The Stubborn Erasure of Indigenous Sovereignty and Disability in Teacher Education

• In Event: Beyond Acknowledgement: Decolonial Futures in Education and Disability Studies

Abstract

This paper reports on a qualitative study of an undergraduate educational foundations course designed around land-based pedagogy (Lees et al., 2021), critical disability theories (Annamma et al., 2013), and critiques of white supremacy (Author, 2014). Building from Lees, Laman, and Calderón’s (2021) model of land education, we explore the epistemic shifting pre-service teachers demonstrate as they engage frameworks intended to cultivate liberatory possibilities beyond settler colonial logics. This framework is extended to consider the intersections of settler colonialism and ableism. Specifically, erasure is considered as a shared logic that reproduces white supremacy while delegitimizing other ways of being. Results of the study reveal how even when some PSTs show signs of an epistemic shift, erasure remains stubbornly present.

Authors

• Samantha Marie Jacob, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Gardner R Seawright, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater