Teaching Philosophy · Qian Li

Learning without losing

My job as a mom is to support their whole identity — Iñupiaq, Chinese, and academic — all at once, without asking either child to trade one part of themselves for another. Every unit on this site is designed so that Lucas Uqqila 空 and Lucy Aumaqpaq 悟 grow in skill while growing more rooted in who they are.

Six guiding principles

Drawn from my teaching practice and action research — a trans-systemic weaving of Chinese philosophy, Iñupiaq epistemology, and Western educational theory.

多元认知 · 齊物論

Diverse Ways of Knowing

Iñupiaq knowledge, Chinese philosophy, and Western method are treated as three equally valid ways of understanding the same world — never as one 'real' subject plus two cultural decorations. As the Qiwulun teaches, before any hierarchy of species, age, or role, there is equality.

·Every lesson is framed through the Three Eyes before content is taught
·Elders' knowledge and peer-reviewed science are both cited as evidence
·Chinese and English are used side by side, not translated one into the other

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中庸 · 天命之谓性

Cultivating Self-Nature

The Zhongyong gives this whole curriculum its structure: every child is born with an innate nature 自性; following that nature is the Way; cultivating the Way is education. Teaching is not filling a child but creating the conditions for what is already there to unfold.

·天命之谓性 — each child is born with a unique essence, rhythm, and inner order
·率性之谓道 — waiting for salmon or watching the Mayday tree is living one's nature
·修道之为教 — rhythm, story, food, and embodied waiting are the cultivation
·因材施教 — pacing follows each child's aptitude and timing, not a grade level

无为而治 · 泰然任之

Teaching as Releasement

The core pedagogical stance across all three eyes: create conditions, then step back. Daoist 无为而治, Iñupiaq nipaitsoq and Yup'ik upingakuneng, and Heidegger's Gelassenheit all describe a disciplined openness — 'a higher acting that is yet no activity' — that clears space for learning to emerge.

·候 (hòu) — embodied waiting: observation before explanation, in five-day pentads
·天地行不言之教 — Heaven and Earth teach without words; the land is a teacher
·Adults model, wait, and watch rather than narrate every discovery
·Learning that emerged when I stepped back is documented, not corrected

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承脉不承地 · 溯源教育

Ancestors Beyond Ancestral Land

We live in Anchorage on Dena'ina land — a place that belongs to neither Hunan nor Point Hope. Remote enculturation is the work of cultivating living ancestral relationships across that distance, so heritage travels with the children instead of staying behind.

·因地制宜 — ancestral practice adapted to Alaska's actual conditions
·就地取材 — sourcing locally; tradition sustained through creative substitution
·物盡其用 — an ethics of enough: nothing wasted, shares left for other beings
·Restorative storytelling and ancestral food memory as weekly practice

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顺时 · 承脉

Rhythm Alignment

Children learn best in rhythm — with the seasons, with the light, with the family calendar. Our year follows the turning of the 24 Solar Terms rather than an arbitrary pacing guide, held alongside the Iñupiaq subsistence cycle.

·Science and art follow the 24 Solar Terms as the spine of the year
·Sila — the living breath connecting all beings — framed as the field of study
·Seasonal fieldwork on the land, brought home to Elders and family

自性 · 天人合一 · Iluaq

Whole Identity

Academic growth is only one strand. Language, culture, family role, and self-nature 自性 grow together, so that neither child ever has to compromise who they are to succeed. The measure is iluaq and 天人合一 — wholeness and right relationship — not only test scores.

·Both Iñupiaq and Chinese names used in every subject
·Reflection prompts ask 'how does this meet your heritage?'
·Assessment values storytelling, making, and observation alongside writing
·Iluaq — wholeness emerging from right relationship — named as the goal of every unit

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三眼观世 · How the principles reach the lessons

First Eye

Inupiaq Epistemology

Sila, oral tradition, relationship with land, subsistence lifeways

Second Eye

Chinese Philosophy

天人合一 harmony, 候 waiting, 孝 filial piety, destiny, gratitude

Third Eye

Western Method

Literacy skills, scientific method, art criticism and history

Releasement across three traditions

无为而治 · Nipaitsoq · Gelassenheit — each tradition names the same stance in its own language, without collapsing into the others.

	Chinese philosophy	Iñupiaq epistemology	Western theory
Pedagogical stance	无为而治 — teaching through non-action	Nipaitsoq — silent attunement (Iñupiaq); Upingakuneng — when they are ready (Yup'ik)	Gelassenheit 泰然任之 — releasement, letting-be
Source	Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi (ca. 6th–4th c. BCE)	Iñupiaq and Yup'ik oral tradition	Heidegger, Conversation on a Country Path (1944–45); Yu (2018)
Core insight	無為而無不為 — the Way does nothing, yet nothing is left undone	Learning cannot be forced; it emerges when learner, land, and season align	'Higher acting is yet no activity' — an openness that clears space for truth
Practice	Create conditions, then step back; 天地行不言之教	Modeling, waiting, watching for reciprocity to grow	Waitful thinking; preparatory thinking that awakens possibility

Words we use

A shared vocabulary for the family — the kids meet these terms in their lessons.

自性

Self-Nature

The innate essence, rhythm, and inner order each child is born with.

中庸

Zhongyong

Nature → Way → Education: the structure of cultivating what is already there.

候

hòu

Embodied waiting — noticing subtle change across five-day pentads.

泰然任之

Gelassenheit

Releasement: disciplined openness rather than passive drift.

Sila

Iñupiaq

The living breath of the universe; the connective tissue linking all beings.

Iluaq

Iñupiaq

Wholeness and well-being emerging from right relationship.

Upingakuneng

Yup'ik

'When they are ready' — readiness arises from learner, land, and season.

天人合一

Harmony

Heaven and humanity as one — the felt wholeness that resonates with iluaq.

Restorative storytelling

Three lenses drawn from my research on children's media and Indigenous storytelling. Before any story enters this home — a book, a film, an app, a lesson — we ask these questions of it, and of ourselves when we make our own.

语言与形式 · 言不尽意

Language and Format

“Does the language support different ways of knowing?”

Every language carries information and wisdom that cannot be carried by another — and every language has limits. Iñupiaq pronunciation is guided by the environment itself; saying a word is a total involvement with the surrounding landscape. So we treat form as content: oral, written, non-written, visual, non-visual, verbal, non-verbal are all legitimate ways a story can be told.

·Ask what a word knows that its English translation cannot hold
·Sound out Iñupiaq and Chinese aloud — pronunciation as a place-based, embodied skill
·Retell one story in three formats: spoken, drawn, and enacted on the land
·Name the limits of the language we are using before we trust its answer

立场与叙事 · 谁在说话

Positionality and Narrative

“Does the positionality of the storyteller align with the cultural content?”

Who is telling this, from where, and with whose permission? Narrative rhythm and structure carry culture as much as plot does — a story restructured to fit a Western arc loses the life force inside the oral original. The children learn to locate the creator before they accept the story, and to locate themselves before they tell one.

·Identify the creator's positionality for every book, film, and app we use
·Notice whether the narrative rhythm follows the culture's own structure or a borrowed one
·Co-production over retelling: stories about a community come from that community
·The kids state their own positionality when they share their work

认识论 · 齊物 · 不以人为中心

Epistemology and the Dehuman-Centered Perspective

“Does this story grant equality across species and other beings?”

Indigenous cultures across Alaska hold that humans and nonhumans hear each other's minds, sense each other's emotional states, and converse without words. Nipaitsoq — 'without voice' in Iñupiaq. Elders say: if you cannot listen, we cannot expect to hear or understand the language of the animals, the ice, the rivers and the winds. Mainstream media teaches through speech alone; we practice the communication that happens beyond it.

·Silent listening sessions outdoors before any writing or discussion
·Animals, ice, rivers, and winds are treated as speakers, not scenery
·齊物論 — no hierarchy of beings assumed in any lesson or story we accept
·Reconceptualize borrowed words — hunting, subsistence, killing — in local Native context

Our commitments

We learn without losing.

We know who we are.

We grow without compromising who we are.