The Complexities and Promise of Standing Beside Indigenous Literacy Scholars in a Curriculum Analysis

• In Event: Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual iPresentation Only: SIG-Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

How literacy is shaped by policies that govern classrooms can have a deep impact on students’ experiences, especially underserved Indigenous children. This curriculum analysis understands policy as social practice and includes a document analysis of a new language arts curriculum and semi-structured interviews with literacy instructors and classroom teachers. Peltier’s (2016/2017) Wholistic Anishinaabe Pedagogy and Reese’s (2012, 2018) Critical Indigenous Literacy were key in framing, coding, and analyzing data. Findings include English only processes, sparse attention to feelings, and almost no attention to critical literacy in K to 3. This research shows the complexities and promise of non-Indigenous literacy professors, thinking deeply about places of resonance and tension in literacy in ways that Indigenous scholars are already writing about.

Authors

• Katie Brubacher, University of Alberta

• Jacqueline Filipek, The King's University College