Exploring Environmental Worldviews: Insights from the Navajo Nation Learners in Virtual Exchange
摘要
This chapter examines how virtual exchange can deepen understanding of Indigenous environmental worldviews within the discipline of Indigenous Studies by focusing on the perspectives of Navajo (Diné) post-secondary learners. Framed explicitly from the standpoint of the Indigenous community, the study explores how Diné concepts such as Hózh (harmony and balance), K’é (kinship), and relational responsibility shape environmental ethics and responses to the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) survey. Using a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogical approach, Navajo learners participated in synchronous virtual exchanges from 2020 to 2023 with students from multiple countries, enabling intercultural dialogue that would not have been possible in a traditional classroom setting. NEP survey results are interpreted through qualitative, culturally grounded analysis, revealing strong affirmation of the rights of nature, concern about ecological catastrophe, and nuanced uncertainty that reflects Diné philosophies of balance, humility, and spiritual law. The findings demonstrate that virtual exchange functions not merely as a comparative pedagogical tool across cultures, but as a relational space in which Indigenous knowledge systems are articulated, validated, and better understood by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. This chapter argues that virtual exchange offers a powerful methodology for Indigenous Studies, sustainability education, and environmental decision-making by creating dialogic conditions where Indigenous environmental worldviews can be expressed authentically on their own terms. These results can assist with future interactions in preparing for virtual exchanges by non-Indigenous groups of students studying environmental worldviews involving Indigenous learners that are often overlooked in research studies or not well understood without including non-Indigenous partners.