The Learning Without Borders Initiative has served as a global, collaborative teaching and learning space since winter 2020. Every session is rooted in the Seven Teaching Principles of the Anishinabek people, guiding the interdisciplinary exploration of co-learners from diverse backgrounds. Central questions arising from this work provide a framework for examining our relationships, responsibilities, and accountability, as well as our connections to the land, the body, and each other. These include: “Who are you without colonialism?” “Who are you without patriarchy?” “How do you read beyond the binary?” “Where is colonialism located in your body?” “How do you write beyond the binary?” and “How do you read math?”

As stewards of Ancestral Knowledge, the initiative integrates radical, innovative, and transformative learning approaches rooted in traditions predating recorded history. Past courses in this series have included Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto: Anti-Discriminatory Education, Settler Colonialism and Pedagogies of Liberation, Indigenous Experiences of Racism in Canada, and Decolonization in Education, Popular Education, and Social Action.

This work has been made possible through collaboration with numerous partners, including the Center for Studies on Sustainable Luxury and the Sustainable Textile Center in Argentina, DISE Collective, the Department of Modern Languages at Mount Allison University, the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (OISE), the Global Classroom at the University of Toronto, the bell hooks Center at Berea College, the Carousel Collective, Framingham State University, Unboxing Accessibility, University of Management and Technology Pakistan, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Toronto Scarborough, the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, the Bilingual & Literacy Studies Department, the Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the Indigenous Educational Research Centre, the Deepening Knowledge Project (OISE), and York University.