Teacher Preparation in Dawnland: Wabanaki History Education Policies in Maine and New Brunswick

• In Event: Education Policy and Reform (II)

Proposal

Situated on unceded Indigenous lands, Canada and the United States have a shared history of genocide, settler colonialism, and systemic oppression against First Nations peoples. This history intersects with the institution of education in both countries, with boarding schools playing an integral role in the oppression of Native communities. In response to this history and the organizing and protests of Native leaders, policymakers in both Canada and the U.S. have begun a slow and overdue process of truth and reconciliation. In some cases, this process has included policies and programs supporting more equitable education on the history of Indigenous peoples in both countries.

This paper compares teacher education policies and programs supporting Wabanaki history education in public schools in Maine and New Brunswick. The U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick are both located on the northeast coast of North America, on the unceded territories of the Wabanaki peoples. While separated by a major national border, these regions have significant cultural connections, serving as the home of peoples in the Wabanaki Confederacy, including the Abenaki, Mi'kma'ki, Nanrantsouak, N’dakina (Abenaki), Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) nations. These regions also share patterns of settler colonialism, including British Isles and French migration. There are also demographic similarities within both regions reflecting their histories of settler colonialism and genocide. In recent Census reports, 92.6% of New Brunswick residents are identified as the descendents of European settlers and 92.5% of Maine residents are identified as white and not Hispanic or Latino. 3.3% of New Brunswick residents are identified as First Nations .7% of Maine residents are identified as American Indian.

Indigenous leaders in both regions have called for better Wabanaki history education in schools as part of broader truth and reconciliation processes, recognizing the legacy of genocide in both Maine and New Brunswick. This also includes a call for teacher preparation and professional development programs to better prepare the predominately white teaching forces of both regions to offer more equitable and effective education on Wabanaki history in public schools. To date, neither region has a robust and comprehensive program for compulsory teacher education or professional development related to Wabanki history.

In the project detailed in this paper, I analyze policies related to preparing preservice and in-service educators to teach about Indigenous peoples in both Maine and New Brunswick. In particular, I consider curricular and teacher preparation policies at the state and provincial levels as well as teacher preparation policies at the university level. As Sockbeson (2019) details in her incisive analysis of Indigenous education policies in Maine, education leaders have thus far failed to implement the groundbreaking Wabanaki Studies Law. Developed through a collaboration between policymakers and Indigenous organizers in the state, this 2001 law included course and licensure requirements to prepare Maine educators to be able to effectively teach Wabanaki history in K-12 schools. New Brunswick policy makers have likewise claimed a greater curricular focus on Indigenous history as part of the province’s truth and reconciliation process (Government of New Brunswick, 2022). In my analysis of policies in both contexts, I find opportunities for teacher education programs in both regions to implement policies that better prepare educators to teach Wabanaki history. I further discuss ways for educators to both support and join protests for decolonization within and through education.

This project is informed by the growing body of research that Sumida Huaman (2022) terms “comparative Indigenous education research (CIER.)” It is also informed by the traditions of decolonial and Indigenous education research (Smith, 2012). The purpose of this project is to understand to what extent teacher education programs in Maine and New Brunswick prepare majority-white preservice educators to offer equitable Wabanaki history education in collaboration with Indigenous peoples in both regions. As a non-Indigenous teacher educator in one of the regions identified in this project, I aim to explore how teacher educators in both Maine and New Brunswick - including myself - may deepen their own practice and advocacy for teacher education policies that align with the demands of Wabanaki organizers.

Works Cited
Government of New Brunswick, (2022, January). Truth and Reconciliation. https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/corporate/promo/truth-and-reconciliation.html

Smith, Linda T. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. New York: Zed Books.

Sockbeson, R. (2019). Maine indigenous education left behind: A call for anti-racist conviction as political will toward decolonization. Journal of American Indian Education, 58(3), 105-129. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.58.3.0105

Sumida Huaman, E. (2022). How Indigenous scholarship changes the field: Pluriversal appreciation, decolonial aspirations, and comparative Indigenous education. Comparative Education Review. 000-000. 10.1086/720442.

Author

• Lauren EW Stark, Université de Sherbrooke