Teachers trying to decolonize the classroom
Group coming up with ways to present curriculum through Indigenous lens
It’s safe to speculate that the majority of Canadians with European roots know little about Indigenous culture and even less about life here before the first European settlers arrived.
Last fall, John Abbott College humanities teacher Debbie Lunny and six other teachers formed the Decolonizing Pedagogies Group (DPG) to work on ways to help better sensitize teachers to the Indigenous reality in this country and how teachers might present elements of the curriculum through an Indigenous lens.
The teachers looked at how we live a life shaped by the “settler” mindset, applying our hardwired European template to every aspect of our existence. Over the last years, Lunny has witnessed this, repeatedly.
“I will start a lecture by asking the students to write down the name of their favourite Indigenous writer or artist,” Lunny said. “The non-Indigenous students end up looking around, uncomfortable. The hardest part of my course for non-Indigenous students is to come to terms with living in a society where huge injustices occurred. It’s very disturbing.”
The DPG worked its way through a common reading list, held weekly discussions, created a bibliography and a glossary of unfamiliar terms and compiled concrete strategies and approaches to be used in the classroom.
“The DPG is a teacher-education project that filters through to the students via course offerings,” Lunny said. “We didn’t want to just produce a report, we wanted to offer teachers ways to unlearn the dominant framework. We are available to meet with different departments and to organize workshops. Slowly, it will build momentum.”
Lunny said since the launch of the Idle No More movement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, “Canadians are waking up to the fact that we don’t own history.”
How a teacher begins the process of decolonizing the curriculum can be as simple as changing the way he or she delivers a lecture.
“We are used to the teacher standing at the front of class as ‘someone who knows better,’” Humanities teacher and DPG member Derek Maisonville said. “I favour teaching in a circle. I taught in the Crossroads program which has all Indigenous students. We would sit in a circle and discuss strategies for coping with the difficulties of being away from home.”
John Abbott College has a longstanding relationship with the Kativik School Board in Nunavik. For years, students from the Far North have come to the college to study.
Maisonville is the director of John Abbott’s Aboriginal Studies Certificate Program. The program will likely be renamed the Indigenous Studies Certificate Program within the year. “Indigenous” is the favoured term at present.
“Removing the vestiges of colonialism from the classroom will take time,” Maisonville said. “But it starts by opening the door to new approaches.”
Maisonville pointed to the negative pushback to a recent news item as an example of how difficult it is to adjust attitudes. Last week, a group of Ontario teachers asked to have Sir John A. Macdonald’s name removed from Ontario schools because he played a central role in a genocide targeting Indigenous Peoples.
“This is a perfect example of how the dominant narrative has shaped our world view,” Maisonville said of the negative reaction to the teachers’ request.
Lunny said teachers becoming more aware of the cultural makeup of the classrooms is a good place to start.
If a teacher wants to show students a documentary about suicide in Indigenous communities, for example, some sort of preparatory work leading up to the screening would help the Indigenous students in the classroom either prepare themselves for the session or excuse themselves from class.
“Just imagine the degree of culture shock some of these students are experiencing, being so far from home,” Lunny said. “And then there is the fear the families are experiencing. Because of the history of residential schools, family members are frightened about children leaving home for school.”
Lunny said the goal is to strike a “fine balance” in the classroom.
“We want to create ripples of awareness and change,” she said. “What I like to do is bring in Indigenous guest speakers. They get through to the students like I never could.”