Teaching through the tensions: dwelling in multiple accountabilities and responsibilities as a scholar-activist educator

Abstract

This portfolio explores the experiences of a twenty-first century educator (myself) in my role as a white settler educator working in a unique high school education model, in a diverse urban context in Winnipeg, Manitoba, facing interlocking oppressive forces of capitalism, colonialism, resource extraction, neoliberalism, and social inequities that make up the global crisis of modernity. Through autoethnographic poetic inquiry, I examine how I embody my accountabilities and responsibilities to/within my school context, and dwell in tensions between conflicting accountabilities and responsibilities, as I simultaneously work within institutions that perpetuate ongoing harms and injustices, and strive for anti-oppressive, culturally sustaining, and ecologically resilient education. The chapters included in the portfolio are: (1) an introduction, (2) a description of the research paradigm (based in relationality/relational accountability) and methodology (autoethnographic poetic inquiry), (3) a literature review documenting the multiple accountabilities and responsibilities that exist for teachers concerned with activism, climate justice, and liberation in the midst of multiple global crises that threaten the well-being of people and the planet, (4) a collection of original poems that document my lived experiences of dwelling within the tensions, (5) a thematic analysis of the poems that critically reflects on commitments and next steps, and (6) a conclusion. Through the thematic analysis, I found that naming tensions such as whiteness, relationship to time and power, harm and violence can open spaces for deeper engagement, and that commitment to meaningful practices is a critical way to train intuition and instinct, allowing for an embodied praxis of connecting with the world, others, and myself as a scholar-activist educator.