Relationship-Based, In-Service Learning for Teachers of Indigenous Students

This article is about heartfelt teacher learning in K-12 publicly funded schools with Indigenous students’ school success at the centre. As part of her dissertation research, Moon (2019), a non-Indigenous educator, asked Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators in two provinces to share stories about their meaningful and productive collegial learning relationships, including how they believed Indigenous students benefited. The diverse stories point to varying interpersonal, institutional, and political dynamics, which indicated that meaningful and productive learning relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators exist in multiple settings and with diverse starting points and outcomes. Some key findings across stories are that students were central to educators’ learning relationships, educators saw each other as genuine and open, and a time commitment—both day-to-day and often over years—was evident. Keywords: Indigenous education, teacher development, cross-cultural learning