Becoming Real On Turtle Island: A Pedagogy of Relationship

Abstract

This paper began as an oral presentation delivered at the Pedagogies of Decolonizationand Reconciliation in the Post-Secondary Classroom event sponsored by the CanadianCritical Pedagogy Association and the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities,held May 29, 2017 at Ryerson University. It discusses an interdisciplinary approachto breaking through "settler unconsciousness" using a pedagogy deeply influenced byIndigenous concepts of learning as a process of reciprocity and of understanding "self­in-relationship. "y4sa settler educator, I acknowledge and think through the implica­tions of my own positionality for teaching, and assist students with their personalself-location through four frames of analysis. These include decolonizing the historyof Canada; understanding colonialism and anticolonial struggle comparatively andtransnationally; locating oneself in the local context; and locating oneself through fam­ily migration and time. students explore their own relationship to colonialism andthe interrelationship of these frames in an initial personal reflection assignment whichis shared in the classroom, students learn about the global reach of colonialism, buildcommunity among diverse students, and come to recognize the effects of colonialismon the whole person—a crucial strategy since colonialism is a psychological structureof emotions as well as a political, social, legal, and economic set of relationships. A sec­ond pedagogical theme follows from this self-location: acknowledging relationship andrecognizing one's responsibilities. The ethic of relationship and responsibility at thecore of Indigenous worldviews and ethics is also powerfully conveyed to studentsthrough co-teaching. I conclude with some reflections on co-teaching as a powerfulmodel for Indigenous-non-Indigenous relationship and effective teaching about decol­onization, drawing on personal experiences of teaching one-on-one with an Indigenousscholar, and in partnership with an Indigenous organization and support group of res­idential school survivors.