Peter Cole

Title

Associate Professor, Indigenous Education

Biography

2000    PhD, Curriculum

            Simon Fraser University

1977    BA, Honours, French, Literature, Literary Movements

            University of Alberta

1975    BSc., Biological Sciences (Genetics)

            University of Alberta

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I am of St’át’imc and Celtic ancestry.  My community is Xáxtsa7 (Douglas First Nation), one of the eleven St’át’imc communities located in the interior plateau of British Columbia along the Fraser River, Lillooet Lake, Lillooet River and Pemberton Valley.  My teaching philosophy is grounded in St’át’imc knowings and practices that are inseparably connected to the land; the land and our language are also inseparable.  How we language our knowings is of key importance.  Our knowings are complex, dynamic, holistic and learned intergenerationally through story, ceremony, observation and lived experience since time immemorial. 

My teaching has focused primarily on four intertwined strands:

• Indigenous knowledges and practices as equivalent epistemologies in the academy and beyond
• Indigenous narrativity, orality and performativity
• Ecojustice and sustainability education
• Indigenous community-based research methodologies

The aim of my teaching is to animate thinking (and acting) in a variety of ways across philosophical, cultural, social, linguistic and geographical differences, learning to ‘read’ the world other/wise so that each of us is able to engage in respectful, ethical, culturally relevant and reciprocal conversations in rethinking the myriad textures, shapes and local/global contexts of ‘place’ within and across species.  With the world on fire, I encourage students to become aware of their individual and collective ecological and ethical footprints and symbiotic relationships/responsibilities for walking lightly and respectfully on the Earth.

Invited Presentation

RECENT KEYNOTES/ADDRESSES

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2022). Panel presentation. Navigating International Research Partnerships. Office of Research in Education, Faculty of Education, UBC.

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2021). Keynote address. Ecojustice literacies, post-capitalist pedagogies & Indigeneity. Whisperings from Peru. Institute for Environmental Learning, SFU, Burnaby, BC..

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2020). Plenary speaker. Ecojustice and Indigeneity: Conversing with human and more-than-human voices in tropical and temperate rainforests. 14^th International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society: Conservation, Environmentalism, and Stewardship—Ecological Spirituality as Common Ground. UBC Robson Centre, Vancouver, BC.

Cole, P. (2020). Keynote address. Research ethics and protocols on Indigenous lands. Place & Space, 7^th Education Graduate Students (EGS) Conference, UBC, Vancouver, BC.

Cole, P. (2020). Panel presentation. Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), Indigenous Perspectives, Sustainability Ambassadors Program, UBC Sustainability Initiative. UBC, Vancouver, BC.

Selected Publications

Books

Cole, P. (2006). Coyote and Raven go canoeing: Coming home to the village. Montréal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press (Native and Northern Series).

Agyeman, J., Cole, P., Haluza-DeLay, R. & O’Riley, P.  (Eds.). (2010). Speaking for ourselves: Environmental justice in Canada. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Journal Articles

Cole, P. (2024). Punctuating musical diacritics of water in cross-species contexts. In Education, 29(3), 117-131. https://journals.uregina.ca/ineducation/article/view/818 

Cole, P. & O’Riley, P. (2020). Indigenous ecojustice narratives in an era of climate change and pandemics. The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability: Annual Review, 16(2), 61-80.

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2017). Performing survivance: (Re)Storying STEM education from an Indigenous perspective. Critical Education, 8(15), 24–40.

Cole, P. (2017). An Indigenous research narrative: Ethics and protocols over time and space. Qualitative Inquiry, 23(5), 343-351.

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2010). Coyote and Raven (p)re-visit environmental education, sustainability and run-away capitalism. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education. 15, 28-50.

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2008). Coyote, Raven, mathematics and complexity. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 5(1),49-62.

Cole, P. (2006). language as technology in indigenous culture. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, 1, 152–167.

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2005). Coyote and Raven talk about the business of education or how did Wall Street Bay Street and Sesame Street get into the pockets of publicly funded universities or vice versa? Workplace: A Journal of Academic Labor, 7(1), 15–28.

Cole, P. (2004). Trick(ster)s of Aboriginal research: or how to use ethical review strategies to perpetuate cultural genocide. Native Studies Review, 15(2), 7–30.

Cole, P. (2002). aboriginalizing methodology: considering the canoe. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(4), 447–459.

Book Chapters

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2024). Resonances and re-entanglements in an era of climate change: Performing reciprocity with the cosmos. In N. Rallis, K. Morimoto, M. Sorensen, V. Triggs & R. L. Irwin (Eds.), Ecopedagogical and a/r/tographical walking: Kinship, nature, and relationality (pp. 189-198). Intellect. https://www.intellectbooks.com/walking-as-art-education

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (in press).A research chat with Coyote & Raven: Equivalency of worldviews, epistemologies and methodologies. In G. Dei (Ed.),International Handbook/Reader on Indigenous Philosophies and CriticalEducation. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Cole, P., & O’Riley, P. (2010). Coyote and Raven talk about equivalency of other/ed knowledges in research. In P. Thomson & M. Walker (Eds.), The Routledge doctoral student’s companion: Getting to grips with research in education and the social sciences (323-334). New York, NY: Routledge Press.

O’Riley, P., & Cole, P (2009). Coyote and Raven talk about the land/scapes. In M. McKenzie, H. Bai, P. Hart & B. Jickling (Eds). Fields of green: Re-storying education. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Cole, P. & O’Riley, P. (2003). Much rez adieux about (Dewey’s) goats in the curriculum: Looking back on tomorrow yesterday. In W. E. Doll, Jr. & N. Gough (Eds.), Curriculum Visions (pp. 144–164). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Conference & symposium organizer

Conference Co-Chair

2019, January

15th International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.

On Sustainability Research Network / EDCP, UBC

Location:  Robson Square, Vancouver, BC

https://onsustainability.com/about/history/2019conference

• 285 participants from 35 countries.
• First time sessions were accepted in Spanish to encourage Global North/Global South networking and alliances.

Recent Research

Performing Survivance: More-than-human Intelligences and Ecological Sustainability

2015–2019

Principal Investigator

SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Insight Grant.

Undergraduate Courses

Undergraduate Courses (NITEP, Native Indian Teacher Education Program)

EDUC 441: Indigenous Epistemology

Undergraduate/Graduate Courses (Peru Summer Institute)

EDCP 467A/EDCP 585C: Ecology, Technology and Indigeneity in the High Amazon

EDCP 467B/585E: Narrativity, Indigeneity and Ecopedagogy in the High Amazon

Graduate Courses

EDCP

EDCP 508:  Research Methodology in Cross-Cultural and Global Contexts

EDCP 532:  Theories and Dimensions of Place-based, Ecohumanist, Critical and Indigenous Lenses

EDCP 539:  Narrativity, Ecopedagogy and Indigeneity

EDCP 562:  Curriculum Issues and Theories: Ecojustice and Sustainability Education Focus

EDCP 585:  Ecojustice Literacies, Post-capitalist Pedagogies and Indigeneity in an Era of Climate Change

EDUC 500:  Introduction to Research Methodology

EDST

EDST 508:  Review of Research in Educational Studies: Researching with Indigenous Peoples

CCFI

CCFI 565:  Aboriginalizing Methodology: Researching with Aboriginal Peoples

CCFI 601:  Doctoral Seminar: Indigenizing Methodology

MEd Cohort

Co-Advisor (2014- 2016)

MEd in Curriculum Studies (EJS1) – Ecojustice, Sustainability & Indigeneity in Education

International Summer Institutes (Peru)

Co-Director (2013; 2015; 2017)

Peru Summer Institute:  Ecology, Technology and Indigeneity in the High Amazon

Location:  Lamas, Peru

• offered through EDCP and UBC Go Global
• six (6)-credit experiential learning program consisting of two (2) undergraduate/graduate courses and immersion/service learning at the Sachamama Center for BioCultural Regeneration and in local Indigenous Kichwa communities