Listening-Based Pedagogies: Story-Listening and Other Educational Approaches Attuned to a Critical + Indigenous + Clown Framework


Rafael Pellizzer Soares, University of Alberta

This transparadigmatic study is driven by the guiding curiosity what could a listening-based pedagogy entail? alongside other research questions derived from it. The universe in which this project lives proposes a recognition of more-than-human voices and agency, wondering with(in) phenomena from which data may emerge and glow, and where epistemology emerges concurrently with ontology (knowing, doing, and being are inseparable). I designed this research’s methods upon a Critical + Indigenous + Clown (CIC) theoretical framework in order to create a respectful gathering for welcoming more-than-human affordances, to co-construct relational and reciprocal knowledge, and to promote self- and other-awareness through vulnerability and care. By braiding different perspectives from the CIC framework, I designed guidelines, protocols, encounters, as well as a data analysis path that might support a more creative understanding of listening in academia and schools. The listening approaches selected for this research attend to relationality, silence, holism, culturally responsive practices, critical consciousness, future-oriented perspectives, vulnerability, collaboration, and playfulness. This way, listening becomes crucial in teaching and research practices that work against single stories, stereotypification, domination, oppressive relationships, and other consequences of Western-oriented education. Also, how we listen to and engage with stories in educational environments are also dependent on power dynamics (and related to our endeavor to recognize these unbalanced structures and connections). Thus, this study advocates for the fluidity of knowledge as well as for the impact that varied forms of listening might have on accountable, reciprocal, and equitable relationships, which can support schools to become places where not only space but also power is shared. Dunker and Thebas’ (2019) active + playful listening—which encourages cooperation over competition; Davis’ (1996) hermeneutic listening—which is messy, negotiatory, and intends to defy the taken–for-granted future; and Tupi’s seven types of listening (Werá, 2016)—which resonates with Archibald’s (2008) holistic education—take key roles in both theoretical and methodological frameworks of this study. Regarding methodology, based on the CIC theoretical framework, I assembled three theory-informed listening encounters with five secondary school teachers from Edmonton, AB. These methods and other ethical approaches helped me create space for (self- and other-) contemplation, personal and collective stories, and respectful conversations about listening in a Truth and Reconciliation Education as well as in a Culturally Responsive Education. As one of this study’s conclusion, I argue that due to its fluidity and adaptability, listening is indeed relational and contextual (not inadvertently replicable, though). Listening-based educational practices are certainly something to be shared and learned from one another, but they remain open to be molded to/by each group, context, audience, relationship, and purpose. Furthermore, supported by Critical + Indigenous + Clown theories and practices, Story-listening emerges as both research-creation and pedagogy towards a disruptive, holistic, relational, collaborative, future-oriented, and playful academic/educational environment. In such an environment, reciprocal and fruitful relationships shall flourish, which is indeed crucial for both learning and becoming. In addition, by using story-listening as a teaching approach, teachers feel encouraged to create more opportunities for students’ voices to be heard and respected, which invites learners to bring their cultural knowledge and stories to the classroom. This creates a safe and respectful environment, where children understand that failures and differences are key in a learning process. This study thus aims at supporting an education for the heart, mind, body, and spirit, and at caring for our own vulnerabilities as children care for their favorite toys or as Elders care for their communities. It also endeavours to challenge relations/systems of power and to listen to the multiplicity of other worlds to come.

This paper will be presented at the following session: