For my final project in EC&I 820 Multicultural & Anti-Racist Issues in Curriculum, I decided to choose option #2: to engage in a radical re-imagining education and to think about what race conscious, culturally sustaining, anti-racist and or decolonial teaching could look like in the province of Saskatchewan. When I began to unpack and generate ideas for this topic. I quickly came to realize that you can not address anti-racist education at the teacher level without involvement from the provincial, the school division, and the school level. As a result, this project expanded from classroom practice into a “Framework Overview for Decolonial & Anti-Racist Education” that could be implemented in Saskatchewan to support anti-racist education in the province.

Creating a provincial framework to support anti-racist education in Saskatchewan would certainly be an area of strength for me. I have worked in Saskatchewan schools as an in-school administrator for the better part of 25 years and I will be moving into a new role as Inclusive Education Coordinator in my division so working towards the creation of a framework to re-imagine anti-racist and decolonial education seemed to fit. In preparation for this task, I asked the Superintendent of Inclusive Education, my direct supervisor next year, to sit down with me to discuss the topic as it lends itself to our work.

After gathering plenty of ideas and a wealth of knowledge from our meeting I began the process of creating a framework that consists of 4 documents. In the infancy stages of that work, I thought of the quote below:

We must be bold to speak about the cultural injury done to racialized bodies in our classrooms, the social exclusions of their knowledges and experiences from official school curriculum and texts, the commodification of their cultures, and the complicities of White privilege in enacting violence of Othered bodies. – George J. Sefa Dei (2006)

My takeaway from this quote was two-fold: 1) this is a call to action and a grounding point for anti-racist and decolonial teaching work, and 2) in order for the framework that I will be presenting to be authentic then it will have to be vetted by more eyes than two educators that could be seen as once again exerting their “white privilege” and western world views upon education. As a result, I see the work that I am about to present as a work in progress.

Without further adieu, I will unveil my re-imaging framework for decolonial and anti-racist education work in the province of Saskatchewan. Work that needs to span the educational system from the top to the bottom. Work that is still a work in progress and is considered an evergreen document that can be vetted and changed as needed to support our students in the province of Saskatchewan.

How to Navigate the Document

• Click on the link below to open a 3 page document that outlines the following: 1) the current state of multicultural education in our province, 2) what is the current working definition of race, and 3) the need for change.
• At the bottom of the last page of the document, there are 4 links: 1) A Framework for Decolonial & Anti-Racist Education, 2) 4 Seasons of Learning Model, 3) 2024 Structure & Routine example, and 4) Final Project References.
• Follow the links to view the framework in it’s entirety.

A Framework Overview for Decolonial & Anti-Racist Education

Highlights of the Attached Documents:

• The first link was created as a continuum of supports for decolonial & anti-racist work. It lists the responsibilities of the province, the school division, the school and the teacher in moving this work forward.
• The second link is a 4 seasons school year model. I have taken the time to create a working calendar for the 2024 calendar year. Key to this model is the calendar aligns with the 4 seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall and this coupled with a change to provincial regulations would allow for students to be able to explore elective options from home in one or more of the season. (Example: A student could choose to help out on the trapline in the winter, farm in the fall, continue with first language home based learning in any season and learn from their home and community.)
• The third document is a structure and routine document or a rework on the old bell schedule. The concept is the block system which is designed as a morning and afternoon structure which would allow for 24 credits at the grade 10-12 level but would also allow for more flexibility for students to work from home online or support other elective options like homebased learning or learning from the community.
• The fourth link is the list of references for my final project.

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on re-imagining our educational system in our province. The work was not easy as it is hard to radically re-imagine something that is so embedded with western world views and systemic racialization of marginalized groups.

In closing, I will leave you with another quote.

We fail to look at structures and how institutions function to create marginality for racialized subjects – George J. Sefa Dei (2006)