"Just My Presence in That Classroom Is the Problem": Indigenous Infusion and Teachers' Relational Identities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Radical Resuscitations in Anticolonial Curriuculum, Consciousness, and Collectives

Abstract

This paper examines how educators claim and are positioned into various professional, personal, and social identities as they work to infuse Indigenous perspectives and content into their work. Drawing from Hall (2011), Holland et al. (1998), and LaDuke (1999), we understand teacher identities to be positional and relational, and function as to guide educators in their work. Data from 130 educators highlights how educators tell stories about their sense of self as being relationally tied to land and place, and to other people through relational identities. We argue that these stories of identity indicate some of the fissures in traditional narratives of teacher identities and can help point to overcoming barriers in the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in education.

Authors

• Mark Sinke, University of Toronto

• Daniela Bascuñán, Toronto District School Board 

• Shawna Carroll, Okayama University

• Jean Paul Restoule, University of Victoria