Pathways of Reconciliation by Aimée Craft

Author:Aimée Craft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
Published: 2020-05-21T17:09:55+00:00

“Post-conflict Learning”

The data on Miitigoog’s governance activities indicates that this collaborative process reflects several of Jansen’s key principles for post-conflict pedagogy.56 Within this pedagogy Jansen describes the importance of creating a “risk-accommodation environment” where learners feel as if they can express their full range of thoughts and emotions without fear of retribution. In particular, data show that during Miitigoog’s creation, OMNR managers played a particularly strong role in bringing people to the table, and in bringing them back to the table to resolve conflicts and find solutions that were mutually agreeable.

The risk-accommodating environment at Miitigoog board meetings was structurally maintained through an independent chair, which board members often cited as important for maintaining an environment where grievances could safely be put forward. The chair was responsible for keeping meetings on track according to the mutually agreed-upon terms, including that Miitigoog board members could air their complaints and challenge positions as long as they did so in a respectful manner.

This was also conducive to the “disruption of received knowledge,” which Jansen identifies as a key quality of learning. This disruption explores and constructively confronts circumstances that had previously been the cause of oppression (in this case, forest governance) and strongly connects to the transformation of indirect knowledge. It is a central quality of pedagogical strategies that challenge colonial forms of knowledge.

Pedagogical dissonance, much like the disruption of received knowledge, was also present and a significant component of formal engagement within Miitigoog. For example, the independent chair encouraged board members to comment on how board-level decision making and on-the-ground management processes were advancing. Many board members said they encountered and/or presented viewpoints that were not mainstream, were contentious, and/or required navigating conflicting points of view to come to a decision that reflected greater equity and meaning. One OMNR manager described the kinds of conflicting feelings, experiences, approaches, and perspectives that emerge during natural resources-based negotiations:

P 008: I [bring up feelings] so that everybody understands how each other feels and can respond accordingly when an issue comes up. . . . “Okay, what are your expectations, and what are your expectations?” There’s commonality amongst all of them. Sometimes we just don’t realize it, or forget.

The statement indicates that pedagogical dissonance was indeed encouraged during the initiation stage of Miitigoog, and, importantly, became part of the eventual principles and norms for formal engagement that were established for ongoing collaboration, in part through the independent chair.

While certain aspects of Jansen’s framework were works in progress at Miitigoog (e.g., new board members’ ability to bring forth pedagogical dissonance when they felt they had a large learning curve to overcome), other aspects were more strongly evident and were important for keeping parties at the table to continue the learning and shared governance processes. For example, through formal engagement and informal experiences, people from industry, First Nations, and the OMNR had many opportunities to learn about each other personally. This relates to the “reframing of victors and victims,” the next important component in Jansen’s pedagogy.

In emancipatory research, there is a tendency to focus exclusively on victims.

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