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=umar keoni's complexity of decolonization=

I am mindful of AFN’s National Chief Alteo’s National Aboriginal Day 2013 statement: “a time of growing momentum toward the transformative change required for our peoples today.”[1] I humbly submit my personal plan of study to further develop an understanding of decolonization for the self -- as a professional practice and as an affective learning modality.

I believe that as educators and researchers in Ontario, the notions of indigeneity and spirituality have to be constantly addressed in the academy and in mainstream schooling and the professional development of pre-service teachers. These are threads in the decolonization tapestry that need to be weaved by indigenous and Western academics. It is with this critical stance that my emerging research agenda is formed towards developing capacity and professional practice relationships between Aboriginal educators and members of the setter societies. I see the social movement and the praxis of education research having the conversation and advancing a co-understanding of the nuances and complexities of decolonization from within communities and from outside normalized boundaries. These are for me the contested and shifting knowledge and narratives that form an amalgam of professional practice for the educator.


 * Here are some links to engage our discourse towards decolonizing our activity:**

social imagination at CSU

the body without organs and decolonization

__Research and Study Interests:__ //(key words: decolonization and reconciliation, self-study of teacher education practices, critical pedagogy, narrative and auto-ethnography, innovative curriculum)//

//IMUA.//
The challenge and the gist of my present research and interests comes the dialectic of being a professional teacher in Ontario and challenging the ongoing colonization and demic-styled infusion model of identity and history in settler societies. Challenged by interactions and experiences from the storytelling and teachers of all forms of knowledge keepers, the evolution of my conceptual teaching framework has moved from a popular education and neo-Marxist, critical social theory underpinning to that of problematizing the professional self as educator and teacher. I continue to be self-reflexive of the provocations that stem from my foundational readings and understandings from critical pedagogues like Mclaren, Giroux, Foucault, Said, Vine Deloria, and popular education facilitators such as Friere and Horton and my relational connections with Paul Olson, the late George Burns, Budd Hall, George Dei, and with Haudenosaunee leaders like Tom Porter, Darren Thomas from Six Nations, Janice Hill and Suzanne Brant from Tyendinaga. All of these narratives and explorations of what it is to be a professional teacher have formed the nexus of my critical pedagogical theory. It now involves notions of Indigenous knowedges, spirituality and identities beyond political definitions and boundaries from the colonizing government. Although the academy may identify my learning and perspectives from Hawaiian and Haudenosaunee teachings and stories, I am willing accept the importance of being part of settler society and the historical privilege and positionality that it has afforded me and has challenged my ways of thinking and being.

My research crosses boundaries with First Nations’ research on Aboriginal control of education. My initial graduate work came from analyzing large-scale national data of the Aboriginal Peoples Survey and the narratives and viewpoints recorded from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. These have helped me postulate and develop an emergent and working thesis of understanding the Indigenous educator who engages Western knowledge, histories and traditions, the role of elders and knowledge-keepers. It has encouraged me to explore the importance of a globalized and integrated sensibilities of Indigenous self-conceptions and historicized bodies for self-determination. In a sense, this became active factors in my self-study while teaching and instructing:
 * What is a role of an Indigenous teacher who wants to be part of the Western / Settler schooling system and academy
 * What benefits through relationships may be achieved through dialogue, shared storytelling and co-constructing pedagogy, professional practice and research with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educators?
 * What affective learning and habit of mind may be developed to initiate the decolonization process for teachers based in a settler society? Would this have implications on understanding globalized movements on sovereignty and facilitating authentic and local relationships with First Nations and Aboriginal communities?

At this point in my research, I would like to specifically address the role of narrative and self-study of pre-service teachers. I would submit that this study would attempt to disrupt qualitative research and mix-methods research so as to provoke academic and professional conversations into the tensions and dialectic of developing a decolonized methodology. From my experiences as an educator, instructor and teacher, I feel the focus of scholarship in Ontario has been on the formal settler process of learning that Aboriginal students have been subjected and exposed to. That is, what I see a need for is the content of developing, and analyzing the impact of a decolonizing action research methodology for professional practice, for assessment, for capacity building and for wellness.

Specifically, I propose to continue and expand problematizing the “teacher as professional self.” Building upon narratives, and articulating the complex and multiple forms of storytelling as data, and employing Korthagen’s cycle of inquiry (Korthagen et al, 2001; LaBoskey, 2004) to create a conceptual framework for self-study, I hope to further develop evidence for the transformation of affective learning as part of decolonization process. I would contend that educators from mainstream / settler histories may also be part of transformation of education in Ontario beyond the intervention strategies and curriculum design. This would be a bridging strategy in terms of transformation of pre-service teachers, and I can foresee at faculties of education an affective understanding and implementation of the key elements of authentic acquisition of knowledge, animated and complex dialogue, engaging in the politics of truth of Aboriginal/Indigenous historicized bodies, and recognition of spirituality and ancestral bonds.

Furthermore and more pressing, is the reconciliation efforts that must continue and be addressed by teachers of Indigenous and settler descent in our schools. With public designs and teacher education faculties in the West advocating 21st century skills, habits of mind and aptitudes, and multi-literacies in our pedagogical practice, I also foresee a critical alignment with other ways of learning and researching. I appreciate the self-reflection of Indigenous researchers and knowledge-keepers, and how we continue to develop data and consistency in order to problematize research boundaries and thought beyond parochial identities and definitions. Reconciliation should involve an Indigenous understanding of professionalism and pedagogy. However, this approach to reconciliation is emergent and complex and as Denzen and Lincoln (1994, 197) noted: “analysis, evaluation, and interpretation are neither terminal nor mechanical. They are always emergent, unpredictable, and unfinished.” It involves all stakeholders including non-status Indigenous researchers and non-Aboriginal academics. From a Hawaiian sensibility, to challenge is by moving forward, //imua.//

//PONO//.
I dream of re-establishing my research career and enhancing mixed-methods, auto-ethnographic and self-study approaches to teacher education. I realize that I need to move beyond the instructional capacity and limitations of being an adjunct lecturer towards developing my trajectory in terms of teaching, research and scholarship in teacher education with graduate students. My experiences as a mainstream teacher at Dufferin-Peel Catholic and as a teacher in a Mohawk high school has established my desire to challenge colonial definitions and curriculum of First Nations, the conception of a profession practice for pre-service teachers, and to develop through dialogue and lateral relationships for reconciliation. Accreditation and achievement of formal qualifications and life-long formal and informal learning, research, writing and presentations are noted in my curriculum vitae. The next career trajectory is to apply for tenure track positions in Indigenous research and education practices and/or education faculty that are interested in self-study of teacher education practices or decolonization of professional practice. I may also want to pursue post-doctoral work in the area of self-study and auto-biographical narratives, and the impact of practicum and affective learning in pre-service programs.


 * ==Explorations into the Uncertain ...== ||~  ||
 * ====**CSU Ed2013 poster: First Nations of South East Ontario Control of Assessments as/of/for Learning**==== || CSUEd2013 poster ||

//LO. KAHI.//
I offer to research and develop contextual, content, and pedagogical knowledge that engage teachers and instructors. I would like to push moving beyond the intervention strategies and construction of education discourses that I see prevalent in teacher training towards more dispositions and affective learning skill development. I foresee further advance and aligning my research work with pre-service teachers, the practicum and the role of affective learning in understanding the educational value of decolonization. The impact of the approach would examine the problematic discourse and the disconnect for indigenous people who are not defined by the colonizer. The research into decolonization of the academy is animated through placing a historicized body and opening up the conversation to include non-status Aboriginals and Indigenous researchers who are willing to work with non-Indigenous teachers and faculty. We may co-develop a research agenda and decolonizing methodology that comes from an alternate stream of thinking that is attentive to unity and accord … //lo.kahi//.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S., (Eds.). (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage. Korthagen, F.A.J., Kessels, J., Koster, B., Lagerwer, B., & Wubbels, T. (2001) //Linking practice and theory: The pedagogy of realistic teacher education.// Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. LaBoskey, V.K. (2004). The methodology of self-study and its theoretical underpinnings. In J.J. Loughran, M.L. Hamilton,, V.K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), //International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices// (Vol. 2, pp.817-869) Dordrecht: Kluwer.
 * References Cited**

[1] http://www.afn.ca/index.php/en/news-media/latest-news/national-chief-celebrates-action-by-first-nations-for-positive-change#.UcRi3ku2clY.facebook


 * ==Explorations into Inquiry and Project-Based Pedagogy ...== ||~  ||
 * Are you willing to engage in these questions? || week3 critical thinking ||