I am a white male teacher, mid 40’s, have a partner in marriage, 2 children, a home owner, and on occasion go on a holiday. Hard work, support from friends, family, teachers, and peers allowed me to reach my goals through the structure of the Canadian educational school system.  However, the school system itself is not inclusive to all. I had the opportunity to read Meschachakanis, A Coyote Narrative: Decolonising Higher Education and to hear Dr. Pete’s words through a video conference. The goal of my blog is to follow through the narrative of Dr. Pete from her dialogue and through her writing, reflect on my life experiences both personal and professional, and find my own pathway under the umbrella of decolonizing education. The final goal is to follow through of being the reader and consider pathways to being a researcher.

Although I wasn’t in the room with Dr. Pete, as my course work is through video conference, it felt like I was. Dr. Pete was very candid about her personal life, the history of her ancestors, and the stories of her adolescence. She explained her motivation to get into education as a way to be an agent of change. From her telling, Dr. Pete chronicles the roadblocks of completing post secondary education, teaching in high school, defending her Masters Thesis, teaching the future teachers of Saskatchewan at the university, and to finally quitting her job. As Dr. Pete put it, she had enough of the system. I think her frustrations are best framed from a quote in Meschachakanis, A Coyote Narrative: Decolonising Higher Education as, “I’m over teaching (white) students that they have an identity and it is white and privileged.” Dr. Pete is passionate about decolonizing  the system, and has made decisions in her life that are true to her thoughts.

 

The white teacher (me)

Members of my immediate family all identify themselves as white. My mom is a retired school teacher, and my father as a child went to a private school in Southern Ontario. My great-grandparents were settlers in Northern Saskatchewan around Meadow Lake. The point is this, I am the product of white settlers, and the school system has been made for my success. I have been brought up in a culture that is best described by Dr. Pete as white privileged.

I’ve had the opportunity to live in South Korea for 8 years, marry a woman from Bali who doesn’t identify as white, and have children of mixed ancestry. My personal life may reflect an openness to cultures and people, but I am still a part of the dominant culture of a post-colonial society. I feel that being transparent in my ownership of who I am and where I came from provides openness to the truth and reconciliation process with First Nations people.

 

Messages of change to the Reader

What is Dr. Pete’s goal, her message to educators, to me? Dr. Pete outlined in her conversation with us that she wants reciprocity in decolonizing the educational system. As mentioned in class, she explained that it cannot be only one sided responsibility of an aboriginal educator to teach the white people. Dr. Pete targets the readers of the settler society, and challenges the educators to come to terms with their, “whiteness.” Dr. Pete formulates a path in reconciliation where “…only through both Indigenising the curriculum and decolonizing the academy can we possibly achieve reconciliation” Meschachakanis, A Coyote Narrative: Decolonising Higher Education pg 180.

The delivery of her message to the reader of settler identity, which is me, layers itself with the voice she calls Coyote. Coyote and Dr. Pete are one and the same, but Coyote, as Dr. Pete explains, gives voice to what could not be said. Coyote tells the story of being marginalized, while Dr. Pete explains the structures she has worked in. The narrative Dr. Pete provides through text with Coyote gives a sense of change, of doing things differently, and by providing an alternative thought process for the reader to understand her viewpoint.

What Next Researcher?

For two years I had the opportunity to at first be an observer, and then take a greater leadership role in using Resititution and Restorative Practice in the classroom of an elementary school. I  am very grateful to the educators in our school district who are mentoring teachers and making change happen. However, I do recognize that there are deficits in my own teaching practice in decolonizing education and in the school culture. I am encouraged by Dr. Pete’s words with getting into the messiness of it, normalize it, use self study to do the research, and get better at decolonizing education. Being here, and being part of the Master’s of Education Program is itself a conduit for change. Exploring choices, focusing on a specialty (for me it’s presently high school math and science), and using self study to indigenize our education is my plan in moving forward.

A podcast of Dr. Shauneen Pete on Indigenous Research Gaps can be found here.

 

Dr. Shauneen Pete in presently the Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator at the University of Victoria, and continues to work on being an agent for change with educators. Thank-you for the time you provided us to our Master’s of Education class and your candor.