This article considers the notion of belonging as an always incomplete and evolving journey integral to which is the gift of otherness; a journey that consists of a continuous mutation of self, others and world. This contrasts with the more fixed notion of 'belonging-to' that suggests prescribed identities affiliated to an established order, which…

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and their underlying ethical qualities guide social interaction and the process by which Indigenous children learn what it means to be a person within family and community life. Using the Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) framework as a starting point, this paper explores a case study of a death in the…

This article explores the transformative potential of mindfulness and rituals of regard, drawing inspiration from bell hooks's insights on communities of care. Focusing on the intersection of epistemology, ontology, and pedagogy, I investigate how mindfulness can serve as a liberatory pedagogy, challenging Cartesian legacies and fostering…

The author invited two teachers affiliated with their graduate program in literacy to explore how children's social identities impacted students' reading process. The teachers, Taylor and Dana, worked in urban elementary charter schools in New York City, at the time. The participants agreed to share samples from their classrooms to illustrate how…

In this article, we explore digital storytelling as a community-engaged pedagogy to create students' immigration stories in Maryland as part of the project "Intercultural Tales: Learning with Maryland's Immigrant Communities." Stories highlight students' lived experiences of immigration, language, and identity. By envisioning themselves…

Four stories of social learning from one Australian university reflect on communities of practice (CoPs) focused on different aspects of quality in teaching and learning. Each convener writes about their CoP convening experience in the context of Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner's mapping of the "mindset of a systems convener" (2021,…

This article tells the story of a university community engagement project that began in the late spring of 2020 when the world went into lockdown. Increased concern over women's welfare and well-being was brought into question in relation to those who are vulnerable with complex needs and had suffered societal-induced hardships. In conjunction…

Over the past two decades, a growing body of research has investigated college students' friendships and how these relationships can both enable and constrain students' success. I review this body of literature, describing the characteristics and processes of college students' friendships. First, I review work that describes characteristics of…

This manuscript focuses on student veterans' best option to start their post-high-school education: attending community colleges. It illustrates this point using the story of the author, a US Army combat veteran who began his career at a community college, and other veterans who also began their college careers at the community college. Using…

Design education in Australia is still largely dominated by Westphalian perspectives, values, histories and ways of learning. The focus on Euro-western aesthetics, technologies, timelines and processes marginalises other identities, cultures and places. This signals to students that they should internalise, value and master dominant narratives,…

African ideas, science, technology, scholarship and worldviews have been disproportionately displaced and marginalized in relevant global dialogues. In academic circles, African methods of knowing have been questioned, undervalued, mocked, misconstrued, and disregarded, causing apprehension. These negative attitudes are internalized via the…

The emergence of COVID-19 and its diverse impacts on human life ushered in the need to rethink some of the old ideas that humans have lived by. The desire to preserve human life amid threatening circumstances, without giving up on the values of life, requires the reordering of critical sectors of social existence. Against this backdrop, the paper…

Despite decades of effort to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), many fields remain demographically skewed. Marginalized and minoritized people are still underrepresented in and underserved by the sciences. In this paper, the author considers the question, "How do we improve representation in…

Internationally a plethora of narratives within, beside and in opposition to multiculturalism has necessitated the rethinking of some key questions. Is multiculturalism apt for equitable representation? Can multiculturalism remain the hegemonic discourse and policy of diversity or is it destined to be supplanted? In this essay, we reconsider…

The pandemic has forced Indian dance communities to pivot to online mediums. I investigate pandemic-induced shifts in two ways. I theorize through "Chhapaka" (a sling-shot movement involving oppositions of footwork and torso articulations) of my dancing Odissi (an eastern Indian traditional form) body, providing an embodied metaphor of…