Decolonizing practices in vocational education

Abstract

The publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) Report in 2015 established a set of 94 Calls to Action that addressed the need for actionable reconciliation to atone for the atrocities of the Indian Residential School System that operated within Canada for over 160 years.From the top down, administrators and institutional leadership looked for ways to revise institutional mission statements/mandates to align with these recommendations.The communication of these mandates flowed downward into the varying levels of postsecondary programming, including vocational education programs.For vocational educators this directive presents an interesting dilemma.Unlike their academic instructor counterparts who progressed through teacher-education training or through several layers of education from undergraduate to doctoral studies before commencing a teaching position, vocational educators are hired as instructors because of their subject-matter expertise and practical experience in that industry.Thus, when tasked with implementing the recommendations from their institutions that relate to decolonization, how do vocational educators know what to do or where to begin?How do they interpret this directive into practical applications within their own programs?And what, if any, institutional motivations and supports are guiding their progress?To learn the answers to these questions, I interviewed 10 vocational educators who instruct(ed) vocational programs within the province of British Columbia.Through a lens of critical whiteness studies and a critical discourse analytic approach, what emerged from my analysis is that absent of an institutional definition and clear guidance, vocational educators are turning inward to their own identity constructs and towards accessible social justice discourse to make sense of what decolonization means.Furthermore, they are relying upon institutionally sanctioned resources, like teaching and learning centres and approaches like land acknowledgements to integrate Indigenous teachings and practices.At the same time, vocational educators report implicit and overt resistance from colleagues and administrative leadership when they implement decolonization strategies into their programs and practices.Despite these barriers, vocational educators are developing communities of practice with other like-minded colleagues and Indigenous Elders to identify pedagogical opportunities, like assessment and grading, to confront colonial practices.Drawing on past and present educational experiences, vocational educators are doing what they can to make sense of what it means to decolonize their practices to take demonstrable action towards fulfilling the institutional mandate.