Alexa Scully

Followers

Following

Public Views

As a Ph.D. candidate focusing on Indigenous education in teacher education, I explore the central importance of connection with local Land and Indigenous communities in redressing the miseducation of non-Indigenous pre-service teachers working towards respectful Right Relation.

My teaching and research work has been on Anishinaabe territory; as a settler, a canoe-trip guide and as a person who continues to learn from Anishinaabe peoples and relationships, these territories are at the very centre of how I see myself in the world. This is tricky, and continuing to connect to these Lands regularly is very important to doing this work in a good way.

I am currently living in Inukjuak, QC, working for the Land Survival and Culture Centre of the Kativik School Board as an Educational Consultant. After many years of teaching outdoor education in K-12 in non-traditional settings, and social and ecological justice education in university settings, this work in Inuit territory is an exciting mix of being a ‘decolonial bad cop’ in pursuit of good practices of curriculum development, teaching and research, and building an exciting Inuit Environmental Science curriculum that centres Inuit knowledge and Land-based learning.
Supervisors: Dr. Paul Berger (Lakehead University) and Jobie Epoo (Kativik School Board)

less

Alexa Scully

Lakehead University

Brooke Madden

Marcia McKenzie

University of Melbourne

Lakehead University

Lakehead University

Bishop's University

University of Alberta

Heather E. McGregor

Queen's University at Kingston

Marie-Eve Drouin Gagné

Institut national de la recherche scientifique

Julie Vaudrin-Charette

University of Ottawa | Université d'Ottawa

Uploads

Papers by Alexa Scully

Land and Critical Place-Based Education in Canadian Teacher Preparation: Complementary Pedagogies for Complex Futures

Rural Teacher Education, 2020

After decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars and communities, Indigenous education in Canadia... more After decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars and communities, Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education is gaining support and status. Throughout Canadian teacher education, the 'common knowledge' of pre-service teachers does not include complex understandings of Indigenous peoples, Lands, or history in what is currently known as Canada, and this has grave consequences for Indigenous peoples and Lands. For my doctoral study, I investigated how critical Place-Based Education (cPBE) is enacted in Indigenous education in teacher education practices in Canada to trouble whiteness, centre Land, and disrupt settler colonialism. I came to understand, as some Indigenous theorists had long known, that the conceptual family of Place may not account well-enough for Land-for Indigenous knowledges, territories, and communities, but that critical Place-based education and Land-based education may work together toward building critical understandings of Indigenous futurities in Canada. This research deeply confirms the dual oppression of Land and of Indigenous peoples that is at the heart of the Canadian identity, but it also offers some answers. Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education must include anti-racist education that contends with white privilege, Land-based learning both in and beyond the classroom, and must centre local Indigenous communities by prioritizing relationships and learning contexts with them.

Download

Drinking water perception and consumption in Canadian subarctic Indigenous communities and the importance for public health

FACETS, 2022

Resource development and climate change are increasing concerns regarding safe water for Indigeno... more Resource development and climate change are increasing concerns regarding safe water for Indigenous people in Canada. A research study was completed to characterize the consumption of water and beverages prepared with water and identify the perception of water consumption in Indigenous communities from the Northwest Territories and Yukon, Canada. As part of a larger research program, data for this study were available from a 24-hour recall dietary survey ( n = 162), a health messages survey ( n = 150), and an exposure factor survey ( n = 63). A focus group was conducted with Elders in an on-the-land camp setting. The consumption of water-based beverages in winter was 0.9 L/day on average, mainly consisting of tea and coffee. Of the 81% of respondents who reported consuming water-based beverages in the previous 24 hours of the survey, 33% drank more bottled water than tap water. About 2% of respondents consumed water from the land (during the winter season). Chlorine smell was the ma...

Whiteness and land in Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education

After decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars and communities, Indigenous education in Canadia... more After decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars and communities, Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education is gaining support and status. Throughout Canadian teacher education, the ‘common knowledge’ of pre-service teachers does not include complex understandings of Indigenous peoples, Lands, or history in what is currently known as Canada. Using multiple qualitative research methods in the methodology of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP), I investigate how I and eight teacher educators enact critical Place-based education (cPBE) in our Indigenous education in teacher education practice in Canada to trouble whiteness, centre Land, and disrupt settler colonialism. The decolonization of teacher education practices, and of the administrative structures and practices of faculties of education, is necessary to support learning with, from and for Indigenous peoples in support of Indigenous futurities. As I struggled to teach with Land at the centre and in right relation to Anishinaabe Lands and communities, I examined and transformed my own practice-in-relation alongside my students and colleagues. As the Indigenization of universities proliferates, more questions are emerging about how to do this work well. This research deeply confirms the dual oppression of Land and of Indigenous peoples that is at the heart of the Canadian identity, but it also offers some answers. Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education must include anti-racist education that contends with white privilege, Land-based learning both in and beyond the classroom, and centring local Indigenous communities by prioritizing relationships and learning contexts with them. These elements, which represent the ethical relationality and right relation necessary to cPBE in Canada, are not supported, rewarded, or remunerated in current university structures. This demands change in how universities hire, how they support critical, Land- and community-based pedagogies, and in how they conduct themselves in relation to the Lands and communities they stand on and serve.

Beyond the Classroom: The Impact of a Required Indigenous Education Course in the Lives of Pre-service Teachers

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC, 2015) released in June 2015 marked a pivo... more The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC, 2015) released in June 2015 marked a pivotal moment in the history of education in Canada. The report included 94 calls 'Calls to action' that stressed the importance of addressing the many injustices committed against Indigenous 1 peoples attending residential schools between 1876 and 1996. In these calls the need for federal, provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments to play a key role in developing education for reconciliation was highlighted. In particular, Call 62i recommended that educators work to develop 'age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples' historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students' (p. 11). Similarly, Call 62ii states that the provincial and territorial governments, who are responsible for education, need to 'provide the necessary funding to postsecondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms' (p.11). This chapter will describe

Download

Decolonization, Reinhabitation and Reconciliation: Aboriginal and Place-Based Education

Aboriginal/Indigenous education is being increasingly emphasized in Faculties of Education across... more Aboriginal/Indigenous education is being increasingly emphasized in Faculties of Education across Canada. Through self-study as an instructor of a mandatory course in Aboriginal education in a Faculty of Education, the author is exploring the use of local, place-based education in the fostering of cross-cultural understanding of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians as having interrelated histories and contemporary realities in Canada. Place-based education has the potential to further the goals of Aboriginal education: to serve Aboriginal learners as a tool of resurgence and sovereignty, to disrupt racialized perceptions of Aboriginal peoples, to create awareness of the cultural location of all peoples and pedagogies, and to create right relation between the peoples and the lands of Canada through decolonization, reinhabitation, and reconciliation.

Download

Decolonization, Reinhabitation and Reconciliation: Aboriginal and Place-Based Education

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, Dec 17, 2012

Abstract Aboriginal/Indigenous education is being increasingly emphasized in Faculties of Educati... more

Land and Critical Place-Based Education in Canadian Teacher Preparation: Complementary Pedagogies for Complex Futures

Rural Teacher Education, 2020

Download

Drinking water perception and consumption in Canadian subarctic Indigenous communities and the importance for public health

FACETS, 2022

Whiteness and land in Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education

After decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars and communities, Indigenous education in Canadia... more After decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars and communities, Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education is gaining support and status. Throughout Canadian teacher education, the ‘common knowledge’ of pre-service teachers does not include complex understandings of Indigenous peoples, Lands, or history in what is currently known as Canada. Using multiple qualitative research methods in the methodology of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP), I investigate how I and eight teacher educators enact critical Place-based education (cPBE) in our Indigenous education in teacher education practice in Canada to trouble whiteness, centre Land, and disrupt settler colonialism. The decolonization of teacher education practices, and of the administrative structures and practices of faculties of education, is necessary to support learning with, from and for Indigenous peoples in support of Indigenous futurities. As I struggled to teach with Land at the centre and in right relation to Anishinaabe Lands and communities, I examined and transformed my own practice-in-relation alongside my students and colleagues. As the Indigenization of universities proliferates, more questions are emerging about how to do this work well. This research deeply confirms the dual oppression of Land and of Indigenous peoples that is at the heart of the Canadian identity, but it also offers some answers. Indigenous education in Canadian teacher education must include anti-racist education that contends with white privilege, Land-based learning both in and beyond the classroom, and centring local Indigenous communities by prioritizing relationships and learning contexts with them. These elements, which represent the ethical relationality and right relation necessary to cPBE in Canada, are not supported, rewarded, or remunerated in current university structures. This demands change in how universities hire, how they support critical, Land- and community-based pedagogies, and in how they conduct themselves in relation to the Lands and communities they stand on and serve.

Beyond the Classroom: The Impact of a Required Indigenous Education Course in the Lives of Pre-service Teachers

Download

Decolonization, Reinhabitation and Reconciliation: Aboriginal and Place-Based Education

Download

Decolonization, Reinhabitation and Reconciliation: Aboriginal and Place-Based Education

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, Dec 17, 2012

Abstract Aboriginal/Indigenous education is being increasingly emphasized in Faculties of Educati... more

Alexa Scully

Related Authors

Uploads

Papers by Alexa Scully

Log In