A Radical New Kind of 'Probiotic' Education - A Conversation with Dr. Vanessa Andreotti

What does it mean to help our young people understand all of the forces that have brought us to where we are, and also to take real responsibility for all of the benefits and harms that that has caused, in particular to indigenous communities around the world? What kinds of education might 'enable healthier possibilities of (co)existence that are viable, but are unthinkable/unimaginable within our dominant cognitive and affective frames of reference.' (GTDF Collective, Global Citizenship Otherwise, p3) An education of the gut and the heart, not just the head! This week, it was an honour to chat to the amazing Dr. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti. Vanessa is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. She is a former Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change and a former David Lam Chair in Critical Multicultural Education. Vanessa has worked extensively across sectors internationally in areas of education related to global justice, global citizenship, critical literacies, Indigenous knowledge systems and the climate and nature emergency. Vanessa is the author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism⁠: https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/hospicing-modernity/ You can find links to her Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Arts/Research Collective⁠: https://decolonialfutures.net/ Global Citizenship Otherwise Study Program, created by Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures: https://decolonialfutures.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/decolonial-futures-gce-otherwise-1.pdf Vanessa is also one of the designers of the course 'Facing Human Wrongs: Climate Complexity and Relational Accountability'⁠: https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/teaching-learning-and-development/courses/facing-human-wrongs-2-0-climate-complexity-and-relational-accountability/ Social Links LinkedIn: @vanessa-andreotti GTDF Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DecolonialFuturesCollective