from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/feb/24/naomi-klein-warwick-prize
Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and punish – the birth of the prison. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Gaddotti, M. (2000). Pedagogy of the earth and culture of sustainability. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Instituto Paulo Freire.
Giroux, H. A. (2010, November 23). Lessons to be learned from Paulo Freire as education is being taken over by the mega rich. Truthout/OP-ED [online]. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://archive.truthout.org/lessons-be-learned-from-paulo-freire-education-is-being-taken-overmega-rich65363
Giroux, H. A., & Searls Giroux, S. (2004). Take back higher education: Race, youth and the crisis of democracy in the post-civil rights era. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967, 2009). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Government of Canada. (1985). Indian Act, R.S.C. 1985, C. I-5. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/
Government of Ontario. (2013). Ontario’s differentiation policy framework for post-secondary education. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Queen’s Printer, and Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/PolicyFramework_PostSec.pdf
Hahn, S. S. (2007). Contradiction in motion: Hegel’s organic concept of life and value. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Harvard University. (2013). Harvard university fossil fuel divestment statement. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.harvard.edu/president/fossil-fuels
Holmes, D., & Gastaldo, D. (2004). Rhizomatic thought in nursing: An alternative path for the development of the discipline. Nursing Philosophy, 5, 258–267.
Hyslop-Margison, E. J., & Thayer, J. (2009). Teaching democracy – Citizenship education as critical pedagogy. Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Boston, MA, & Taipei, Taiwan: Sense Publishers.
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities. (2014). KWI – Climate and culture. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.kulturwissenschaften.de/en/home/index.html
International Investors Group on Climate Change. (2014). Global statement on climate change. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://investorsonclimatechange.org/
Kahn, R. (2008). From education for sustainable development to ecopedagogy: Sustaining capitalism or sustaining life? Green Theory & Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy, 4(1), 1–14.
Kahn, R. (2010). Critical pedagogy, ecoliteracy, and planetary crisis. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
Kincheloe, J. L. (2001). Describing the Bricolage: Conceptualizing a new Rigour in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 679–692.
Kincheloe, J. L. (2008). Critical pedagogy primer. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
Kincheloe, J. L. (2010). Knowledge and critical pedagogy – An introduction. New York, NY: Springer.
Kincheloe, J. L., & McLaren, P. (2005). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 303–342). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Klein, J. T. (2004). Prospects for transdisciplinarity. Futures, 36(4), 515–526.
Klein, J. T., Grossenbacher-Mansuy, W., Häberli, R., Bill, A., Scholz, R. W., & Welti, M. (Eds.). (2001). Transdisciplinarity: Joint problem solving among science, technology and society – An effective way for managing complexity. Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag.
Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything – Capitalism versus the climate. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Koizumi, H. (2001). Trans-disciplinarity. Neuroendocrinology Letters, 22(4), 219–221.
Krasny, M. E., & Dillon, J. (2013). Trading zones in environmental education – Creating transdisciplinary dialogue. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
Kueffer, C., Underwood, E., Hirsch Hadorn, G., Holderegger, R., Lehning, M., Pohl, C., … Edwards, P. (2012). Synthesis – Enabling effective problem-oriented research for sustainable development. Ecology and Society, 17(4), 1–16.
Lawrence, R. J., & Deprés, C. (2004). Futures of transdisciplinarity. Futures, 36(4), 397–405.
Leavy, P. (2011). Essentials of transdisciplinary research: Using problem-centered methodologies. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Lincoln, Y. S. (2001). An emerging new Bricoleur: Promises and possibilities—A reaction to Joe Kincheloe’s “describing the Bricoleur”. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 693–696.
Lindsay, S. A. (1998). Implicit rhetoric: Kenneth Burke’s extension of Aristotle’s concept of entelechy. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Lu, C., Warchol, K. M., & Callahan, R. A. (2014). Sub-lethal exposure to neonicotinoids impaired honey bees winterization before proceeding to colony collapse disorder. Bulletin of Insectology, 67(1), 125–130.
Luhmann, N. (1986). The autopoiesis of social systems. In F. Geyer & J. van der Zouwen (Eds.), Sociocybernetic paradoxes (pp. 172–192). London, UK: Sage Publishers.
McGregor, S. L. T., & Volckmann, R. (2011). Transversity – Transdisciplinary approaches in higher education. Tucson, AZ: Integral Publishers.
McLaren, P. (2001). Bricklayers and Bricoleurs: A Marxist Addendum. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 700–705.
Mitchell, R. C. (2003). Ideological reflections on the DSM-IV-R (or pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, Dorothy!). Child and Youth Care Forum, 32(5), 281–298.
Mitchell, R. C. (2005). Postmodern reflections on the UNCRC: Towards utilising article 42 as an international compliance indicator. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 13(3), 315–331.
Mitchell, R. C. (2010). Who’s afraid now? Reconstructing Canadian citizenship education through transdisciplinarity. Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, 32(1), 37–65.
Mitchell, R. C. (2011). Sustaining change on a Canadian campus: Preparing Brock university for a campus sustainability audit. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 12(1), 7–21.
Mitchell, R. C. (2013). Reflections on the UNCRC from a transdisciplinary bricoleur. Special issue on the future of children’s rights. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 21(3), 510–522.
Mitchell, R. C. (2015). Re-theorising child citizenship through transdisciplinarity: From the local to the global. In W. Vandenhole, E. Desmet, D. Reynaert, & S. Lembrechts (Eds.), The international handbook on children’s rights studies (pp. 164–182). Abingdon, Oxon and New York, NY: Routledge Publishers. ISBN: 978-1-315-76953-0
Mitchell, R. C., & Corman, J. (2009). Sustaining change at Brock: Research report – Preparing Brock university for the campus sustainability audit 2008–09 (Unpublished report available from the authors).
Mitchell, R. C., & Moore, S. A. (Eds.). (2012). Politics, participation and power relations: Transdisciplinary approaches to critical citizenship in the classroom and community. Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Boston, MA and Taipei, Taiwan: Sense Publishers.
Mitchell, R. C., & Parmar, J. (2010). Research report for Brock university GHG (carbon) footprint – Executive summary 2008 (Unpublished report available from the authors).
Mitchell, R. C., May, B., Purdy, S., & Vella, C. (2012). UNESCO biosphere reserves: Towards common conceptual ground. In N. Ishwaran (Ed.), The biosphere (pp. 285–302). InTech Open Access, ISBN: 978-953-51-0292-2. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.intechopen.com/books/howtoreference/the-biosphere/unesco-biosphere-reserves-towards-common-intellectual-ground
Montuori, A. (2008). Foreword. In B. Nicolescu (Ed.), Transdisciplinarity – Theory and practice (pp. ix–xvii). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.
Moore, S. A., & Mitchell, R. C. (Eds.). (2008). Power, pedagogy and praxis: Social justice in the globalized classroom. Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Boston, MA and Taipei, Taiwan: Sense Publishers.
Moore, S. A., & Mitchell, R. C. (2009). Rights-based restorative praxis: Promoting compliance with international standards. Youth Justice: An International Journal, 9(1), 27–43.
Moore, S. A., & Mitchell, R. C. (2011a). Theorising rights-based restorative justice: The Canadian context. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 19(1), 81–105.
Moore, S. A., & Mitchell, R. C. (2011b). Human rights within/without education: A critical pedagogy for troubling times. In J. A. Kentel (Ed.), Educating the young: The ethics of care (pp. 189–210). Oxford, England: Peter Lang Publishing.
Moore, S. A., Tulk, W., & Mitchell, R. (2005). Qallunaat crossing: The Southern-Northern divide and promising practices for Canada’s Inuit young people. First People’s Child and Family Review, 2(1), 117–129.
Nicolescu, B. (2002). Manifesto of transdisciplinarity. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
Nicolescu, B. (Ed.). (2008). Transdisciplinarity – Theory and practice. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2014). The education policy outlook. Paris, France: Directorate for Education Policy and Skills, OECD. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.oecd.org/edu/policyoutlook.htm
Parlapiano, A. (2014, November 12). Asia Pacific - Climate goals pledged by China and the U.S. The New York Times. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/12/world/asia/climate-goals-pledged-by-us-and-china-2.html?_r=0
Pigozzi, M. J. (2010). Implementing the UN decade for education in sustainable development (DESD): Achievements, open questions and strategies for the way forward. International Review of Education, 56(2–3), 255–269.
Potstra, A. (2008, October 7). How green is Brock? Brock Press. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.brockpress.com/2008/10/how-green-is-brock-3/
Ralston Saul, J. (2008). A fair country: Telling truths about Canada. Toronto, Canada: Viking Canada and Penguin Group (Canada).
Robinson, J. (2008). Being undisciplined: Transgressions and intersections in academia and beyond. Futures, 40(1), 70–86.
Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies (2nd ed.). London, UK: Zed Books. (Original work published 1999)
Smith, R. (2013, September 5). New divestment focus on campus: Fossil fuels. The New York Times. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/a-new-divestmentfocus-fossil-fuels/?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A10%22
Somerville, M. A., & Rapport, D. J. (2002). Transdisciplinarity: Recreating integrated knowledge. Oxford, UK: EOLSS Publishers Co. Ltd.
Sustainable Prosperity Institute. (2013). BC’s carbon tax shift after five years: Results – an environmental (and economic) success story. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.sustainableprosperity.ca/article3685
Suzuki, D. (2010). The legacy: An elder’s vision for our sustainable future. Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1–40.
United Nations. (1987). Report of the world commission on environment and development (The Brundtland report). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from www.worldinbalance.net/intagreements/1987-brundtland.php
United Nations. (2002). Resolution 57/254 – United Nations decade of education for sustainable development. New York, NY: United Nations General Assembly. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.un-documents.net/a57r254.htm
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2012). Interview with professor J. Baird Callicott. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/the_road_to_harmony_between_humans_and_nature_lies_in_a_philosophical_revolution_interview_with_pr_j_baird_callicott/#.VF_LLfnF-So
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2014a). Decade for education in sustainable development (DESD) 2005–2014. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-forsustainable-development/
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2014b). Man and the biosphere (MAB): Biosphere reserves directory. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/man-andbiosphere-programme/
United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2014). IPCC climate change 2014 synthesis report. Geneva, Switzerland and New York, NY: United Nations.
University Leaders for a Sustainable Future. (1990). Talloires declaration. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.ulsf.org/programs_talloires.html
University of Victoria Faculty Association. (2014). Faculty association delivers letters on fossil fuel divestment. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.uvicfa.ca/1/faculty-association-deliversletters-on-fossil-fuel-divestment/
Urry, J. (2005). The complexity turn. Theory, Culture & Society, 22(5), 1–14.
Van Dongen, M. (2011, March 14). Carbon count just the beginning for Brock. The Welland Tribune. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2011/03/14/carbon-count-just-thebeginning-for-brock
Van Dongen, M., & Mayer, T. (2009, November 30). Brock takes steps to determine carbon footprint. The St. Catharines Standard. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.brocku.ca/webfm_send/3957
Victoria University. (2014). Environmental sustainability at Victoria university in Melbourne, Australia.Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.vu.edu.au/about-us/vision-mission/environmentalsustainability-at-vu
Wainwright, J. (2010). Climate change, capitalism, and the challenge of transdisciplinarity. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(4), 983–991.
Wallace, K. (2009, February 4). Universities’ ivory towers going green: Driven by idealism and academic research energy-saving projects are flowering on campus. The Toronto Star (Section GT, p. 3). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2009/02/04/universities_ivory_towers_going_green.html
Werner, B. (2014). Complex systems laboratory – University of California at San Diego. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://complex-systems.ucsd.edu/
Wittemyer, G., Northrup, J. M., Blanc, J., Douglas-Hamilton, I., Omondi, P., & Burnham, K. P. (2014). Illegal killing for ivory drives global decline in African elephants. Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, 111, 13117–13121.
World Wildlife Fund. (2014). Living planet report 2014. Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Sense Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mitchell, R.C., Moore, S.A. (2015). Planetary Praxis and Pedagogy. In: Mitchell, R.C., Moore, S.A. (eds) Planetary Praxis & Pedagogy. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-214-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-214-1_2
Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam
Online ISBN: 978-94-6300-214-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)