Implications of Teacher Identity for Inclusion of Indigenous Perspectives in K–12 Teaching and Curriculum

• In Event: 43.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 43.078-2 - If Anybody Asks You Who I Am: Black and Indigenous Teacher Identities

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways educators claim and are positioned into various professional, personal, and social identities as they work to infuse Indigenous perspectives into their teaching. Drawing from Hall (2011), Holland et al. (1998), and LaDuke (1999), we understand teacher identities as positional, relational, and functioning as identities-in-practice to guide educators in their work. Participants highlighted relationships with land, personal relationships to place, experts and “phoneys”, building solidarity, and working through discomfort as being relevant to their positional identities as teachers. We argue that these stories of identity indicate some of the fissures in traditional narratives of teacher identities which can become avenues to new ways of overcoming barriers to the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in education.

Authors

• Mark Sinke, University of Toronto

• Daniela Bascuñán, Toronto District School Board 

• Shawna Carroll, Okayama University

• Jean-Paul Restoule, University of Victoria