First Nations Teachers: Identity and Community, Struggle and Change

The struggles and identities of educators are rich resources for transforming colonial and post-colonial educational systems. The teachers in this book resourcefully built their own identities from Indigenous ideologies and practices, as well as the world of mainstream schools. Their stories also emphasize that struggles to construct identity, far from being individual efforts, connect us to others. These struggles and connections fuel the transformation of colonial educational systems into spaces that support and encourage Indigenous learners. The teachers were classmates during the five-year First Nations teacher education program at Prince Rupert/Simon Fraser University. The experiences of the teachers are connected to both the broad history of Aboriginal education in Canada, as well as to the specific history of north coastal British Columbia (pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial). In struggles with the legacy of this history, First Nations teachers have initiated the process of educational transformation.