How can we make Arctic education more meaningful or engaging? The complexity of environmental change is driving the need for greater collaborative approaches in education to increase resilience and foster community adaptation.
By Maéva Gauthier, PhD Candidate, Geography Department, Research Associate, UNESCO Chair in Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, University of Victoria
S. Jeff Birchall, Lead of UArctic Thematic Network on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience, Associate Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Alberta
The Arctic Circumpolar Education Panel and Workshop on Environmental Change and Resilience – which took place in Bodø, Norway during Arctic Congress 2024 – aimed to foster and strengthen new and existing partnerships to collaboratively form a student-centered and locally-tailored circumpolar education program. The panel showcased diverse educational case studies from UArctic Thematic Networks (TN), offering perspectives on creating inclusive, place-based educational programs that effectively engage UArctic TNs, graduate students, and community partners.
During the panel, we heard from a diversity of scholars from various Arctic countries and disciplines. S. Jeff Birchall, for instance, shared his experience with Arctic Communities, a collaborative education program which brought together Inuit youth and graduate students to feature climate stories of adaptation and resilience. The bilingual program is hosted by the education organization Live It Earth and is distributed to K-12 schools across Canada.
Diane Hirshberg, Director and Professor of Education Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research and member of the UArctic TN on Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity in Education, discussed the importance of policies to transform education in rural Alaska, the need to make education more relevant, and the importance of locally contextualized education and land-based programs to support community resilience.
Anna Sinisalo, from GRID-Arendal and the UArctic TN on Arctic Plastic Pollution, shared the importance of education programs tailored to graduate students and community members to support awareness about the issue of plastics pollution and monitoring protocols.
Sean Asiqłuq Topkok, from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the UArctic TN on Verdde Indigenous Education, spoke on the Indigenous studies graduate program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, as well as the Alaska Native Knowledge Network which serves as a resource for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing. His contributions highlighted the need for more contextualized and tailored education content that includes local context and culture.
Finally, Anthony Speca, who was representing the UArctic Læra Institute, highlighted the Circumpolar Studies curriculum development guide and pedagogical resources available to support undergraduate teaching and learning. He also emphasized the importance of a curriculum framework that can be locally adaptable and relevant to community resilience. Additionally, Speca spoke about the model Arctic Council he facilitates through Polar Aspect. Here, students take on governance roles and gain insight into decision-making processes. This participatory approach has been shown to build critical thinking skills and confidence while promoting an understanding of different perspectives related to complex issues.
Following the panel, the audience joined the panelists for a facilitated group discussion where they were able to contribute their perspectives on the panel’s themes. While a full report has not yet been released, here are some highlights from the event related to elements necessary for supporting collaborative education:
● Include diverse voices (youth, community members, elders, educators, researchers) in the process of creating education programs.
● Encourage your educational institutions to look critically at their policies and practices in order to shift power dynamics.
● Invest in developing capacity and resources to support participatory approaches, training educators as facilitators, and compensating community knowledge holders fairly.
● Advocate for community-led education initiatives; with a diversity of perspectives, including traditional and scientific knowledge, these approaches support relevant local solutions and empower communities to address their specific challenges.
● Support land-based or experiential learning programs and explore the integration with current education programs.
● Strengthen Arctic education networks (cross-disciplines amongst networks, not only education-related) to facilitate knowledge exchange, share successful program examples, and collaborative research across the circumpolar regions; these could include webinar series, workshops, and panels to continue the dialogue and create clear calls to action.
We are keen to engage and discuss further with the UArctic community and to work together on the next steps to co-create a collaborative and inclusive framework for future Arctic education programs on environmental change and resilience. You can reach out to us via email at maeva@uvic.ca or jeff.birchall@ualberta.ca. With a more collaborative approach, education can support resilience and community transformation.
This initiative was supported financially by the UArctic and Memorial University Global Arctic Leadership Initiative - Indigenous and Northern Collaborative Research and Education Fund.
