De/Colonizing Educational Relationships in Teacher Education

For some time, scholars in settler colonial nations have been arguing for the need to decolonise education; some example include Mignolo in Argentina (2011), Battiste in Canada (2013), Smith in New Zealand (2012), Moreton-Robinson in Australia (2015) and Mbebe in South Africa (2016).

Calls to systematically decolonise higher education became heightened following the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movement led by student activists in South Africa (Kumalo, 2021).

In the Canadian context, calls to Indigenize and decolonize education proliferate. More than a decade ago, the Association of Canadian Deans of Education came together to endorse a vision for Indigenous Education; in 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission published their findings along with 94 Calls to Action, of which a number related to education. Many years later their vision for education continues to be elusive. In this seminar series we discuss the relationships between de/colonization and Indigenization and focus on de/colonizing educational relationships in higher and teacher education because we believe that the processes of de/colonization are ontological as well as an epistemological process.

The seminars are designed to be a mixture of presentations, activities, and discussion.