How I Work
As an educator and life-long learner, it is my (unpopular) opinion that learning is impossible without failure.
And so I encourage those learning with me to resist the urge to fake it til you make it, admit when we need help, and to be gentle with ourselves when we mess up.
Over the past 10 years, I've cultivated a community-focused teaching practice that is founded upon a commitment to non-mastery, anti-oppression, and equity. Now what do all of those jargony words mean?
Non-mastery
How often do you feel like you gotta “fake it til you make it"? This impulse is soooooooo natural. But it promotes an approach to learning that is focused on individual achievements and turns us into our own worst critics. When we're stuck in the mastery-mindset we create real barriers to ourselves and others, and it's hard to truly grow. Part of the work that I do in my teaching is help you let go of the impulse to perform mastery and become curious about the possibilities that emerge when we admit the limits of our knowledge.
Anti-oppression
We all come into the world with different experiences based on our race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, ethnicity, and religion. As a white person, I believe I must always situate myself in relation to others: how might I have more opportunities to be heard as a white person than a woman of colour? How can I use my power and privilege to enact the change that I want to see in the world? These are the questions that led me to develop workshops and services that you’ll find here.
Equity
If inclusivity’s goal is to make sure everyone has a seat at the table, the goal of equity is to assess the table and rebuild anew. We do this by getting at the roots of systems of oppression, centring the needs of the most marginalized, and letting them build the table. Equity isn’t a checklist that we go over after we’ve planned an event. Equity is at the centre of the process from the very beginning. When we approach learning from a commitment to equity, we have to analyze our power, privilege, and oppressions and know when to step up or step back.
To better my work as an educator with a commitment to social justice, I’ve completed numerous trainings, including:
a Certificate in Community-Engaged Learning
a Certificate in Conflict Resolution
numerous transformative justice workshops, including those facilitated by Rania El Mugammar, Mia Mingus, and Karen B. K. Chan
trauma-informed facilitation
suicide and crisis intervention with Carly Boyce and Project LETS
territorial land acknowledgments
numerous anti-oppression workshops
Pictured here are some of the texts and authors whose thinking I’m indebted to. If you have the means, I hope that you’ll support their writing by purchasing their books from your local bookstore.
Image ID: a picture of a stack of books, lined up vertically along a tree stump. Photo taken by Angeline Simon.
“I think it’s a challenge to be able to communicate and teach in a manner that is warm, approachable and also coming from a place of deep knowledge. Margeaux does all of these things without breaking a sweat. They’re quick to acknowledge where they learned certain ideas and what they doesn’t know. IMO, that is the mark of a true explorer of the world. I find Margeaux to be such a useful guide during these sometimes confusing times. Very often, they put into words ideas that have been floating around in my head. It’s a comfort to know that they’re out there, working to distil information and important ideas into a digestible format. What a privilege to learn from them!”
Jen Spinner, art director, designer, illustrator