The Ecological Heart of Teaching

Radical Tales of Refuge and Renewal for Classrooms and Communities

Jackie Seidel, David W. Jardine, Shirley R. Steinberg

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781433132360
• eBook ISBN: 9781453917336
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Computer Science General

The Ecological Heart of Teaching is a collection of writings by teachers about their life in classrooms. Reflecting over three years of collective work, it illustrates how teachers, parents, and students can avoid some of the distractions and panic endemic to many schools, allowing them to focus thoughtfully on rigorous, beautiful work. It draws on ecological thinking, Buddhism, and hermeneutics to provide deeper, richer, and more abundant sources for teaching, thinking, and practice, and shows how these three lineages provide keys to decode the current malaise that surrounds schooling. The book will be valuable to beginning and experienced teachers and administrators, as well as to parents and anyone involved in stepping away from the exhausting industrial images and ideas that have turned schooling into an ecological and intellectual disaster. For those interested in interpretive research and life-writing, the book provides a wide array of examples; it is a valuable resource for undergraduate classes in curriculum and teaching, as well as graduate research methods courses interested in new forms of thinking and writing.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Foreword: Not Just as We Please, or by Choice: A Meditation on What It Means to Make a Difference
• Chapter One: Introduction (Jackie Seidel and David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Two: We Went Once Around the Sun: Some Notes on the Origins and Organization of This Book (Jackie Seidel and David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Three: From What Does Ethical Relationality Flow? An Indian Act in Three Artifacts (Dwayne Donald)
• Chapter Four: Successful Assimilation (Lesley Tait)
• Chapter Five: A Pedagogy of Panic (Carli Molnar)
• Chapter Six: A Better Place (Sandra McNeil)
• Chapter Seven: All Beings Are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology, Buddhism and Pedagogy (1997) (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Eight: Relearning Freedom: Advice to a New Teacher (Margeaux Montgomery)
• Chapter Nine: Matches (Deirdre Bailey)
• Chapter Ten: A Modern Hunting Tradition (Jodi Latremouille)
• Chapter Eleven: “You Need Accuracy: ”An Appreciation of a “Modern Hunting Tradition” (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Twelve: Advice to New Teachers (Scott Hassett)
• Chapter Thirteen: Beckoning (Jennifer Gray)
• Chapter Fourteen: Remembering Mr. Routhier (Lesley Tait)
• Chapter Fiteen: Teaching Everything (Karen Schweighardt)
• Chapter Sixteen: Blossom Everlasting: A Meditation (David Geoffrey Smith)
• Chapter Seventeen: Timed Beings (Khatleen Alnas)
• Chapter Eighteen: In My Timid Voice (L. A. James)
• Chapter Ninteen: My Brother (Scott Hassett)
• Chapter Twenty: Advice to a New Teacher (Ian Walsh)
• Chapter Twenty-One: Meditations on Contemplative Pedagogy as Sanctuary (Jackie Seidel)
• Chapter Twenty-Two: Thoughts and Aspirations for a New Teacher (Stephanie Bartlett)
• Chapter Twenty-Three: Dear New Teacher (Towani Duchscher)
• Chapter Twenty-Four: Henry (Miranda Hector)
• Chapter Twenty-Five: A Little Uprising (Paul Le Marquand)
• Chapter Twenty-Six: (Here Is) Where You Are Supposed to Be (Jessica Kelly)
• Chapter Twenty-Seven: River Otters and Such (Judson Innes)
• Chapter Twenty-Eight: My Teacher Supply List (Karen Schweighardt)
• Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (Carli Molnar)
• Chapter Thirty: Echolocations (Jackie Seidel, David W. Jardine, Deirdre Bailey, Holly Gray, Miranda Hector, Judson Innes, Carole Jones, Tanya Kowalchuk, Neelam Mal, Jennifer Meredith, Carli Molnar, Peter Rilstone, Trish Savill, Kari Sirup, Lesley Tait, Lisa Taylor, and Darren Vaast)
• Chapter Thirty-One: Chasing Calmness (Lori Bonanno)
• Chapter Thirty-Two: Tortuga (Deirdre Bailey)
• Chapter Thirty-Three: Conversation (Stephanie Bartlett)
• Chapter Thirty-Four: Dear New Teacher (Derek Lawson)
• Chapter Thirty-Five: Nani (Neelam Mal)
• Chapter Thirty-Six: On Witches and Kites (Hannah Blades)
• Chapter Thirty-Seven: It Is All Love (Lauren Sele)
• Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Typewriter (Kirsten Varner)
• Chapter Thirty-Nine: Curriculum Artifact: Guided Reading Table (Jackie Seidel)
• Chapter Forty: New Stories and Roles (Elisa Rapisarda)
• Chapter Forty-One: Too Young for an Identity Crisis (Kyria Pires)
• Chapter Forty-Two: From Darkness to Light: Observations From Inside the Linoleum Cavern (Kate Schutz)
• Chapter Forty-Three: Hypocrite (Jodi Latremouille)
• Chapter Forty-Four: Two Young Fish (Deirdre Bailey)
• Chapter Forty-Five: Whisking Away the Table (Towani Duchscher)
• Chapter Forty-Six: Spontaneous Learning (Paul le Marquand)
• Chapter Forty-Seven: “I Love the Terror in a Mother’s Heart” (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Forty-Eight: Dear Adam’s Teacher (Lisa Taylor)
• Chapter Forty-Nine: Remembrances of the Land and Rocks in My Pocket (Lesley Tait)
• Chapter Fifty: Fish Bones in the Trees (Erin Quinn)
• Chapter Fifty-One: Let’s Take a Journey (Kirsten Varner)
• Chapter Fifty-Two: Old Dog, Same Trick (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Fifty-Three: Thoughts on Being Neither Finished nor Unfinished (Megan Liddell)
• Chapter Fifty-Four: There Is Only This Farm (Scott Hassett)
• Chapter Fifty-Five: How to Love Black Snow (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Fifty-Six: Bee & Nothingness (Michael W. Derby)
• Chapter Fifty-Seven: Turning In/wards (Jodi Latremouille)
• Chapter Fifty-Eight: Radiant Beings (Kari Sirup)
• Chapter Fifty-Nine: Additional Thoughts on the Terror in a Mother’s Heart: An Allegorical/Pedagogical Speculation on the Economies of Knowledge (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Sixty: Josh (Scott Hassett)
• Chapter Sixty-One: Curriculum Theorizing (Jackie Seidel)
• Chapter Sixty-Two: Interview with the Gym Hall Water Fountain (Ian Walsh)
• Chapter Sixty-Three: Beyond the Outfield Fence (Judson Innes)
• Chapter Sixty-Four: American Dippers and Alberta Winter Strawberries (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Sixty-Five: Advice to a New Teacher (Kirsten Varner)
• Chapter Sixty-Six: Girls, Go Close the Doors! (Neelam Mal)
• Chapter Sixty-Seven: So Many Voices (Scott Hassett)
• Chapter Sixty-Eight: An Ode to Xmas Present (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Sixty-Nine: Dear Cohort (Ian Walsh)
• Chapter Seventy: An Address (Judson Innes)
• Chapter Seventy-One: Becoming Uncongealed (David W. Jardine)
• Chapter Seventy-Two: Ode to My Rabbit Teacher (Jackie Seidel)
• Chapter Seventy-Three: School Storage Bags: Not as Innocent as They Seem (Stephanie Bartlett)
• Chapter Seventy-Four: Teaching, Practice, Wisdom: An Invitation to the Banff Centre (David W. Jardine and Jackie Seidel)
• Chapter Seventy-Five: “The Path and the Goal” (Jackie Seidel and David W. Jardine)
• Bibliography
• List of Contributors