Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition: A Resource for Educators: The Importance of Indigenous Perspectives in Children's Environmental Inquiry (PDF Format)

PDF Version.

This resource offers educators a powerful way to engage their students in learning about their world. It provides a framework for environmental inquiry shaped by students’ questions and theories – their natural curiosity – as they explore their environment. The framework encourages educators to find their own ways to build upon children’s sense of wonder and to create a culture of community learning that is purposeful, responsive, and deeply engaging.

The second edition of Natural Curiosity supports a stronger basic awareness of Indigenous perspectives and their importance to environmental education. The driving motivation for a second edition was the burning need, in the wake of strong and unequivocal recommendations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to situate Indigenous perspectives into the heart of Canadian educational settings and curricula, most notably in connection with environmental issues.

The Indigenous lens in this edition offers an encounter with Indigenous perspectives that challenge us to think in very different ways about our place in the world. It provides a starting point in a conversation that opens educators' eyes to Indigenous perspectives as their students build lasting connections with the natural world.

New in the Second Edition:

• Revision of the four branches of environmental inquiry

• An Indigenous lens on environmental inquiry

• 15 new educator stories