Current Research

Speaker Series: Beyond Reconciliation in English Language Arts, Ethical Encounters with Indigenous Literatures as Enlivened Praxis

2025-2026

PI: Dr. Jennifer Brant

Graduate Student Researchers: Erenna Morrison, Gayatri Thakor, Jasmine Rice and Meagan Hamilton

Beyond Reconciliation in English Language Arts is a proposed project that responds to the critical need for teacher preparedness to support ethical engagement with Indigenous literatures in secondary level English Language Arts (ELA) courses, comprised of outreach activities via a monthly speakers series (Anti-Colonial and Resurgent Frameworks for Teaching Indigenous Literatures; April–October, 2025) and a one-week knowledge mobilization event in the form of a workshop (Enlivening Indigenous Literatures; August, 2025). The proposed event and outreach activities will facilitate connections between key stakeholders from Indigenous and non-Indigenous educational sectors to support a teaching profession tasked with implementing responses to the calls for Reconciliation Education. The proposed outreach and knowledge sharing activities will support this urgent need to support Reconciliation Education in the following ways: 1) Developing, curating, and sharing promising practices to support teachers in introducing Indigenous literatures across ELA, 2) Promoting Indigenous cultural integrity by equipping ELA teachers with key lessons about effectively engaging with Indigenous literatures, 3) Advancing anti-colonial and resurgent frameworks.by bringing together prominent Indigenous authors and academic moderators to engage in dialogue with ELA teachers, and 4) Building an Indigenous literary hub that fosters relationships among the teaching profession, Indigenous authors, and Indigenous community members to support knowledge transfer and prepare teachers to effectively engage with Indigenous literatures in ways that support Indigenous cultural safety and student success.

The project aligns with the desire of Indigenous authors to have their stories shared in mainstream classrooms and the need to support teachers with professional development related to Indigenous literatures. The commitment to sharing Indigenous stories for reconciliatory education has been expressed by Indigenous authors who want to get their work into classrooms despite the lack of government funding for Indigenous resources. In July 2018, Doug Ford’s Ontario Progressive Conservative government cancelled the TRC curriculum writing sessions that were intended to ensure the inclusion of Indigenous content in Ontario classrooms. In response, several Indigenous authors offered schools free copies of their books for classroom use. Indeed, educators hold an integral role when it comes to advancing reconciliation and Indigenous literatures can serve as valuable tools toward meaningful engagement with truth and reconciliation, but educators must work with and through these stories in ways that are reconciliatory by pairing them with lessons that attend to the truths of Indigenous-settler relations. Texts must be accompanied with lessons that foster transformative learning, so our speaker series offers an invaluable opportunity to reach a wide audience of educators to engage them in learning from Indigenous authors who want their texts read in schools. Teachers will learn firsthand from authors about the intentions of their writing, the meaning behind the stories, and the lessons that extend beyond classrooms and into communities. Renowned authors including Katherena Vermette will come together with teachers, graduate students, community members, curriculum specialists, and traditional knowledge holders in an innovative and powerful way to support ethical encounters with Indigenous literatures. This important work aligns with the relationship building required to support Truth and Reconciliation in Canada; it will also serve as a profound opportunity for the teaching profession, as teachers learn from and engage with Indigenous authors.

Aligning with the Haudenosaunee principle of thinking forward for the next seven generations, we are intentional in creating this as an opportunity for building relationships between authors, teachers, and community members that will be long lasting. These relationships will support teachers in engaging Indigenous literatures in ways that are culturally aligned, extend community narratives of strength, to promote Indigenous cultural safety through ethical encounters with Indigenous literatures. Not only will this project foster relationships between Indigenous community facilitators and the ELA community, but these connections will also be sustained beyond the project through the establishment of an Indigenous literary Collective hosted on OISE’s Indigenous Literatures Lab website.