Unsettling Place-based Education: Whiteness and Land in Indigenous Education in Canadian Teacher Education

Abstract

Indigenous education is being increasingly emphasized in Canadian faculties of edu­cation. While Indigenous education in teacher education must prioritize addressingthe learning needs of Indigenous students, it must also serve to shift the gravely lackingcommon knowledge of most Canadians regarding Indigenous peoples in Canada. Inthis article, the author shares the results of her doctoral study investigating the use ofcritical place-based education, in Indigenous education in teacher education, to addressand improve the preparedness of predominantly white settler pre-service teachers inbuilding relationships in their own teaching practice so that they can do a good job ofincluding Indigenous peoples and perspectives in their teaching. Employing themethodology of self-study of teacher education practice (S-STEP), she has analyzedtrends and patterns in student assignments, responses, and anonymous feedback in17 sections of a required course in Aboriginal education in a Faculty of Education.Centreing Land and local Indigenous peoples can support unsettling whiteness, andcan reveal and recover Canadians' existing citizenship implications related to Landand to Indigenous peoples, to serve a just future in Canada.