Collaborative Pedagogies: Seeking and Finding Truth Within Indigenous Children’s Literature Through Multiliteracies

Abstract

In this chapter, we highlight the work of two teachers as they engaged in collaborative practice while designing a curriculum that incorporated Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing through a multiliteracies approach. We describe how these teachers used postcolonial Indigenous children’s literature as a launching point to explore historical and critical issues of Indigenous peoples with their students in an elementary classroom. We use data generated from interviews, focus group discussions, children’s drawings, journal writings, and photographs of classroom sessions. Using a multiliteracies pedagogical framework (situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformative practice), we show how these teachers transformed their practice and students’ understandings as they participated in learning events together. We also share some possible practices for incorporating Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing into elementary classrooms. In conclusion, we discuss implications for teachers’ practice and the need for further research as we continue the important work towards truth and reconciliation.