Undoing human supremacy and white supremacy to transform relationships: An interview with Megan Bang and Ananda Marin

Abstract

Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang’s research focuses on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. Ananda Marin (African American, Choctaw [non-enrolled], European American descent) is an Assistant Professor of Social Research Methodology in UCLA’s Department of Education and faculty in American Indian Studies. Her research explores questions about the cultural nature of teaching, learning, and development. This interview with two Indigenous scholars provides educators with a chance to explore the possibilities of Indigenous worldviews on their climate change praxis. The scholars ask educators to consider how white and human supremacy are perpetuated in current educational paradigms. They discuss the necessity of transformations between relationships between humans and the natural world in fighting climate change. Bang and Marin underline the importance of education that immerses children in learning with places, paying attention to embodied, relational, axiological, and world-building dimensions of storying with lands.