Transformative Education & Relationships
Relationships with faculty, staff, students and community are central to Dr. Petherick’s research identity. Strong and enduring relationships are the foundation of transformative educational work. Her program of research reflects the objective of fostering strong relationships for social change across multiple institutions over the last 10 years. She has had stable and consistent funding and outputs over this period of time. She has found that the re-location to a new institutional system and culture, although time intensive, has enabled her to both expand and enhance her existing research program.
Building Community in Critical Health and Physical Education
In Physical and Health Education, her scholarship challenges more traditional approaches to knowledge construction and pedagogy in the field. In moving a social justice agenda forward, she is joining a group of national and international scholars who are working across diverse fields to research areas of critical health studies and critical physical education studies. Given her theoretical and methodological approach to research she has a track record of collaborating with scholars in Kinesiology, Gender and Women’s Studies, Social Work, Education, and Medicine and Community Health. This strong relational foundation, spanning multiple disciplinary areas, has meant that her outputs come in different forms, and reach into diverse intellectual, pedagogical, and local communities.
A Community-based Indigenous Project
Her social justice informed program of research is embedded in the qualitative tradition. One project that is particularly reflective of her approach to the knowledge production process is the community-based research with Fisher River Cree Nation. Working collaboratively with community in all aspects of the project means that all activities associated with this project were designed and implemented in partnership with the community. Having worked with the community for four years, the relationship we have developed is one based on trust, reciprocity and respect in the production of relevant, community-centred knowledge. This relationship is perhaps best illustrated through the Tahkwakin Community Heritage Camp (October 11-14, 2017). This event was co-organized and co-sponsored by community and university collaborators, including Fisher River Cree Nation Chief and Council, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, Charles Sinclair School (Fisher River Band School), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Universities of British Columbia and Manitoba. This event was the culminating knowledge mobilization activity associated with our SSHRC-funded project. Throughout the week, grades two to twelve students attended events focused on intergenerational teachings of land education, language, and cultural heritage. Community Elders shared teachings using the Cree language. The strong relationships forged with Fisher River Cree Nation though this project generally, and the Tahkwakin Community Heritage Camp more specifically, have served as the foundation for an SSHRC Insight Grant application (fall 2017).