Disrupting Molded Images: Identities, responsibilities and relationships-teachers and indigenous subject material

• Published in: Teaching education (Columbia, S.C.) Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 329 - 342
• Main Author: Dion, Susan D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.12.2007
• Subjects: Artists; Canada; Canada Natives; Critical Theory; Cultural Differences; Foreign Countries; Indigenous Knowledge; Indigenous Populations; Learning Activities; Multicultural Education; Teacher Education; Canada
• ISSN: 1047-6210; 1470-1286
• DOI: 10.1080/10476210701687625

This paper explores the complexities of teachers' understanding of their relationship with Aboriginal people. Drawing on her current work with teachers, the author offers a method for initiating a critical pedagogy of remembrance that allows teachers to attend to and learn from the biography of their relationship with Aboriginal people. The author argues that teachers position themselves as "perfect stranger" to Aboriginal people and explores forms of "ethical learning" which use the act of remembrance to raise awareness of the ways in which the identities of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada have been shaped by the colonial encounter. The construction of this ethical awareness among teachers is a promising way to transform relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada.