Teaching Where You Are: Storying Social Studies Teacher Relationship To Land

J'Shon Lee

In a time of climate crisis and with calls for greater environmental-related topics in the social studies field, I center relationality in my dissertation as necessary for resurgence and collective care in learning with/from the Land. My study examines social studies teachers' perception of their relationship with the Land, more specifically with O'odham Land. Guided by Calderón's (2014) framing of Land Education and Grande's (2008) Red Pedagogy, I contend that settler colonialism is deeply embedded in the social studies education field and has erased Indigenous histories and undermined Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty, as well as Indigenous conceptualizations of Land. As social studies teachers are curricular-instructional gatekeepers, who make the day-to-day decisions concerning the curricular and pedagogical experiences of their students, my study also examines the level of influence relationship to Land has in teacher decision-making. By applying a two-eyed seeing approach called Land Phenomenology, which brings together Archibald's (2008) Indigenous Storywork, walking, reading, and storying Land, and critical post-intentional phenomenology (crit-PIP; Vagle et al., 2024), I engage the crit-PIP triangle and arts-based methods to follow relational encounters of phenomenological material, including storied lived experiences gathered from walking interviews and teacher-implemented curriculum, theoretical concepts, and researcher post-reflexions. As the social studies field seeks to prepare effective citizens who consider the Land in their actions and as higher education institutions pursue meaningful partnerships with Native Nations, relational learning and methodological models informed by Indigenous worldviews, are essential for disrupting settler futurity and pursuing Indigenous futurity.

About J'Shon Lee

J'Shon Lee is N'Dee (White Mountain Apache) from Hondah, Arizona. She is of the Butterfly clan and born for the Pinetree People. She is a mother, daughter, wife, godmother, and sister and enjoys being on the Land with her family. J'Shon is currently a PhD Candidate in the Learning, Literacies, and Technologies program at the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovations at Arizona State University. She studies teacher relationship with Land and considers the possibilities of how social studies teachers can teach about the Land, particularly by engaging Indigenous ways of knowing. Before heading back to graduate school, J'Shon taught middle school social studies in New Mexico. She holds a BA in Business Management from Arizona State University, an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico, and an MA in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from Stanford University.