Reconciliation in Education and Schools

Although, we are coming to a better understanding on how and what reconciliation should look like, we are far from acknowledging our wrong doings of the past. Educators have an immense role in shaping educational change and teachings. In the article Navigating the “ethical space” of truth and reconciliation: Non-Indigenous school principals in Sask written by Pamela Osmand Johnson and Peter Turner. Author A shares that she has “embarked on her own journey of unlearning and relearning both the sorted history of the country she thought she knew and the beauty and diversity of Indigenous cultures” (p. 4). I have to agree with her that I am unlearning and relearning the hidden histories of Canada. Sadly, the only reason I am relearning these histories is that I am attending University. Many who do not pursue post secondary education will still live with taught biases of residential schools, racism, and colonization.

The article highlights that school administrators and teachers not only face being undereducated about Indigenous views and how to incorporate them in their schools, but they also face criticism from other staff members, parents, and students for teaching about reconciliation and post colonial education. Media and people with higher power have played an ignorant roll in the inequalities that Indigenous people face. Sterzuk, in the article talks about how non-Indigenous people view themselves as having hardworking grandparents who settled in Canada to make a living for themselves. When in reality it was an invasion of land, settlement and displacement of Indigenous people (p. 8).  

I will further my connection with reconciliation and the meaning behind it and compare other scholars work to what moving forward and change looks like. I am hoping to focus my attention on Saskatchewan with expansion to view how Canada plans to incorporate TRC Calls to Action in the school system. With many of the educators being non-Indigenous how will this affect properly informing students of the past and how to encourage change and growth moving forward.

Work cited

Osmond-Johnson, Pamela, and Turner, Peter. “Navigating the ‘Ethical Space’ of Truth and Reconciliation: Non-Indigenous School Principals in Saskatchewan.” Curriculum Inquiry, vol. 50, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1–24.