The Sacred Circle: A process pedagogy of healing.

Autor/in	Regnier, Robert
Titel	The Sacred Circle: A process pedagogy of healing.
Quelle	In: Interchange, (1994) 2, S.129-144Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0020-5230
DOI	10.1007/BF01534540
Schlagwörter	Sacred circle; Process; Pedagogy; Healing; Indian education; Interdependency; Balance; Wholeness; Aboriginal metaphysics; Cyclic patterns
Abstract	Abstract This paper proposes a process pedagogy based on an aboriginal approach to healing. It is founded on the Sacred Circle teachings of Canadian Plains Indians and on the educational practices undertaken at a school for aboriginal youth, the Joe Duquette High School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Healing, is viewed here as “transition toward meaning, wholeness, connectedness, and balance” (Katz & St. Denis, 1991, p. 24). As aboriginal pedagogy, this approach to the practice and theory of teaching is selfconsciously founded on process symbolized in the Sacred Circle. It is presented here as part of a critical theory of education committed to human emancipation that recognizes that the appropriation of an aboriginal world view as a foundation for teaching is undertaken within the context of modern political and cultural systems and institutions that have excluded, denied, or rejected aboriginal world views. The Sacred Circle is a “traditional symbolic circle” that incorporates the spiritual beliefs of many Indian tribes of North America, including Dakota Nations, Blackfoot Confederacy, Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine nations in Canada. It symbolizes harmony and the belief that life occurs within a series of circular movements that govern their relationship with the environment. Although the Sacred Circle has symbolized aboriginal world views for thousands of years, some schools are beginning only now to use it as a self-conscious foundation for education as healing. The paper begins with Whitehead's criticism of Western metaphysics and his notion of reality as process. These ideas and some of his views about education and teaching provide an introduction to and framework for developing the notion of healing as a process pedagogy based upon the Sacred Circle concept. The Sacred Circle is examined as the expression of an aboriginal metaphysics in which reality is conceptualized as process, the movement of life through wholeness, connectedness, and balance. Healing and teaching are viewed as the transition to meaning in that movement. Finally, process pedagogy as healing is interpreted as having the three phases of belonging, understanding, and critical reflection through an examination of practices at the Joe Duquette High School.
Erfasst von	OLC
Update	2023/2/05