MJ Barrett

Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability   Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum Studies, College of Education Member, International Centre for Northern Governance and Development

Designations

• Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Education, University of Regina
• Master of Environmental Studies in Environmental Education, York University
• Bachelor of Education in Intermediate-Senior English History, Queen’s University
• Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in History and Literature, Harvard University (Honours)

I am currently looking for graduate students who wish to work with a combination of intuition and intellect. Click here for information on my current research. 

Email: mj.barrett@usask.ca
Phone: (306) 966-7633

Areas of Interest

• Human-nature relations
• Multiple ways of knowing (epistemology) especially intersections between Intuition and Animism
• Aboriginal perspectives and inclusion of Indigenous Knowledges in environmental decision-making
• Outdoor and experiential education
• Discourse and poststructural theory
• Ecofeminist and interspecies ethics
• Qualitative and decolonizing methodologies 
• Ecopsychology and ecological identity
• Traditional and energetic medicine

Recent Grants/Awards

• Encounters with the living world: Indigenous knowledges and natural resource management. SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2011-2013. Principal Investigator.
• Rivers without borders educational project. Environment  Canada, 2011, Co-investigator.
• Teaching scholar grant, University of Saskatchewan, 2010-2012. Principal Investigator.
• Indigenous and local knowledge of wildlife in changing environments: Enhancing research methods and improving uptake in decision-making. 2010-2013. Collaborator.
• Removing the invisibility cloak: The impact of professional schools of education and social work on the lives of Aboriginal children and youth through their instructional and curricular choices. SSHRC Standard Research Grant. 2010-2013. Collaborator.
• Research Acceleration Grant, University of Saskatchewan, 2011, Principal Investigator.
• Publications Fund Grant, 2010
• Exploring epistemological difference through hypertextual reading practices. John Ranton McIntosh Faculty/Student Research Grant. 2009-2010.
• Engaging Indigenous Worldviews in Teacher Education. John Ranton McIntosh Faculty/Student Research Grant, 2008-2009.
• Education for Action: Examining the Experiences and Thinking of Participants in a Youth Forum on Sustainability. Royal Saskatchewan Museum, 2004-2005.

 

Awards

• Dissertation, Beyond Human-Nature-Spirit Boundaries was short-listed for the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies Outstanding Dissertation Award, and The American Educational Research Association Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Research Methodology.  
• Researching with animate Earth: Beyond human-nature-spirit boundaries. Named as one of three flagship projects by Saskatchewan Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (United Nations University). 2008. 

Select Publications

• Barrett, M.J. (in press). Researching through porosity: A study of animism and research methodology. G. Harvey (Ed.). Handbook of contemporary animism. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill.
• Barrett, M.J. (in press). Responding to environmental crises through multi-media hypertext. In P. Hart, A. Reid, C. Russell, & M. Peters, (Eds), Companion to research in education. New York: Springer.
• Barrett, M.J. (2011). Doing animist research in Academia: A methodological framework. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education.
• Barrett, M.J. (2009). Beyond Human-Nature-Spirit Boundaries: Researching With Animate EARTH. Hypertextual Doctoral Dissertation. Available at http://www.porosity.ca/
• Barrett, M.J. (2007). Homework and fieldwork: Investigations into the rhetoric-reality gap in environmental research and pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 209-223.
• Barrett, M.J. (2007). Participatory pedagogy in environmental education: Reproduction or disruption? In A. Reid, J. Nikel, B. B. Jensen & V. Simovska (Eds.), Critical international perspectives on participation in environmental and health education. Copenhagen: Danish University Press.
• Barrett, M.J. (2007). to speak.... Cover Artwork/poetry/artist statement. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 12, pp. 183-184.
• Viraraghavan, T., Barrett, M.J., Hart, P. (2007). Wastewater reclamation for sustainable water use: Results of a public attitudinal survey. The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, 3(6), 79-84.
• Barrett, M.J. (2006). Education for the environment: Action competence, becoming, and story. Environmental Education Research, 12(3-4), 503-512.
• Barrett, M.J., & Sutter, G. (2006). A youth forum on sustainability meets the Human Factor Gallery: Stretching science teachers, students and museums. Canadian Journal of Science, Math and Technology Education, 6(1), 9-24.
• Barrett, M.J. (2005). Making (some) sense of feminist poststructuralism in environmental education research and practice. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 10,62-78.
• Barrett, M.J., Hart, P., Nolan, K., & Sammel, A. (2005). Challenges in implementing action-oriented sustainability education. Handbook of Sustainability Research (pp. 505-534). New York: Peter Lang.
• Raffan, J., & Barrett, M.J. (1989). Sharing the path: Reflections on journals from an expedition. Journal of Experiential Education, 12(2), 29-36.

Select Presentations

• Creating a Shared Ethical Space in Indigenous/non-Indigenous Environmental Co-Management. Policy Sciences Annual Institute, New Haven, CT.
• Researching through an animist epistemology: Barriers to environmental education research ‘in connection’ with Animate Earth. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting. New Orleans, MS
• Redefining community as all our relations: A path to a decolonizing teaching practice. Paper presented at Society for teaching and learning in higher education annual conference. Saskatoon, SK.
• How Can We Know? Uncovering Epistemological Bias in Environmental Decision-making
• Ecological Identity and Aboriginal education
• Using Animism to Decolonize Research (and other academic spaces)
• Poststructuralism, Quantum Physics and Spiritual Practices: Epistemology and Ontology Revisited
• Research representation and coming to know: Representing the Other in environmental education research
• Arts-based Research and Possibilities of Epistemological Difference
• Engaging Feminist Poststructuralism: Implications for Research Questions
• Engaging the ‘Posts' in Research
• Implications of a Theoretical Lens on Research Decisions
• Narrative Inquiry in the Field
• Educational Research from a Feminist Poststructural Perspective
• Paralysis or Possibility: Examining the Role of Culture in Environmental Education
• Problematizing Research Representation and Ways of Knowing in the Academy
• Action and Resistance: Student Responses to Action-oriented Environmental Education
• Regina's Youth Forum on Sustainability
• Integrated Outdoor/Environmental Education Programs & Curriculum Design
• Implementing Integrated Outdoor/environmental Education Programs for High School

Current Courses

• ENVS 811: Multiple Ways of Knowing in Environmental Decision-Making (fall term)
• ENVS 804: Decision-Making for Environment and Sustainability

Current Research

Working from a highly interdisciplinary perspective, Dr. M.J. Barrett’s research focuses on creating a shared ethical space where worldviews and ways of knowing of Aboriginal Peoples are recognized and valued. M.J.’s SSHRC-funded research addresses questions of how a deepened understanding of Indigenous and other trans-rational ways of knowing can enable resource managers and researchers to more effectively and respectfully understand and engage with Indigenous Peoples and their knowledges in environmental management contexts.  It also queries into social constructs which may act as barriers to developing and applying such understanding. Without an understanding of the underlying premises (e.g. ontologies) of multiple knowledge systems, we continue to miss opportunities to effectively engage with diverse knowledge systems and the people who use them.

M.J’s current research often takes her to the Yukon. She is currently developing and pilot testing an educational program that will support more effective inclusion of multiple knowledge systems and ontological understandings into environmental decision-making for environmental professionals and graduate students.  New research will look at applications of diverse forms of intuitive and trans-rational knowing to complex environmental problems. Dr. Barrett’s background includes outdoor, experiential, and environmental education, qualitative and decolonizing research methodologies, and energy healing. 

Other Courses

• ENVS 898: Exploring Intuition from Multiple Disciplines and Perspectives (Winter, 2011 - directed study)
• ENVS 898.3 - Citizen Environmental Education: Developing Effective Presentations and Publicly Accessible Reports through Case Study (directed study)
• EFDT 898: Introduction to Research Methods: Epistemology, Ontology, Methodolgy & Methods
• ECURR 322.2 - Teaching Elementary Science (Aboriginal Education)