Lori Huston (she/her)

I have received admissions to the Ph.D. in Curriculum & Pedagogy at UBC. I have been selected as the recipient of UBC's premier Ph.D. fellowship award and the UBC Faculty of Education, Aboriginal Ph.D. scholarship. My heart is full of gratitude.

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I am delighted that Anishinaabe scholar Dr. Jan Hare, the newly appointed research Chair of Indigenous pedagogy, has agreed to co-supervise my doctoral work with Dr. Cynthia Nicol. Dr. Hare has a research background in early learning and brings her Anishinaabe sensibilities to my proposed research. In the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Dr. Cynthia Nicol has the knowledge and expertise working in Indigenous communities to complement the multi-layered study I am proposing. 

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My prior research and MEd projects and coursework have focused on Indigenous ECE leadership, which highlighted Indigenous pedagogies connected to reconciliation, place and land-based teachings. I want to continue in this critical area of Indigenous education, focusing on Indigenous pedagogies of place and land-based approaches in early learning settings with connections to heart pedagogy. 

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For my Ph.D., I intend to merge Indigenous knowledge frameworks with heart pedagogies and determine how these can support teaching and learning in Indigenous early learning settings. Specifically, I seek to explore with a group of early childhood educators how they draw from local (Anishinaabe) land-based practices and heart pedagogies to create culturally sustaining learning environments. I intend to investigate how Indigenous ECEs bring in local place-based pedagogies to create a curriculum connected to Anishinaabe ways of knowing and doing. I will also assess how young Anishinaabe children encounter and respond to these pedagogies.

 

What are the collaborative approaches to the design and implementation of Anishinaabe pedagogies? What barriers do caregivers face in the design and implementation? Do these pedagogies of land and heart incite a sense of connection with the land and identity within Anishinaabe children? How do we know these connections are occurring for children?