Dolloff, L. (2015) A Quallunaaq on Baffin Island: A Canadian experience of decolonizing the teacher. Forthcoming In Bartleet, B.L., Bennett, D., Power, A. & Sunderland, N. (Eds.). Arts-based service learning with First Peoples – Towards respectful and mutually beneficial educational practices. NY: Springer Publishing.
I was very interested by this article after I read it because it dealt with many topics of not only education but also racial injustices. I was very interested by the background information on the First Nations which the author provided us. It mentioned how their culture was lost because children would be taken to residential schools and they would be forced to speak in English as well as not practice their cultural rituals. This made them and the many generations to come after loose the sense of their culture because they lost the language, rituals as well as well as just the knowledge of the culture.
I was interested by her experience of teaching in Nunavut and about both the experiences of teaching withing First Nation as well as the environment of the cold. I found that her story about teaching in the Anglican church was a very interesting one because instead of teaching them by giving the sheet music, she taught them orally and by ear. This is also because the group only knew a handful of songs so she tried her best to incorporate that into the new songs she taught. As well I thought this was a different way of teaching because usually in traditional choirs the sheet music is handed out and everyone usually just sight reads the score. I felt this was educational because she not only taught them a song but she taught it orally which I feel engages them better, as well as makes them listen more carefully to the song.
I also enjoyed that she shared the experiences of those who went with her to teach in "The Great White North". I felt that this gave us a sense of what it could be like to teach there one day. As well I was surprised by most of the experiences because most of them were all scared or nervous to teach in a new place where everything is usually different than what they are used to. I feel that I could sympathize with them because if I was also in their position I would be very scared and nervous to mess anything up, as well to the idea of going somewhere new where everything is different from the way I am used to doing it. At the same time I feel it would be a great experience because you get to travel to a different part of Canada and you get to see the beauty which it has to offer as well as gain experience of teaching, despite the cold. I also liked the analogy that one student shared about video games XP(experience), and i think that this is a great way of thinking about new teaching experiences. She mentioned that every time she taught it was as if she was gaining teacher XP because form the experience she learned and that would help her in the future when teaching in another class or place. Over all I enjoyed the article and the issues it dealt with as well as the different experiences of the students who got to teach in a different place which they are not used to.