Ensemble mentorship as a decolonising and relational practice in Canada

Inspired by collaborating on a shared vision of reconciliation, three authors explore ethical relationality and the practical ways in which their heterarchical ensemble mentorship serves to decolonise and advance a shared vision of reconciliation for university teaching and learning. As Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, we are buoyed by those developing decolonising and Indigenising strategies in formerly colonised regions. Seen as a promising interruption to a neoliberal approach to education, the authors embrace the possibilities of imagining and creating an ethical space in universities where relationality is prioritised in service of social justice. While the complex nature of reconciliation within a Canadian context begets tension and highlights what are often conflicting value systems within academe, we maintain that innovations in teaching and learning are possible in what is now a globally disrupted terrain as students, faculty, administrators, and university leadership contend with the unknown, encounter collectivist Indigenous traditions, and tentatively explore decolonisation as an ethical avenue towards inclusive and empowering education. In imagining what is possible, we build upon Indigenous knowledge traditions and the work of leadership studies scholars to propose 'ensemble mentorship' between students and faculty as a collaborative and decolonising teaching and learning practice.

Using the Cosmic Curriculum of Dr. Montessori Toward the Development of a Place-Based Indigenous Science Program

Indigenous educators desire to use culturally restorative and decolonized pedagogies reflective of their own cultural values and beliefs in their science programs but have lacked models for how to start. They also often lack confidence in their ability to teach the sciences. This three-year qualitative case study used grounded theory methodology to discover (a) how Hawaiian language immersion (HLC) K–6 educators used Maria Montessori’s Cosmic Curriculum for the creation of a science program based on Hawaiian epistemology and cultural values and (b) why the Cosmic Curriculum appealed to the HLC educators. Five key themes emerged: (a) the notion of creation as interconnected and relational, (b) an epistemological similarity regarding how people learn, (c) using timelines as organizing cognitive structures, (d) a focus on the natural sciences, and (e) the use of storytelling and key lessons to engage students. Participants stated that they felt successful in creating science curriculum and teaching the sciences as they adapted the above aspects of Dr. Montessori’s Cosmic Curriculum. Future research should be conducted to discover if her Cosmic Curriculum can be adapted for use in other types of non-Montessori program and whether this kind of science program could encourage students to choose the sciences as a career choice.

Unfettering discussions about social justice: the role of conversational prompts in discussions about mathematics education for Indigenous students

To increase possibilities for listening respectfully to Indigenous educators, there is a need to identify conversational prompts which are used to raise alternative views of social justice about mathematics education for Indigenous students. Using Nancy Fraser’s description of abnormal social justice, an analysis was made of transcripts from round table sessions, at an Indigenous mathematics education conference. This analysis identified a number of conversational prompts that enabled shifts from normal to abnormal discussions about social justice. Normal discussions exhibited assumptions in which mathematics was valued as a Western domain of knowledge; cultural examples could be used as vehicles to teach mathematics; and decisions about education for Indigenous students should be made by external authorities. In abnormal discussions, these assumptions were queried and alternative possibilities arose. The conversational prompts, which initiated this querying, occurred in a number of ways, including the telling of stories and the asking of questions that either directly or indirectly challenged normal justice discourses about Indigenous students’ learning of mathematics. Identifying conversational prompts can assist non-Indigenous mathematics educators, who wish to be allies, to challenge their own and others’ assumptions about normal social justice issues related to mathematics education for Indigenous students.

Pedagogical Talking Circles: Decolonizing Education through Relational Indigenous Frameworks

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).

Walking on This Earth, Finding Belonging: Ruminations of an Unsettled Settler

In this paper, I contemplate my positionality as a non-Indigenous settler of Scottish, English and German descent. I (re)visit places that have shaped my life-journey and engages in a thoughtful participation between language, land and my positionality as an emerging researcher within an Indigenist paradigm. I consider Regan’s (2010) concept of the unsettled settler, defined as non-Indigenous people learning to embrace the struggle to face truths of colonialism and the consequences of the Indian Residential School system. Through photovoice and poetic inquiry, I reflect on my own encounters with the land and more-than-human relatives as a way to disrupt colonial assumptions. Ruminations, pictures and a collection of poems invite an exploration of the curricular implications of land-based teachings and reconciling ways of knowing with the land. By delving into and sharing my own personal experiences on the land, I hope to invite non-Indigenous educators to consider their own positionality and relationship with the land as part of their response to the Truth and Reconciliation (2015) calls to action.

Reconceiving Schooling: Centering Indigenous Experimentation in Indian Education History

Federal agents, church officials, and education reformers have long used schooling as a weapon to eliminate Indigenous people; at the same time, Indigenous individuals and communities have long repurposed schooling to protect tribal sovereignty, reconstitute their communities, and shape Indigenous futures. Joining scholarship that speaks to Indigenous perspectives on schooling, this paper offers seven touchpoints from Native nations since the 1830s in which Indigenous educators repurposed “schooling” as a technology to advance Indigenous interests. Together, these stories illustrate the broad diversity of Native educators’ multifaceted engagements with schooling and challenge settler colonialism's exclusive claim on schools. Though the outcomes of their efforts varied, these experiments with schooling represent Indigenous educators’ underappreciated innovations in the history of education in the United States.

Interculturalidade e ensino de ciências: O cotidiano de uma sala de aula

Historically, science has become an obstacle to the introduction of other kinds of knowledge in schools. Since 1990, the superiority of scientific knowledge has been criticized by education researchers. In parallel, indigenous education has been proving itself as a privileged space of recognition of relationships among cultural groups, in a way that traditional types of knowledge have been incorporated into the school curriculum, bringing other challenges to the pedagogical work. In this paper, we discuss a case study in which traditional types of knowledge were part of a course from the Undergraduate Program for Indigenous Educators at Federal University of Minas Gerais. We collected interrelated situations involving food planting and astronomical observations under various conceptions, and we developed them in a dialogic form in the classroom. The strengthening of indigenous cultures was rethought as the interlocution kept made us see the viability of the cultural dialogue in its complexity. We hope to contribute to overcome the dichotomy between scientific knowledge and traditional culture in the curricular propositions of indigenous and non-indigenous school education.

Improving Indigenous student outcomes through improved teacher education: the views of Indigenous educators

This article describes an alternative approach to improving Indigenous student outcomes through improved teacher education, expressed through the views of Indigenous educators. The strategies required relate to the need for a cultural shift within the current Australian education system identified by Indigenous educators. The research demonstrates how connections between Westernised education systems and knowledge of Indigenous educators provide a locus of potential for the improved educational outcomes of Indigenous students. Indigenous educators’ knowledge about teaching and their specialist knowledge about Indigenous content place them in a position of epistemological privilege. The vehicle for change in the interests of Indigenous students is teacher education, and the driving force of untapped potential is Indigenous educators.

Contribuição da pedagogia A’uwe Uptabi Xavante para a educação dos adolescentes: A palavra dos anciões – Mato Grosso/Brasil

The A’uwê Uptabi pedagogy, called by the non-indigenous person as the Xavante pedagogy, is practiced in interaction based on tradition. In this article, our goal is to analyze the contributions of the A’uwê Uptabi pedagogy to the Brazilian educational practice regarding the teaching of adolescents. We used the following methodological procedures for the qualitative research: circle of talks and field journal. We performed the content analysis of the speech of the six participating elders around three axes: dreams on the education of adolescents; advice for Xavante adolescents and educators and advice for non-indigenous adolescents and educators. The elders pointed out the worries in their dreams regarding the influence of non-indigenous culture - technological products, alcoholic beverages, drugs, individualism - and the draining of tradition that can destroy the A’uwê Uptabi culture. As advice to the indigenous adolescents, the elders suggested they open up to understand their people’s culture and counseled the mentors and the whole community to commit to the education of new generations. The advice for the non-indigenous adolescents are similar to that given to Xavante teenagers, having as a key guidance for non-indigenous educators the setting up of groups of adolescents.

A geometria no fazer das roças do povo Pataxó Hãhãhãe

This article aimed to revisit a course conclusion work on the Intercultural Training for Indigenous Educators, in Mathematics qualification. The research was carried out in the Caramuru Indigenous village of the Pataxó Hãhãhãe people, researching in a historical-bibliographic way and using documents, books and records that told the history of the people as collection instruments. We also used photographs of the practices of the Pataxó Hãhãhãe people, highlighting the gardens and gardens, in addition to interviewing two members of the village. Highlighting the geometry present in the fields and gardens, so that this knowledge could be registered and remembered, both by the school and in the community, was of great value for the formation and expansion of the researcher's knowledge and for the Pataxó Huhãhãe people. With that, we are valuing and rescuing the traditional knowledge that the people teach us with the experience in the community. The work will also serve as research and encouragement in the community.