A listening classroom: The importance of decolonizing Christian education from within

Abstract

Considering the pedagogical context set by Christian schools across Canada, this paper argues that Christian educators who identify as settlers need not only to continue to learn more about Indigenous peoples and their history but also begin the task of decolonizing their classrooms by creating space to listen to the voices of those who have been traditionally marginalized within Christian schools. This paper suggests the practice of critical reflection for Christian educators to uncover unconscious assumptions, biases, and other forms of injustice, thereby laying the groundwork for decolonization within Christian schools.

Keywords

residential schools decolonization critical reflection Indigenous peoples Christian educators truth and reconciliation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barkaskas

Gladwin

(2021) Pedagogical talking circles: decolonizing education through relational Indigenous frameworks. Journal of Teaching and Learning 15(1): 20–38.

BC Human Rights

Commission (n.d.) Decolonization. Available at: https://bchumanrights.ca/key-issues/decolonization/

Brookfield

(2017) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, Second Edition. Jossey-Bass.

Carleton

(2022) Lessons in Legitimacy: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Rise of State Schooling in British Columbia. University of British Columbia Press.

Charles

Rah

(2019) Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Chief Mi’sel

Vaandering

Ricciardelli

, et al. (2022) Two-Eared Listening is Essential for Understanding Restorative Justice in Canada. The Canadian Press. Available at: https://theconversation.com/two-eared-listening-is-essential-for-understanding-restorative-justice-in-canada-185466

Chrona

(2022) Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act for Reconciliation and Anti-racist Education. Portage & Main Press.

Crouch

(2016) Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk & True Flourishing. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Cummins

(2014) Teaching through a multilingual lens: classroom resources for global education. In: Montemurro

Gambhir

Evans

, et al. (eds) Inquiry into Practice: Learning and Teaching Global Matters in Local Classrooms. Toronto, ON: OISE.

10.

De La Torre

(2002) Reading the Bible from the Margins. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

11.

Dewey

(1997) Experience & Education. Free Press.

12.

Farkas

(2021) Canadian decolonization: the path to Indigenous recognition and sovereignty. Canadian Journal of Practical Philosophy 7: 5. Available at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/csspe/vol7/1/5

13.

First Nations Education Steering Committee (2008) First Peoples principles of learning (poster). Available at: https://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FNESC-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11x17-hi-res-v2.pdf

14.

Freire

(2000) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Bloomsbury Academic.

15.

Giroux

(2020) On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd Edition. Bloomsbury Academic.

16.

Gray Smith

(2017) Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation. Orca Book Publishers.

17.

Haig-Brown

(2009) Decolonizing Diaspora: whose traditional land are we on? Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry 1(1): 4–21.

18.

Hatcher

Bartlett

Marshall

, et al. (2009) Two-eyed seeing in the classroom environment: concepts, approaches, and challenges. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education 9(3): 141–153.

19.

Hekman

(2013) Schools as communities of grace. Christian Educators Journal. Available at: https://www.cejonline.com/article/schools-as-communities-of-grace/

20.

House of Commons of Canada (2022) Debates (Hansard) no. 119 - October 27, 2022 (44-1). Available at: https://www.ourcommons.ca/documentviewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-119/hansard (accessed April 23, 2025).

21.

Indigenous Services Canada (2020) Annual Report to Parliament 2020. Government of Canada. https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1602010609492/1602010631711 (accessed 3 March 2025).

22.

Joseph

(2018) 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality. Indigenous Relations Press.

23.

Kimmerer

(2015) Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.

24.

Kits

(2019) Why educating for shalom requires decolonization. International Journal of Christianity & Education 23(2): 185–203.

25.

Kouri

(2020) Settler education: acknowledgement, self-location, and settler ethics in teaching and learning. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies 11(3): 56–79.

26.

Leddy

Miller

(2024) Teaching Where You Are: Weaving Indigenous and Slow Principles and Pedagogies. University of Toronto Press.

27.

Merriam-Webster (n.d.) Webster's encyclopedia dictionary. Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism

28.

Métis National Council (n.d.) Frequently asked questions. Available at: https://www.metisnation.ca/what-we-do/cfs/faq (accessed 3 March 2025).

29.

Miller

(2017) Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts Its History. University of Toronto Press.

30.

Moore

Rodway

Vaandering

(2023) Decolonization Through Two-eared Listening: The Integral Role of Listening to Indigenous Community Voices and Stories. EdCan Network. Available at: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/decolonization-through-two-eared-listening/

31.

Morrison

Blood

Thorsborne

(2005) Practicing restorative justice in school communities: the challenge of culture change. Public Organization Review 5: 335–357.

32.

Mouw

(2011) World-viewing. In: Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

33.

Newhouse

Quantick

(2022) Teaching Indigenous studies in a time of reconciliation: an anticolonial approach toward postcolonial awareness. In: Styres SD and Kempf

(eds) Troubling Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Education: Critical Perspectives. University of Alberta Press.

34.

GAWI

(2020) Complexities in religious education with Asian/Asian Canadians and Indigenous realities: the truth and reconciliation commission report on residential schools. Religious Education 115(3): 315–322.

35.

Poitras Pratt

Danyluk

(2019) Exploring reconciliatory pedagogy and its possibilities through educator-led praxis. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 10(3): 1–16.

36.

Queen’s University (n.d.) Definitions: Decolonizing and indigenizing. Available at: https://www.queensu.ca/indigenous/decolonizing-and-indigenizing/defintions (Accessed February 25, 2025).

37.

Robertson

(2022) Overlooked: The Forgotten Stories of Canadian Christianity. New Leaf Network Press.

38.

Robinson

(2020) Acculturation, enculturation, and social imaginaries: the complex relationship between the gospel and culture. In: Michaelson

Durrant

(eds). Decolonizing Discipline: Children, Corporal Punishment, Christian Theologies, and Reconciliation. University of Manitoba Press.

39.

Sloat

(2024) What Does Indigenization Mean? University Affairs. https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/what-does-indigenization-mean/

40.

Smith

(2009) Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

41.

Smith

(2018) On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

42.

Smith

Carvill

(2000) Hospitality to the stranger. In: The Gift of the Stranger: Faith, Hospitality, and Foreign Language Learning. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, pp. 79–103.

43.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015a) Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: summary of the final report of the truth and reconciliation commission of Canada. Available at: https://irsi.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/inline-files/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf

44.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015b) What we have learned: principles of truth and reconciliation. Available at: https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Principles_English_Web.pdf

45.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015c) Canada’s Residential Schools: Reconciliation. Final Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press.