Having the Spirit Within to Vision: New Aboriginal Teachers' Commitment to Reclaiming Space

Abstract

This grounded theory research study distinguished two central categories thatemerged in an analysis o f new Aboriginal teachers' perceptions. Six participants fromacross Ontario, along with an Elder, a university-based Aboriginal center fo r educa­tion and research, graduate students, and university faculty engaged in a Wildfire Re­search Method to better appreciate new Aboriginal teachers' experiences during theirinduction into the profession. The categories included, "participants' emotionalbiographies" and “moral discernment." The findings attest to new Aboriginal teach­ers' unique sense o f awareness o f the bicultural dichotomy they represent and theircollective determination to reclaim their sociocultural and epistemic places.