Decolonizing Metis Pedagogies in Post-Secondary Settings

Jct, 2012

2017

Rooted in the implementation of residential schools, Indigenous education has had various meanings and integration strategies over time and still remains a political, cultural, and controversial topic. While the Ministry of Education of Ontario has made Indigenous education a priority, the literature shows little research within the context of French Immersion programs. This qualitative research examines the perspectives of three French Immersion teachers on Indigenous education, and on the factors and strategies influencing the way they integrate Indigenous perspectives in their practice. Following an anti-oppressive framework, this research challenges the concept of Indigenous education and offers a critical approach for educators to integrate Indigenous perspectives in current and relevant ways. One of the main findings echoed the concept of decolonizing the classroom and revealed the need for teachers to move beyond Eurocentric stereotypes about Indigenous people and engage in m...

In 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Education released the Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework. The policy set forth a vision to significantly improve the levels of achievement for Indigenous students attending Ontario's public schools, and to increase awareness and knowledge of Indigenous cultures and perspectives for all students by the year 2016. Drawing upon critical pedagogy, theories of decolonizing education, and policy enactment, we engaged with the Framework and a set of related documents to a critical discourse analysis. Four discourses were revealed: achievement; increasing capacities; incorporating "cultures, histories, and perspectives"; and absence. In tracing the presence of these discourses across the documents we found that, while well-intentioned, the policy has yielded problematic outcomes. In turn, this undermines the ability of Ontario's education system to not only reach the aforementioned goals but also to take an a...

This doctoral research examines personal narratives of current and former Mi’kmaw students to discover how they situate their own understandings and narratives of Canadian history alongside the content and teaching in the current curriculum in Nova Scotia’s band-controlled and provincially-controlled schools. Using a decolonizing framework and methods of conversations and sharing circles, participants were asked how their social studies courses, particularly in Canadian history, connected (or did not connect) with what they had already learned in their homes and communities. After hearing the participants’ candid recollections of connecting their experiences as Mi’kmaw youth to the mostly-Eurocentric curriculum, I analysed the data using the First Nations Holistic Learning Model and Schwab’s four commonplaces. I examined how their school social studies experience affected their mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being as they made connections between the curriculum and topics such as residential schooling, Mi’kmaw treaty rights, and Columbus’ alleged ‘discovery’ of North America. I discovered that, according to the participants, it was the teachers, both Mi’kmaw and non-Mi’kmaw, who made the biggest difference in how the students made connections between their lives outside the classroom and the curriculum that was taught. Teachers who showed interest in the students’ Mi’kmaw identity and added Mi’kmaw content to the prescribed curriculum promoted well-being for their students. The perception and reality of systemic racism detracted from the students’ well-being. Whether or not they were supported by their school environment, students persisted in their efforts to bridge the gap between the curriculum and the lived experiences of Canadian history narrated by members of their community. Listening to the voices of my participants, I now advocate for a reconceptualised curriculum and a culturally responsible pedagogy, which will provide supports for non-Mi’kmaw teachers to create experiences for all students to foster understanding of and respect for Mi’kmaw cultural perspectives. Culturally responsible pedagogy will include promoting holistic social studies education, integrating Western and Indigenous knowledge in social studies, expanding the Mi’kmaq Studies 10 course, increasing access to Mi’kmaw resources, including residential school content, and promoting critical thinking in social studies education.

The Journal of Teaching and Learning, 2021

This article focuses on pedagogical talking circles as a practice of decolonizing and Indigenizing education. Based upon Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), non-Indigenous educators have a responsibility, while Indigenous educators have an opportunity, to transform normative colonial institutional knowledge structures and practices. Pedagogical talking circles are particularly useful in providing supported spaces for participants/students to engage in reciprocal and relational learning. The pedagogical theories outlined in this article utilize three main Indigenous methodological approaches: situated relatedness, respectful listening, and reflective witnessing. Based upon these underlying approaches, this article speaks to the necessity for decolonizing education (K-12 and post-secondary).

Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education, 2017

In 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Education released the Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework. The policy set forth a vision to significantly improve the levels of achievement for Indigenous students attending Ontario's public schools, and to increase awareness and knowledge of Indigenous cultures and perspectives for all students by the year 2016. Drawing upon critical pedagogy, theories of decolonizing education, and policy enactment, we engaged with the Framework and a set of related documents to a critical discourse analysis. Four discourses were revealed: achievement; increasing capacities; incorporating "cultures, histories, and perspectives"; and absence. In tracing the presence of these discourses across the documents we found that, while well-intentioned, the policy has yielded problematic outcomes. In turn, this undermines the ability of Ontario's education system to not only reach the aforementioned goals but also to take an active role in reconciliation and efforts towards the decolonization of education.

Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning

Given the UNDRIP’s assertion of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their education and knowledge systems, and in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s calls to action, many Canadian Universities are considering “Indigenizing the Academy.” Yet, the meaning of such undertaking remains to be clarified. This article explores trans-systemic approaches as a possible avenue for “Indigenizing the Academy,” and, more specifically, what Indigenous higher education programs and institutions can contribute to a trans-systemic approach to education. Considering two existing models I encountered in my doctoral research, namely the Intercultural approach as developed in the Andes (García et al., 2004; Mato, 2009; Sarango, 2009; Walsh, 2012), and land-based pedagogy as developed in North America (Coulthard, 2017; Coulthard & Simpson, 2016; Tuck et al., 2014; Wildcat et al., 2014), I argue they present trans-systemic elements that would allow us to re-think the frameworks in whi...

Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 2020

This book review is a close reading of three book-length works by key, contemporary scholars in the field of settler colonial studies: Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh's On Decoloniality; Adam Dahl's The Empire of the People; and Emma Battell Lowman and Adam Barker's Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada. This review provides a critical account of the significance of navigating the complexities of modern settler colonial practices and frameworks within Western settler societies to better inform and navigate our own decolonizing processes. We identify settler logics, perspectives and foundational frameworks as key factors in our current educative practices. Through this, we debate the significance of unsettling our/selves to consider extensions of our identities through a decolonial lens and how we, as a society, contribute to ongoing colonial processes. The review also provides approaches to how these resources may be used to deepen our anti-colonial...

Recent reforms to social studies and history education in Canada include greater attention to Indigenous perspectives on the past, and explicitly developing the skills of historical thinking. The convergence of these two reform movements raises many questions about the relationship between them: Can they be taught at the same time? In what ways do they complement or conflict with one another? This article illuminates literature on Indigenous histories and historical thinking—their intersections and divergences—in order to identify questions, conflicts and limitations produced in the encounter between these two approaches. It concludes with preliminary suggestions as to how educators may proceed, including first becoming more aware of these very tensions. I advocate for the development of communities of practice, drawing on specialists in historical thinking and Indigenous knowledges within and outside schools, to work towards supporting history classrooms inclusive of both historical thinking and Indigenous perspectives.