Possibility not Difficulty: Difficult Knowledge in K-12 classrooms as Opportunities for Renegotiating Relationships with Indigenous Knowledge
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v66i3.56962Abstract
Indigenous perspectives and knowledges have been rendered “difficult” to teach and learn due to settler-colonial norms that are naturalized in Ontario’s public K-12 education system. We explore how we as educators and teachers with diverse populations of students critically engage pedagogy and knowledge to take up Indigenous perspectives and knowledges in classrooms in ethical ways. Using practitioner inquiry, we draw on our classroom experiences to explore how students engage with Indigenous perspectives and knowledges and our relationships as people who relate to this land in different ways—as settlers, newcomers, and original caretakers. Students perceive our pedagogical interventions not as difficult, but as a disruption from settler colonialism, that can be navigated through. We argue that not only is there nothing inherently difficult about Indigenous perspectives and knowledges, but also that students enter into difficulty as possibility. Although students experience disruptions, they seek out ways to renegotiate their relationships to settler colonialism and Indigenous perspectives and knowledges and come to new understandings about their contexts. We argue that examining these disruptions as teacher researchers in our classrooms adds nuance to conversations about revealing how settler colonialism functions and complexity to the task of taking up Indigenous perspectives and knowledges in K-12 classrooms.
Keywords: Indigenous perspectives, settler colonialism, difficult knowledge, pedagogy, practitioner inquiry
Les perspectives et les connaissances autochtones sont devenues des matières « difficiles » à enseigner en raison des normes des colonisateurs qui sont naturalisées au sein du système d’éducation publique de la maternelle à la 12e année en Ontario. Nous explorons dans quelle mesure nous, en tant qu’enseignantes qui travaillons avec des populations diverses d’élèves, adoptons une approche critique et réfléchie à la pédagogie et aux connaissances de sorte à intégrer les perspectives et les connaissances autochtones en classe de façon éthique. Reposant sur une enquête auprès de praticiens, nous puisons dans nos expériences en classe pour explorer la réaction des élèves aux perspectives et aux connaissances autochtones ainsi qu’à nos rapports en tant que personnes qui entretiennent des liens différents avec ce territoire—en tant que colonisateurs, nouveaux arrivés ou premiers gardiens. Les élèves ne perçoivent pas nos interventions pédagogiques comme étant difficiles, mais comme une perturbation du colonialisme de peuplement à travers laquelle il est possible de naviguer. Nous affirmons que non seulement les perspectives et les connaissances autochtones ne sont pas difficiles en soi, mais en plus, les élèves abordent la difficulté comme une possibilité. Les élèves vivent des perturbations, cherchent des façons de renégocier leurs rapports au colonialisme de peuplement et aux perspectives et connaissances autochtones, et ils acquièrent une nouvelle compréhension de leurs contextes. Nous affirmons qu’en examinant ces perturbations comme chercheurs-enseignants dans nos salles de classes, nous ajoutons une nuance aux conversations sur le fonctionnement du colonialisme de peuplement et rendons plus complexe la tâche d’adopter des perspectives et des connaissances dans les classes M-12.
Mots clés : Perspectives autochtones, colonialisme de peuplement, connaissances difficiles, pédagogie, enquête auprès des praticiens
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA COPYRIGHT LICENSE AND PUBLICATION AGREEMENT
If accepted, authors will be asked to sign a copyright agreement with the following points:
A. Where there is any inconsistency between this Copyright License and Publication Agreement and any other document or agreement in relation to the same subject matter, the terms of this Agreement shall govern.
B. This document sets out the rights you are granting in relation to publication of your article, book review, or research note entitled (the “Article”) through inclusion in the academic journal titled Alberta Journal of Educational Research (the “Journal”) published through the Faculty of Education, representing the Governors of the University of Alberta (the “Journal Editor”).
C. There will be no payment to you for this publication and grant of rights. In consideration of the agreement to publish the Article in the Journal:
1. You are warranting that:
- the content of the Article is your original work, and its content does not contain any material infringing the copyright of others; or, where the Article is not entirely your original work, you have obtained all necessary permissions in writing to grant the rights you are giving in this agreement;
- the content of the Article does not contain any material that is defamatory of, or violates the privacy rights of, or discloses the confidential information of, any other person;
- the Article has not been published elsewhere in whole or in part, and you will not allow publication of the Article elsewhere without the consent of the Journal Editor;
- the names of all co-authors and contributors to the Article are:
2. You agree to license the copyright in the Article to the Journal Editor, on a worldwide, perpetual, royalty free basis; and to the extent required by the terms of this agreement. You shall retain the right at all times to be acknowledged as the/an author of the Article.
3. You further agree that the Journal Editor has the entitlement to deal with the Article as the Journal Editor sees fit, and including in the following manner;
- The right to print, publish, market, communicate and distribute the Article and the Journal, in this and any subsequent editions, in all media (including electronic media), in all languages, and in all territories, ing the full term of copyright, and including any form of the Article separated from the Journal, such as in a database, abstract, offprint, translation or otherwise, and to authorize third parties to do so;
- The right to register copyright of the Journal;
- The right to edit the Article, to conform to editorial policy as the Journal Editor sees fit.
4. If any co-author or contributor to the Article does not sign this agreement, the Journal Editor reserves the right to refuse to publish the Article.