International Indigenous Consortium of Teacher Educators: Indigenous Resurgence and Digital Technologies in Teacher Education

Name of Project:                                                                                              

International Indigenous Consortium of Teacher Educators: Indigenous Resurgence and Digital Technologies in Teacher Education.

Name of Researcher/Research Team Members/Community Partners:

Dr. Angelina Weenie

Funding institution/Grant (if applicable):

SSHRC Partnership Development Grants, $199,856.

Summary or Abstract of the Project:

Discussions about reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence have become commonplace in global conversations about Indigenous education, but little progress has been made to address how current models of education disadvantage Indigenous students. Indigenous scholars have called for Indigenous-led and -implemented teacher education programing (TEP) that promotes Indigenous resurgence, and for post-secondary institutions to educate student teachers on ways to integrate Indigenous perspectives and teaching methods into classrooms. One innovative example is the use of digitally immersive land-based technologies. Land-based education is fundamentally grounded in Indigenous philosophies based on intimate connections to our places and intellectualism. Our new university-community research partnership will examine the potential of land-based frameworks for building capacity among student teachers and enabling Indigenous resurgence and reconciliation within TEP.

Our primary goal is to create new ways to study and advocate for the advancement of respectful and appropriate inclusion of Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in TEP to the benefit of all learners. Through our International Indigenous Consortium of Teacher Educations (IICTE), we will develop policies/practices concerning Indigenous resurgence in TEP and contribute to new and emerging scholarship in this area of priority research. Our work is grounded in philosophies that originate from land-based traditions of thought, and so will offer a unique intellectual shift away from seeking reconciliation through colonial systems to Indigenous resurgence and critical social action.

Indigenous education values placed-based teaching and learning, relationality, student learning needs, and engages the whole person. Our partnership will contribute to effective Indigenous education, reconciliation and resurgence by building capacity for student teachers to meaningfully incorporate Indigenous perspectives into K-12 classrooms.