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This book introduces a bold new approach to teaching and learning by weaving together Critical, Indigenous, and Clown (CIC) perspectives through the art of story-listening. While Critical and Indigenous pedagogies have long challenged conventional, dominant models of education, this work adds a surprising and powerful third element: Clown pedagogy. With its emphasis on vulnerability, playfulness, and relationality, the Clown invites us to unlearn rigid roles, embrace uncertainty, and connect more deeply with others. More than a theoretical proposal, this book is a living pedagogy one that helps educators co-create classrooms where students feel seen, heard, and empowered. It reimagines listening not as obedience or compliance, but as a creative, active, responsive, and collaborative stance toward education. If you are seeking fresh ways to teach, learn, and experience education otherwise, this book offers a humble yet holistic and radically vibrant invitation.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction - Getting Wet in These Waters.- Chapter 2: Eastern Current - Falling into Story-listening.- Chapter 3: Southern Current - Drifting from Academic Research to Classrooms.- Chapter 4: Western Current - Navigating through Theories and Practices of Un/learning.- Chapter 5: Northern Current - Looping Back and Deepening Key Concepts.- Chapter 6: The Great Beyond - Everything and Nothing at All.
About the author
Rafael Pellizzer Soares is a Brazilian educator, researcher, and former school leader with over twenty-five years of experience in mathematics education and pedagogical leadership across South and North America. Currently based on Treaty 6 lands— the traditional gathering place for diverse First Nations, including Cree, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Dene, and Métis peoples, who have lived here since time immemorial— in what is now known as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he serves as a principal instructor with the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (ATEP) at the University of Alberta. His work explores story-listening as a relational, decolonial, and improvisational pedagogy grounded in Critical, Indigenous, and Clown (CIC) perspectives. His teaching and research approaches emphasize the creation of mistake-friendly, culturally responsive, and non-linear learning environments that support an educational journey focused on nurturing minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits.
