Indigenous Social Justice Pedagogy: Confronting the Logics of Settler Colonialism

• In Event: Indigenous Teacher Education: Addressing the Failures of American Education

Abstract

Social justice principles and practices have been on the rise in many teacher education programs, particularly programs that focus on preparing teacher candidates for teaching in urban schools (Agarwal, Epstein, Oppenheim, Oyler & Sonu, 2010; Nieto, 2000; Zeichner & Flessner, 2009). Preparing teacher candidates for teaching in Indigenous communities from such a justice-centered approach requires teacher educators to reconceptualize what it means to teach for social justice within Indigenous communities. This paper will examine the process of preparing Indigenous preservice teachers in a culturally sustaining and justice-centered approach that is guided by the theoretical framework of Indigenous Social Justice Pedagogy (ISJP). Indigenous social justice pedagogy (ISJP) is a framework for rethinking the process of schooling for Indigenous students (Author, 2017). Its primary focus is on reframing curriculum and pedagogy that aims to preserve and privilege Indigenous epistemologies while promoting nation-building in Indigenous communities. Pedagogically, the framework of ISJP is to facilitate the process of: 1) deconstructing and disrupting the cycle of colonization in Indigenous communities; 2) promoting, revitalizing, and protecting Indigenous languages and knowledge systems; and 3) envisioning ways to inspire youth to employ transformative possibilities that contribute to nation-building. Thus, central to ISJP are decolonizing processes that foster empowerment and activism in youth.
Considering the history of Native education, Indigenous teacher education programs are encouraged to embody a justice-centered approach to develop a critical awareness of the oppressive structures (historical and contemporary) and systems of knowledge that produce them. To confront and address the ongoing forces of dispossession within Indigenous communities, it is essential for Indigenous teachers to both come to understand and interrogate settler colonialism and its internal logics and develop a sense of individual and collective agency. One without the other can be paralyzing. As such, teacher candidates in this program develop their content knowledge and their understanding of the role teachers have in envisioning, empowering, and building transformational change in their communities. This stance by teachers’ active involvement to promote justice and healing within Indigenous communities is an intentional (political and moral) act in developing curriculum around various social and environmental issues to disrupt hegemonic understandings of oppressive structures and systems (i.e., examining social hierarchies manifested through racism, sexism, classism) within Indigenous communities.
The overarching question embedded in this study is: What does it mean to create curriculum from an ISJP framework that invokes critical inquiry with individual and collective action? By drawing upon Indigenous teacher candidates’ critical dialogues, reflections, and course assignments, the author will discuss the ways in which Indigenous preservice teachers can re-imagine and re-construct curriculum and pedagogy for Indigenous students.

Author

• Valerie J. Shirley, The University of Arizona