Rooted in Relationships, Building University-School District Partnerships

Guided by ethical relationality describing how to work in a relational way to face one another as humans and learn from one another in ways that value ethical relationships, we highlight the generative partnership formed between a university and a local school district serving Black and Mi’kmaw people. Drawing from mawikinutimatimk, a Mi’kmaw concept meaning coming together to learn together, we show how this relational way of working, collaborating, and supporting one another resulted in deep learning for transformational change. This chapter tells the story of how this partnership began, how it has grown, and how it continues to expand because of the relational way in which we continue to work, walking alongside one another in true partnership. This work draws from Indigenous and decolonizing methodologies (Archibald in Indigenous storywork: educating the heart, mind, body, and spirit. UBC Press, 2008; Kovach in Indigenous methodologies: characteristics, conversations, and contexts. University of Toronto Press, 2009) and demonstrates how ideas of relationality are lived out in a practical way in research partnerships. From conversation and mutual respect, through this university-school district partnership, decolonizing steps to combat deficit thinking and create culturally relevant learning environments to grow.