Listening for Reconciliation and Beyond

Abstract

When Mi‘kmaw Elder and scholar Marie Battiste visited MSVU in 2015, she reminded those in attendance to “listen with our hearts” when working with Indigenous people. In this paper, I discuss an Indigenous perspective on the importance of listening in teaching, maintaining relationships, and reconciliation. I discuss the idea of taking time to listen to students as a powerful guiding principle for advancing the quality of post-second Instruction. This listening process takes time, but the rewards are significant. Whereas our society and our institutions often encourage us to act efficiently, listening with one‘s heart can serve as a radical disruption in the normativity of time-restricted interactions. More practically, listening to our students can help us develop positive relationships. It also serves as a way to make connections between course material and our students‘ lives. Finally, feeling heard is perhaps the most humanizing experience a student can have, and for students who have been systematically oppressed and alienated by the education system, a teacher who listens with their heart is a gift unlike any other.