Joy Amid Ruin

In this paper, I reflect on the past decade as an educator and graduate student to highlight the joy that accompanied my shifting understanding of literacy. I conducted an autobiographical narrative inquiry and used selections from blog entries and graduate coursework in order to reflect on my “mome...

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Main Author: Aleksandra Waliszewska
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada 2025-06-01
Series:Language and Literacy: A Canadian Educational e-journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/langandlit/index.php/langandlit/article/view/29761
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author Aleksandra Waliszewska
author_facet Aleksandra Waliszewska
author_sort Aleksandra Waliszewska
collection DOAJ
description In this paper, I reflect on the past decade as an educator and graduate student to highlight the joy that accompanied my shifting understanding of literacy. I conducted an autobiographical narrative inquiry and used selections from blog entries and graduate coursework in order to reflect on my “moments of turning”. I begin with a logocentric understanding of literacy as a white settler in two Indigenous communities, but over time embrace a multimodal, embodied, emergent, place-based, and more-than-human conception of literacies within a context of the climate and nature emergency. This conception learns from and with Indigenous ways of knowing rooted in ecology, relationships, and the land. I argue that this understanding of literacies brings joy and opens possibilities in a precarious world.
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issn 1496-0974
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publisher Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada
record_format Article
series Language and Literacy: A Canadian Educational e-journal
spelling doaj-art-770215bf8ccc4669a8faf2ef173f34242025-08-20T02:06:28ZengLanguage and Literacy Researchers of CanadaLanguage and Literacy: A Canadian Educational e-journal1496-09742025-06-0127310.20360/langandlit29761Joy Amid RuinAleksandra Waliszewska0University of VictoriaIn this paper, I reflect on the past decade as an educator and graduate student to highlight the joy that accompanied my shifting understanding of literacy. I conducted an autobiographical narrative inquiry and used selections from blog entries and graduate coursework in order to reflect on my “moments of turning”. I begin with a logocentric understanding of literacy as a white settler in two Indigenous communities, but over time embrace a multimodal, embodied, emergent, place-based, and more-than-human conception of literacies within a context of the climate and nature emergency. This conception learns from and with Indigenous ways of knowing rooted in ecology, relationships, and the land. I argue that this understanding of literacies brings joy and opens possibilities in a precarious world. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/langandlit/index.php/langandlit/article/view/29761more-than-human literaciesautobiographical narrative inquiryposthumanclimate education
spellingShingle Aleksandra Waliszewska
Joy Amid Ruin
Language and Literacy: A Canadian Educational e-journal
more-than-human literacies
autobiographical narrative inquiry
posthuman
climate education
title Joy Amid Ruin
title_full Joy Amid Ruin
title_fullStr Joy Amid Ruin
title_full_unstemmed Joy Amid Ruin
title_short Joy Amid Ruin
title_sort joy amid ruin
topic more-than-human literacies
autobiographical narrative inquiry
posthuman
climate education
url https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/langandlit/index.php/langandlit/article/view/29761
work_keys_str_mv AT aleksandrawaliszewska joyamidruin