“It Opened my Mind and Heart”: Toward a Humanizing Professional Development Framework For Anti-Colonial Futures

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

Abstract

Teacher professional development (PD) often prioritizes settler colonial views of knowledge (i.e., that which can be standardized and commodified) over contextualized and humanized experiences. During Summer 2023, educators from across the U.S. participated in NEH institutes in Yellowstone National Park to learn about ways nine Rs (recognition, relationships, responsibility, relevance, resilience, respect, reciprocity, reflection, and revitalization) framed by Indigenous educational scholarship could transform their teaching, learning, and wellbeing. Facilitators included leaders from Indigenous Nations with ties to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, as well as teacher educators, researchers, park administrators, wildlife biologists, and Native foods experts. This paper shares a story from the experience to demonstrate the potential for the Rs framework to inform humanizing, transformative, and anti-colonial PD.

Authors

• Christine Stanton, Montana State University

• Jordann Lankford, Great Falls Public Schools

• Roxann Smith, Fort Peck Community College