Here is an article that talks about the role of a non-Indigenous ally in Indigenizing the curriculum of psychology. As a non-Indigenous educator, I have had similar thoughts/questions as Schmidt (2019). For example, is it appropriate and respectful to teach about Indigenous cultures? The lessons in this article don’t only apply to psychology. Some of the take-aways I got were the following (Schmidt, 2019):
- Indigenous people also struggle to teach about Indigenous people when there are many different Indigenous cultures and they are only a member of one.
- Educators need to look inward and work on our own decolonizing.
- Build mutually respectful, humble, and trusting relationships with your students.
- Understand that there are many diverse Indigenous cultures. There is also immense diversity that can exist within one Indigenous culture.
- Two-Eyed Seeing – seeing the world from an Indigenous perspective and also an Eurocentric (scientific) perspective. This involves cooperation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, humbling themselves, and learning from each other.
- Patience – understanding other perspectives.
- Honesty – disclose to the students that you are not an expert, invite Indigenous guest speakers into the classroom, and encourage students to co-teach.
- Decolonizing is active, intentional, moment-to-moment process that involves critically undoing colonial ways of knowing, being and doing.
Reference
Schmidt, H. (2019). Indigenizing and decolonizing the teaching of psychology: Reflections on the role of the non-Indigenous ally. American Journal of Community Psychology, 64, 59-71. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ajcp.12365