Critical English Language Teaching in Settler
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tive practitioners as “foundational to the realization of critical EAP” (p. 88).
In his discussion of teacher education approaches to fostering transformative practitioners for critical EAP, Morgan (2009) invites “teachers to explore ped- agogies of critical engagement rather than the passive transmission of disci- plinary content, as is conventionally assumed in most EAP settings” (p. 87).
In the case of taking up Indigenous and settler colonial issues in the EAP classroom, we argue that this endeavor involves more than including cultural content because focusing on “history, culture and identity often leaves pro- cesses of racialization, construction of whiteness, and the hierarchical power structures imbedded in racism and colonialism unacknowledged” (Waldorf, 2014, p. 71). EAP pedagogy that “emphasizes the transmission of content knowledge” avoids a discussion of the relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples (Dion, 2009, p. 150).
Here, we share one example of an EAP classroom activity that mirrors what Morgan refers to as “pedagogies of critical engagement” and demonstrates possibilities for transforming society for social justice. The example took place in Simone’s EAP classroom. The students in this classroom were not the same students in the study described in this chapter, but the results from the study did motivate and guide the development of this activity. In order to design the classroom activity, Simone also drew on her readings in the area of Indigenous epistemologies as well as her knowledge of critical pedagogy. This framework helps Simone to reflect on her own work in the areas of decolonizing her approaches to teaching and learning as well as her own settler disposition.
Simone used an inquiry-based approach to guide students toward asking critical questions about Canada. She also provided English language instruc- tion where it would facilitate communication demonstrating that critical English teaching can combine a focus on language with a focus on matters of social justice. She constructed a shared learning experience in an integrated ELT activity that included links to online readings that learners might encoun- ter if they were looking for information about Indigenous leaders. These web- sites included short biographies chosen to reflect the wisdom, strength, and selflessness of important historic First Nations leaders such as Big Bear, Louis Riel, and Gabriel Dumont, as well as artifacts important to their time such as Treaties and wampum belt. They also included biographies chosen to reflect the resilience and cultural contributions of contemporary writers, artist, and political leaders including Buffy Saint-Marie, Phil Fontaine, and Perry Bellegarde. Students chose the readings at random and worked in partners to read one or two biographies and to highlight important facts. Content was not the only focus of the activity. Before writing, Simone reviewed sentences
A. Sterzuk and S. Hengen
that use relative clauses to encourage more complex expressions. Example sen- tences included:
• “Big Bear is the Cree leader who lived from the mid 1820’s to 1888.”
• “He is the one who did not sign a treaty until his people were too hungry.”
After this modeling of sentence structures as well as their reading, students then wrote their own three–four sentence summaries.
Students presented their summaries to one another orally and the class constructed a hard copy paper timeline and attached it to the wall. Once the timeline was complete, students walked up to the timeline, reviewed it and noticed anomalies. They began to ask important questions such as: What is a Treaty? What is a reserve? Why did First Nations people go to live on reserves?
Why were the people too hungry? What happened to the leaders of the early 1900s? Why were the children taken to residential schools? These questions went beyond the inclusion of “cultural content” and took the students to a discussion of the relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples.
Knowing that an Indigenous community member would answer the ques- tions from a perspective of lived experience, Simone arranged an inquiry ses- sion with a Cree man who was a cultural expert and academic advisor at a nearby partner Indigenous university.
Again, in order to facilitate students’ communication with the cultural expert, Simone gave formal English language instruction in advance of the meeting, reviewing question structures in English. Students wrote their ques- tions with their partners in class and took them to the question-and-answer period. The cultural expert reinforced and contextualized the information that the students had previously read and summarized. The students listened initially, but they gradually asked their prepared questions as the cultural expert introduced the pre-and post-contact history of Canada and described the Treaties and their significance for First Nations people and residential schools. Some questions came spontaneously as well. The cultural expert’s explanation of the way the Canadian legal system confers “Indian status,” how
“Indian status” changes with legislation in particular caused one participant to jump out of his chair exclaiming “Identity is not a law! You can’t make someone’s identity a law! It’s impossible!” This inquiry session opened the learners’ minds to contemporary Indigenous issues as well as the continuing involvement of Canadian settlers in producing these realities. In the class fol- lowing this session, they remarked that they did not know any of this history
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or the related contemporary issues and expressed gratitude and relief over having this information explained to them.
This activity disturbs potential settler dispositions in these international students and newcomers by presenting alternatives to colonial discourses.
This lesson also teaches them that cultural experts want to share their knowl- edge. Finally, this activity responds to their needs by providing them with tools to critically examine societal messages and to confront, interrogate, and negotiate their own perspectives and what it means for them to construct their own emerging Canadian identity. We see teaching to disrupt settler dis- positions toward Indigenous peoples as an approach to critical pedagogy.
Kubota (2014) explains that “one form of critical pedagogy envisions trans- forming society for social justice through posing problems about everyday life and becoming aware of and challenging existing asymmetrical relations of power that construct our knowledge and social structures” (p. 230). The inter- view data shared in this chapter demonstrates a need for classroom activities like the one we shared here that are designed to build student awareness of
“asymmetrical relations of power” in Canadian society.
We push ESL teachers to reflect upon social justice issues, engage with community, and decolonize their pedagogy and to take up the responsibility of critically teaching about the effects of settler colonialism. Yet we acknowl- edge that this is no easy task. Here we outline three difficulties involved in critical ESL teaching for truth and reconciliation. First, taking up a critical position can be difficult because other positions are more familiar and also provide ways to avoid our personal settler complicity in the colonial project.
Dion (2009) highlights the comfort of other approaches when she explains that “for Canadians, learning about Aboriginal people, history, and culture from the position of respectful admirer or patronizing helper is easy and familiar” (p. 58). It is more difficult to plan for learning that acknowledges the complicity of all Canadians, new and old, in the colonial relationship with Indigenous peoples and that envisions an ethical and reconciliatory response.
Next, this pedagogical project can be made difficult because not all stu- dents want to discuss political issues. Controversial topics can “invoke painful memories for some or a sense of inadequacy in others based on prior identity experiences (e.g. gender, race) and/or ascribed roles in which public participa- tion is discouraged or prohibited” (Fleming & Morgan, 2011, p. 39). Teachers and teacher educators must find ways to build on the “everyday concerns of students” (Fleming & Morgan, 2011, p. 39) like Katerina who wants to “be a little bit educated to don’t make stereotypes.” Connecting these student con- cerns to broader societal issues of social justice is a way to enroll students in the project of discussing controversial issues in the ESL classroom.
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Finally, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that we might have conveyed “unrealistic expectations regarding the changes teachers can make and the professional risks and responsibilities they should reasonably assume”
(Morgan, 2009, p. 88). We encourage teachers not only to take up teaching for social justice but also to remember that truth and reconciliation through language teaching is a valuable pedagogical project, and it is an incremental and collaborative work that EAP practitioners should take up over a lifetime.
We argue that teaching to disrupt settler colonial discourses and disposi- tions is not only a worthwhile pedagogical project, it is necessary in order for the success of the broader project of truth and reconciliation between Indigenous and settler peoples in Canada. Because English language class- rooms play a significant role in helping most Canadian newcomers make sense of their emerging Canadian identities, English language teachers have a pivotal role to play in helping them recognize and critically examine colonial discourses and representations of Indigenous peoples and to interrogate their own emerging Canadian identities.