ERIC Number: EJ1471965
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1492-1154
EISSN: EISSN-1911-8279
Available Date: 0000-00-00
The Complexities and Promise of Standing beside Indigenous Literacy Scholars: A Language Curriculum Analysis
Katie Brubacher; Jacqueline Filipek
Journal of Teaching and Learning, v19 n1 p85-106 2025
Literacy is an essential component of any elementary-school classroom. To address shifting understandings of literacy and how to teach it, Alberta has developed a new language-arts curriculum. This curriculum, however, was developed in a context where schools have a long history of not serving Indigenous children well, including not meeting their needs through literacy programs (Hare, 2011). Alberta Education, through the English Language Arts and Literature (ELAL) curriculum, claims to better address those needs. The purpose of this research is to examine how the ELAL curriculum and its implementation aligns with the field of language and literacy, and in particular, Indigenous literacy scholarship, namely Peltier's (2016/2017) Wholistic Anishinaabe Pedagogy and Reese's (2018) Critical Indigenous Literacy. Data included both an analysis of the curriculum and semi-structured interviews with literacy instructors/scholars and in-service teachers. There were several key findings: English only processes, sparce attention to feelings throughout the curriculum, an absence of critical literacy, and inappropriate text selection. This paper is significant, as it shows the complexities and promise of being a non-Indigenous literacy scholar, thinking deeply about places of resonance and tension in literacy in ways that Indigenous scholars are already writing about.
Descriptors: Indigenous Populations, Indigenous Knowledge, Elementary School Students, Literacy, Canada Natives, Foreign Countries, English Instruction, Language Arts, Curriculum Implementation, English Curriculum, Critical Literacy, Textbook Selection, Language Dominance, English Only Movement
Journal of Teaching and Learning. 401 Sunset Ave.
Faculty of Education, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4. Tel: 519-253-3000 Ext. 4068; e-mail: jtl@uwindsor.ca; Web site: https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/JTL
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A