3.2 Coyote Pedagogy: A true teacher never stops learning

2. Coyote Pedagogy is a term sometimes used to describe King’s writing strategies (Margery Fee and Jane Flick). Discuss your understanding of the role of Coyote in the novel.

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The character of the Coyote in Thomas King’s novel Green Grass, Running Water isn’t what one thinks of when they imagine the role of a teacher. He is mischievous, energetic, constantly rushing from one tale to the next, like a frustrated child who is done with the current lesson and wants to move on to the next. Yet, King adds Coyote into the novel not only as a companion to us, who are also learning, but as a guide. Coyote teaching is a method of teaching intended to “spark curiosity and create a self-directed learning experience that teaches the student how to seek answers on their own versus becoming dependent on a teacher” (Children of the Earth Foundation).

His duel personality, between teacher and student, is mirrored in a major theme of the novel: borders. King himself crosses many borders, being a Native story teller of German, Greek, and Cherokee descent. His novel is a hodgepodge of Native creation stories and European characters, and styles of writing. The entire book is infused with the idea of crossing borders, blurring lines, and mixing cultures while maintaining the elements that are fundamental to each. The Native trickster acts as a bridge for King, connecting the mythical creation stories to contemporary tales.

While I did think of Wile E. Coyote, as Dr. Patterson mentioned happens to be a common connection between the two characters, I associated the Coyote more with the Norse God of Loki. Like Coyote, Loki is a trickster God, and a transformer of shape, species, and gender. Like Loki, Coyote’s gender is a bit ambiguous, and his childish mannerisms are one only way in which he shape shifts. He is a teacher, a leader, walking us through these stories, but only hinting at where we should look, and never telling us. He wants us to find our own way, and so directs us as if he is learning the way himself.

While I tried to stay away from the comparisons of Wile E. Coyote to the Native trickster God, I couldn’t help but see the similarities between the way the two repeat a story, over and over again, each time with a slightly different twist. Wile E. does the same, repeating his task of catching the Road Runner, each time devising a new and different approach. This cyclical repetition of the story is represented in the Medicine Wheel as well. Life doesn’t end so much as it cycles around, changing slightly as it reaches different spokes on the wheel.

Works Cited

“Coyote Teaching”. Children of the Earth Foundation. Web. 11 March, 2015. http://www.cotef.org/about-us/coyote-teaching

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto: HarperPerennial Canada, 1999. Print.

“Loki.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 5 March, 2015. Web. 11 March, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki