Searching for a More-than-Human Dialogic Pedagogy in a Teacher Education Classroom: 'I Make My Way to the Sun'

In this reflective poetic narrative inquiry, I explore a possibility, or rather a search, for dialogic pedagogy with a focus on more-than-human beings in my teacher education classroom. I am curious to learn from my students' lived experience with my experimental and environmental dialogic activity and ask: What does a dialogue with more-than-human others mean to teacher candidates? My inquiry reveals that these dialogues emerge from the unique, ontological place of being as the poetic and reflective encounter with nature. Yet the concept of nature remains a mystery that resists definitions. More specifically, students' notes reveal two main themes of their experiences and generative meanings: their "new ways of seeing" and "peacefulness." These new ways of seeing are about their "intentional attention" to the natural world and its diverse communities as more-than-human beings and speaking subjects. In these peaceful encounters, teacher candidates transform their taken-for-granted view or perception of nature as an object to nature as a miracle (Evernden, 1985). Consequently, almost all students experience their encounters as a peaceful and free learning process that enhances their sense of well-being in the classroom.