Land and Sea-based Learning

The StFX Faculty of Education is proposing to offer a province-wide Master of Education (MEd; Curriculum and Leadership) cohort with a focus in Land and Sea-based Learning for qualified in-service teachers beginning in the summer of 2026. The Land and Sea-based Master’s Program in Mi’kma’ki will prepare teachers to deepen their understanding of Mi’kmaq ways of knowing, doing, and being through land and sea-based learning, engage in community and land-connected research grounded in Indigenous methodologies, and explore issues of climate justice through a decolonized lens. By drawing on diverse knowledge systems, educators will learn to foster reciprocity with the natural world, and integrate Indigenous governance, sustainability, and relational approaches into their teaching and research. Every course will infuse the following pillars: 

• Students will engage deeply with Mi’kmaq knowledge systems and learn from the human and more-than-human communities across Mi’kma’ki, grounding their practice in local relationships, language, stories, and teachings.
• The program will center Indigenous research methodologies and support students in developing decolonizing approaches to curriculum, pedagogy, and inquiry that honor community relationships and challenge colonial structures in education.
• Students will examine how ethical relationality guides responsible relationships with land, water, people, and more-than-human communities, drawing on principles such as netukulimk to foster reciprocal care and learning.
• Students will explore how ecological and social systems shape one another, and how climate justice requires caring for local land and community well-being while also understanding how broader environmental and societal forces connect relations in Mi’kma’ki with life around the world.