2024-Ted Aoki Award for Best Paper in Curriculum Studies published in the Alberta Journal of Education Research (AJER)

Ted Aoki Award for Best Paper in Curriculum Studies
Announcement 2024
“Turning to Greet the Unheard, Unseen, and Unknown in Western Thought: Autoethnographic Stories of Learning with the Blackfoot” by Sherri Rinkel-Mackay (Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 69(2), Summer 2023, 144-166) is an invitation to walk alongside the author through lived stories of listening to and learning from the more-than-human world in dialogue with Indigenous Elders. Rinkel-Mackay presents a detailed account of her commitments to reconciliation and a pointed reminder of the call that now beckons all of us. Jurors appreciated the authenticity of the writing and the clarity of the message, as well as the charge to look beyond one’s assumptions about who is/can be the teacher when engaging in place- or land-based pedagogies. Jurors were also drawn to the paper’s wonderful storytelling and narrative quality and the autoethnographic stories the author details, as well as the emphasis on Indigenous pedagogical practices. The timely and sensitive focus on decolonizing the curriculum fits well with Aoki’s scholarship and ethical commitments. The paper makes an important contribution to knowledge and understanding in curriculum studies.