Dr. Fikile Nxumalo is faculty at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her scholarship focuses on reconceptualizing place-based and environmental education within current times of ecological precarity. This scholarship, which is published in journals including Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and Environmental Humanities, is rooted in perspectives from Indigenous knowledges, Black feminist geographies, and posthumanist theories.
Email: f.nxumalo@utoronto.ca
Website: www.fikilenxumalo.com
Nnenna Odim is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Early Childhood Education department at the University of Texas at Austin. Her experience as an early childhood teacher guides her exploration into the ways young children negotiate and resist inequity in their environment. Her research focuses on socio-cultural influences, Indigenous knowledges, and inquiry-driven interactions in early childhood spaces.
Email: nnenna.odim@utexas.edu
Pablo Montes is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin pursuing a degree in Cultural Studies in Education, with concentrations in Native American and Indigenous Studies, Mexican American and Latinx Studies, and Queer Studies. Currently, he is the Youth Director of the Indigenous Cultures Institute with the Coahuiltecan Elders of San Marcos and is also currently conducting research with Dr. Fikile Nxumalo in a collaborative project emphasizing decolonial water pedagogies, Indigenous knowledge systems, narrative and oral traditions, and place based onto-epistemologies within Central Texas.
Email: pmontes@utexas.edu
Alison is a doctoral student in the Department of Social Justice Education at OISE, University of Toronto. She is also pursuing a collaborative specialization in Comparative International Development and Education. Alison has worked in community-based early childhood education development projects in Nicaragua and Rwanda, with a focus on supporting teachers in creating inclusive early learning environments. Her research interests include inclusive education and global childhoods, childhood disability and race in early childhood education.