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Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies: Transforming Equity, Diversity, Inclusion
and Decolonization in a Literature-Based Curriculum

Charlene Barnes
School of Education, Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

Author Note

A Capstone Project submitted to Thompson Rivers University in partial fulfilment of the
requirements of the degree of Master of Education

Presented July 19, 2022

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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to argue for intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies to transform
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) in a literature-based curriculum. The context of
my argument begins in 2015, when the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action shaped the new BC
curriculum, which in turn impacted my pedagogy as a public-school teacher. Well on my path to
empowering students, a significant personal event catalyzed a new journey. A University of British
Columbia (UBC) student whom I knew took his own life. Intersecting marginalization and discrimination,
including rampant school bullying, compromised their survival. Distressed, I doubted my agency to help
other marginalized students. Seeking insight to build on the mandated professional development days, I
journeyed onward to the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Master of Education (M.Ed.) program. Here,
I again heard the insistent distress call of EDID culture and answered the call in the context of a
literature-based curriculum. In this paper, I argue that the intersection of Indigenous and critical
pedagogies transforms EDID in a literature-based curriculum because it allows all readers to cocontextualize and co-interpret the text, and to co-transform responses to the text that reflect these
intersecting pedagogies. Liberation results when the teacher and the writer, as voices of authority, allow
space for all learners to be heard. This liberation applies to any reader who seeks transformation
through a literature-based curriculum and it also applies to contexts beyond the classroom. An
intersection of oppressive ideologies can crush the will to live, as in the UBC student’s story, but I argue
that an intersection of empowering ideologies can transform a life. This epiphany emanates from the
teachings of educators, knowledge-keepers, and learners of the past and present. To them and to the
UBC student I knew, I dedicate this Capstone Paper.
Keywords: Indigenous pedagogy, critical pedagogy, equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization

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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5
Contextualizing The Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action………………………………………………………..5
Contextualizing The New BC Curriculum and Literature……………………………………………………..…….…..5
Thompson Rivers University: The M.Ed.’s Call to Adventure……………………………………………….………..6
The Significance of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) ………………………………….7
Arguing for Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies for Improved EDID…………………..………8
Overview of the Paper……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
Chapter Two: Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Theoretical Lens: SOGI Diversity……………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Co-Contextualization for EDID……………………………………………………………………………………………………….10
The Single-Story Theory………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….11
The Hidden Curriculum…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..12
The Null Curriculum………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14
Indigenous Pedagogy for EDID : Co-Interpretation and Co-Transformation………………………………….15
The First Peoples Principles of Learning…………………………………………………………………………………………15
Indigenous Storywork…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....16
Intersecting Indigenous Critical Pedagogies for Holistic Co-Transformation………………………………….17
Praxis and Synergy ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..18
Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..19
Chapter Three: Application……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..20
Practical Setting……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….20
Selecting We Are All Made of Molecules For a Literature-Based Curriculum………………………………….20
Co-Contextualization for EDID………………………………………………………………………………………………………..21

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Comfort Zones: The Banking Approach vs Dialogical Methodologies ……………………………………………22
Co-Interpretation for EDID: Becoming Storyready………………………………………………………………………....26
Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies: Reflective Journaling…..…………………………………….29
Indigenous Talking Circles…………………………………………………………………………………….………...………........29
Co-Transformation for EDID: Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies Across Disciplines...30
Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………32
Chapter Four: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………33
Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….33
Implications……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..36
Dreamwork…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..38
References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….39

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Chapter One: Introduction
This chapter introduces the topic for this paper and where my interest in the topic germinated.
Imagine an alpine meadow, where a seed of interest blossomed. This describes how, as a student in the
Master of Education (M.Ed.) program at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), my interest in the blooms of
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Decolonization, (EDID), Curriculum, Pedagogy, Intersection, and
Transformation grew into a meadow of flowers. This context of my topic, which explores intersecting
pedagogies to transform EDID in curriculum, frames the topic’s significance, like helping other teachers
transform EDID in their curriculum. Picture me dancing amongst the flowers, my liberation through new
learning and insight guiding me through the meadow of my school and larger community, inviting others
to dance with me. Establishing the context and the significance of my topic, I then present my argument,
rooted in scholarly evidence. I end with an overview, or a path through the meadow of my Capstone
Paper.
Contextualizing The Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action
In 2015, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) reported the cultural genocide of
Canada’s First Peoples (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – Calls to Action, 2015),
shock waves rippled through my personal and professional landscapes. The Calls to Action (2015) for
educators knocked me off my course as a teacher. Up until that point, I was feeling confident about my
practices around the inclusion and the empowerment of students. The TRC's (2015) report revealed new
truths about colonialism. I was called to reflect on my part in the story as a settler and as a teacher. It
was sickening to learn about my indoctrinated racism as a child, and about my oblivious teaching
practice of perpetuating the null curriculum, or a curriculum showing no evidence of authentic curricular
Indigeneity. The search for truth and subsequent reconciliation of these truths is ongoing but my
journey began in spaces created by the new BC Curriculum (Province of British Columbia, 2021).
Contextualizing The New BC Curriculum and Literature

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Unlike other veteran colleagues who resisted changing what they had been doing for years, in
2016 I fully embraced the new curriculum. I appreciated the structuring and the defining of the core
competencies (Province of British Columbia, 2021) for inclusive education. For example, the
competencies of critical and reflective thinking (2021) promoted the understanding of events and the
addressing of issues in classrooms and in the broader community. The competencies of positive
personal and cultural identity (2021) introduced pluralism, a term that to me seemed confusing and
highly theoretical at the time. However, with the little amount of time I had as a full-time teacher to
overhaul my English curriculum, I glommed onto the competency language around self-worth, selfawareness, and overall well-being. I cast my gaze around the classroom and considered how I could
empower all learners with this new curriculum.
Well on my new path to empowering students, I was blown off my course by a storm in my
personal life that continued raging into my professional life. A University of British Columbia (UBC)
student whom I knew took his own life. Part of this student’s narrative depicts a life of intersecting and
crushing discrimination. In addition to being bi-racial and gay, having ADHD, and struggling with Crohn’s
disease, he keenly felt the deficits as a child of an imprisoned drug dealer and a low-income single
mom.
When I learned how this student had been relentlessly bullied at school as a child, even
targeted by teachers, I immediately considered what my role as a teacher had been to counter
discrimination in my career. I looked for shelter, where I could find ways to prevent their fate from
arising amongst future students. Looking for hope through solutions to offer myself and others, I felt I
had reached the end of what I could learn informally and intermittently through BC professional
development days. Fortunately, I found an oasis in the TRU M.Ed. program.
Thompson Rivers University: The M.Ed.’s Call to Adventure
Starting the M.Ed. program was both terrifying and exhilarating. It was terrifying because I was nearing

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the age of 50 and doubted my capacity to learn as I had in my early adulthood. However, once my
atrophying brain was engaged, I felt like Spring had arrived, bringing fresh perspectives. The stages of
my learning journey in the M.Ed. continuously provided moments to reflect. I noticed that before TRU, I
perceived students in my courses as floundering in murky water. I naively self-identified as a person who
could save anybody in my landscape who genuinely wanted saving. However, the readings in the M.Ed.
Leadership course described the signs of my own professional burnout, manifesting in cynicism and rigid
pride in past accomplishments. I realized, that like the students, I too had been floundering, and for
longer than I cared to admit. I now understood that effective advocacy for students demanded I act on
my own theories of advocacy. Knowing the depths to which I typically commit myself, I worried about
burning out again while trying to save the world. To remedy this worry, I sought the support of a larger
community committed to social justice.
The Significance of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID)
I have explored countless paths in the M.Ed. program. The Diversity course in my first semester
uprooted my landscape and planted new seeds of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID).
New worlds were created through rich and complex intersections. Equity, where every person receives
what they need, is like having access to an apple tree in the forest when hungry or finding shade
beneath a boulder when weary. Diversity, rooted in a given landscape, celebrates the landscape’s
inhabitants, including their gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religiosity or spirituality, family
and social connections, socio-economic class, social-emotional state, and physical and intellectual
ability. Inclusion demands that teachers consider the diverse needs of others and this consideration
extends to curricular pedagogy, a vehicle of great agency for teachers. Finally, Equity, Diversity, and
Inclusion in a Canadian meadow must achieve Decolonization to restore beauty to the landscape, as in
the time of pre-contact with European settlers. I needed to heal from the effects of colonialism. What
was unique about this process of Decolonization was that no one I knew was an expert. Residential

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school survivors were just beginning to share and hear stories. Children of the Sixties Scoop
(Niigaanwewidam, J. S. & Dainard, S., 2016) were finding their birth families and their cultural identities.
Educators were learning about the power of the school system to enact cultural genocide. Communities
were coming together to decide how to follow the TRC Calls to Action (The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada – Calls to Action, 2015). There was so much collective pain but eventually I saw a
glimmer of hope. If I could connect with others to learn the way forward, that could lead to healing.
Educators were no longer the experts guiding students, but instead were co-learners. The learning
landscape expanded to include local Indigenous people who brought wisdom from broader
communities. I am grateful for these helpers. With them, authentic holistic learning framed the work
teachers were already doing with the curriculum competencies. Indigenous Ways of Knowing
strengthened our collectivism; in Chapter Three I will detail how Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion needed
Decolonization for transformation in my curriculum.
EDID is the professionally mandated standard of every teacher in Canada as per the TRC Calls to
Action (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – Calls to Action, 2015), the curriculum of
every province or territory, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (as cited in Government of Canada,
1982). However, the degree to which a teacher fosters EDID is a matter not just of one pedagogy but an
intersection Indigenous Pedagogy (IP) and Critical Pedagogy (CP). In arguing for this pedagogical
intersection, I endeavour to help other teachers who want to advocate for EDID more effectively but do
not know how to transform the soil they have worked hard to toil in their own curriculum and
pedagogy. This is the significance of my topic.
Arguing for Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies for Improved EDID
In this paper, I claim that EDID in a literature-based curriculum can be transformed through the
intersection of IP and CP. I believe that this pedagogical intersection improves EDID because it allows all
readers to co-contextualize and co-interpret the text, and to co-transform responses to the text that

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reflect these intersecting pedagogies. The first point of evidence is Adichie’s (as cited in TED, 2009) video
where they explain the critical single-story theory, which helps all readers to co-contextualize the text.
The second point of evidence are the First Peoples Principles of Learning, or FPPL (First Nations
Education Steering Committee, 2017), which illuminate that all peoples are connected and thus
responsible for each other, principles that allow for co-interpretation and co-transformation. The third
point of evidence is the work of the critical pedagogues (Freire, 2017, 2018, as cited in LiteracyDotOrg,
2009; Greene, as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014; 2017) which argues for the dialogical exchange of
thoughts and feelings through which all readers can co-interpret and co-transform the text.
Overview of the Paper
With the sun now setting on the inaugural meadow dance, or the introductory chapter of this
Capstone Paper, I will illustrate the map for the next chapters. Chapter Two reviews the relevant
scholarly literature. This review illuminates how the intersection of the Indigenous and critical
pedagogies transforms EDID in allowing all readers in a literature-based curriculum to co-contextualize
and co-interpret the text, and to co-transform responses to the text. In Chapter Three, I describe how I
applied these scholarly theories to a literature-based curriculum, We Are All Made Of Molecules. Lastly,
in Chapter Four, the sun will set on the final meadow dance, concluding my Capstone Paper. In this
chapter, one path will tour through the implications of intersecting pedagogies to transform EDID, there
to branch off on a final path to my destination: a summary view from the summit to the meadow below.

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Chapter Two: Literature Review
In this chapter, I begin by introducing the theoretical lens through which to focus the review. I
analyze the scholarly literature that supports intersecting IP and CP to transform EDID in a literaturebased curriculum. I introduce the relevant literature, define its key concepts, and compare and contrast
the literature. Finally, I summarize the connections between the literature reviewed and the argument
for this paper.
Theoretical Lens: SOGI Diversity
This literature review is framed with a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) lens. The
SOGI lens brings all aspects of EDID, both IP and CP, and the major content of the curriculum’s literature,
Nielsen’s novel We Are All Made of Molecules (2015) into sharper focus. Currently in literature in BC
schools, the dominant SOGI identity is heteronormative and gender binary. The BC government
reported in an online fact sheet (2017) that 19% of B.C. high school students identify as other than
exclusively straight. Further, 12 months prior to the report, the government found that in contrast to
BC’s dominant SOGI heteronormative culture, SOGI diverse youth were seven times more likely to
attempt suicide. Clearly EDID in SOGI needs attention, and the BC government enlisted the teachers of
BC’s new curriculum to include SOGI-related topics in the curriculum for knowledge, understanding and
respect of SOGI diversity. Through the SOGI lens, I demonstrate how the scholarly literature supports
the processes of co-contextualization, co-interpretation, and co-transformation for EDID, first linking the
reader’s context to literature.
Co-Contextualization for EDID
In a literature-based curriculum, there is the potential to improve EDID through linking the
reader’s context to the themes in the literature. In their video Gioia (2011) said, “literature allows
[people] to create a conversation with the past and the present” about the “reality of other peoples’
lives from the inside” (7:51) which builds “compassion and humanity” for the future (16:54). If bringing

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one reader’s context to their solitary reading practice can build humanity and compassion, humanity
and compassion is expanded through more than one reader participating in the co-contextualization
process. Together, students and teachers have multiple conversations about peoples’ diverse realities of
the past and the present. By focusing the co-contextualization on diverse SOGI realities, EDID is
addressed. However, to transform EDID, teachers and students must consider three aspects of a
literature-based curriculum: the Single-Story Theory (Adichie, as cited in TED, 2009; Carter Andrews, as
cited in TedxTalks, 2014; Freire, 2018; Greene, as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014, 2017), the Hidden
Curriculum (Freire, 2018; Gunio, 2021; Thornton, 2003), and the Null Curriculum (Flinders et. al, 1986;
Kazemi et. al, 2020; them, 2018).
The Single-Story Theory
The single-story theory (Adichie, as cited in TED, 2009) arose from the critical analysis of
stereotypes. Co-contextualization enables a collective awareness of how stereotypical views of peoples’
SOGI narratives limit the building of compassion and humanity. CP illuminated how stereotypes oppress
(Carter Andrews, as cited in TedxTalks, 2014; Freire, 2018; Giroux, 1995; Greene, 2017) by allowing the
dominant culture’s identity to maintain its power. SOGI identities, like other identities outside of the
dominant culture, are vulnerable to stereotypification. CP emphasized the analysis of stereotypes
through dialogue between teacher and students (Freire, 2018; Greene, 2017). Freire (2018) explained
that through dialoguing, readers could “[practice] co-intentional education [in which] teachers and
students [are] co-intent on seeking to critically know reality, therefore re-creating that knowledge” (p.
69) like the knowledge of stereotypes. Freire urged both teachers and students to conscientize their
awareness of the power structure established in the classroom and beyond, which supports the
importance of the co-contextualization process. Dialoguing to co-contextualize SOGI diversity is
supported by Greene (as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014) who posited that “students can frame and
reframe questions” (1:47) from a place of “humane concern” (4:31) to “create meaning” (3:16). Those in

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power oppress others through creating and perpetuating negative stereotypes about marginalized SOGI.
However, stereotypes should remain available for additional critical analysis.
Adichie (as cited in TED, 2009) reinforced CP’s views of the oppressive nature of stereotypes but
they also entertained the element of truth around stereotypes. Adichie detailed the nuanced dangers of
stereotypes to arrive at their single-story theory:
It impossible to talk about the single story without talking about the word power. What stories
are told, who tells them, when they are told, and how many stories are told are dependent on
power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person but to make it the
definitive story of that person. The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but
that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. (9:43)
Based on the complexity around stereotypes, teachers should not exclude them from the discourse. The
scholarly literature supports that the critical co-contextualization of all narratives, including
stereotypical ones around SOGI diversity, transforms a literature-based curriculum through the activities
that are explicitly planned. However, scholars argue that the implicit nature of curriculum should also be
addressed for teachers and students to co-transform EDID.
The Hidden Curriculum
Curricular co-contextualization involves a teacher and students impacting others through
planned interactions, but the impact of these interactions can manifest in unplanned, implicit reactions.
Implicit learning is what Gunio (2021) defined as the hidden curriculum, an aspect of the curriculum
often overlooked. Gunio found that the hidden curriculum involved the sharing of “the norms, values,
and belief systems [primarily transmitted by teachers] that may not be a part of the intended
curriculum” (p. 196). If these values do not adhere to the principles of EDID by creating space for
humane reactions to SOGI diverse narratives, then the unplanned result is exclusion. Herein lies the
dangers of the hidden curriculum.

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SOGI diversity amongst school populations is one neglected component of school curriculum.
Castro and Sujak (2014) discussed that by ignoring sexual diversity in school curriculum, the teacher
perpetuates the dominant culture’s heteronormative reality. Regardless of personal comfort levels,
teachers are challenged to include SOGI education in the curriculum. Though the curricular inclusion of
SOGI diversity is one responsibility allocated to the teacher, the teacher alone should not be
transmitting inclusive values in the curriculum. Rather, it is another opportunity for teachers and
students to co-identify and co-contextualize the narratives that have been excluded. Teacher
transmission of knowledge is what Freire (2018) described as “banking education”.
In banking education, those with power, such as teachers, transmit or deposit information into
the empty minds, or bank accounts, of the students. This information is coded to reinforce the
worldview of the dominant culture unless the teacher consciously transmits inclusive culture narratives.
Teachers must share their power in co-creating learning experiences to liberate both teacher and
students from the control of the dominant culture. To disrupt power, Freire maintained that banking
education “would never propose to students that they critically consider reality” (p. 74). Rather, to
restore humanity through overcoming oppression, both teachers and the marginalized students must
collaborate to truly be connected with the world or to each other. Connection mitigates the fear that
underpins homophobia. Thornton (2003) argued that by addressing the hidden curriculum and
homophobia, “students will recognize how one’s participation, including the culture of silence, impacts
others” (p. 228). In keeping with Freire’s argument, teachers must also assess their participation in the
culture of silence, which circles back to the teacher’s responsibility (Gunio, 2021; Castro & Sujak, 2014).
The transmission approach depends on the teacher to be the expert, and Thornton illuminated that one
reason teachers neglect to include SOGI diversity is because they lack a formal education in this topic
and therefore do not feel confident in their expertise. Co-contextualization gives the teachers
opportunities to learn alongside their students to address the hidden curriculum more confidently.

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Teachers and students responsibly critiquing the hidden curriculum creates a space for the
unplanned expressions of the explicit curriculum. For what is not planned and nor expressed in a
literature-based curriculum, scholars analyzed the null curriculum.
The Null Curriculum
The null curriculum describes what is altogether missing from the curriculum (Flinders et al.,
1986; Kazemi et al., 2020) and is a concern for teachers and students seeking equitable and inclusive cocontextualization of SOGI diversity. Flinders et al. stated that a given null curriculum must be compared
to what educators deem significant to determine if is relevant to curriculum development. If
transforming EDID in a literature-based curriculum is educationally significant, then according to Flinders
et al., the null curriculum could be beneficial to explore. To fully endorse this exploration, Kazemi et al.
concluded the null curriculum “has been viewed as one of the significant kinds of curriculum types
which is important due to its absence, being left out or overlooked, but should not be disregarded” (p.
1).
Through the SOGI lens, the null curriculum is significant in pointing to a larger systemic omission
that intersects with cultural identity. Specifically, the decolonization process uncovered a systemic
omission of the cultural genocide of the First Peoples from all public-school curricula until the TRC Calls
to Action (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – Calls to Action, 2015) and other
decolonization measures were enacted. Decolonized co-contextualization encompasses First Peoples
SOGI diversity and the two-spirit peoples, as presented in the video What Does Two-Spirit Mean (them,
2018). Them explained that colonization subjected the First Peoples to “homophobia, rigid binary
gender roles, and misogyny under the guise of ‘civilizing’ the Indigenous people through the Christian
tradition of residential schools and beyond” (3:58). The creation of the term “two-spirit” (0:10) was an
act of self-determination by and for Indigenous people in 1990. Them provided of a definition of twospirit:

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Two-spirit refers to another gender role believed to be common among most, if not all, First
Peoples of Turtle Island (North America), one that had a proper and accepted place within
native societies. This acceptance was rooted in the spiritual teachings that say all life is sacred.
(1:13)
This declaration that all life is sacred, lives expressed through SOGI diversity and beyond, is fundamental
to IP (Archibald et al., 2019); First Nations Education Steering Committee (n.d.), and the First Peoples
Principles of Learning (FPPL, 2007) which underpins the topic of this chapter’s next section.
Indigenous Pedagogy for EDID: Co-Interpretation and Co-Transformation
To ground co-contextualization in the Indigenous belief that all life is sacred positions teachers
and students for the next steps in a literature-based curriculum: co-interpretation and cotransformation for EDID. First Nations Pedagogy Online (n.d.) declared the notion of pedagogy to be
colonial but nonetheless added that learning through experience is a pedagogical approach essential to
First Nations best practices. These practices include reflection and action. If the experience is cocontextualizing SOGI diversity, then the interpretation of SOGI diversity in a novel requires co-reflection
to co-interpret the collective analysis of the novel’s SOGI content. As for action, co-interpretation
inspires diverse ideas for action. Collectively acting on these ideas can lead to co-transformation.
Teachers and students, then, can co-transform ideas into systemic SOGI equity, to achieve humanizing
results. The FPPL (2007), and Archibald’s (2019) concept of “storywork” (p. 1) illuminated the power of
IP to create humanizing systems of equity and beyond.
First Peoples Principles of Learning
“Learning is reflective,” declared the First Nations Steering Committee, in reference to the FPPL
(2007). This pedagogical concept of reflective learning is not unique, appearing in the BC curriculum’s
core competencies (Province of British Columbia, 2021), but instead of an individualistic approach to
reflection, FPPL explained that reflection is “focused on connectedness [and] on reciprocal

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relationships” (2007). Relationships honour the sacredness of all life, adding a spiritual component to
the competencies proposed by the BC curriculum. Though spirituality is essential to the FPPL, spiritual
education is officially discouraged in public school settings. However, to decolonize curriculum in the
wake of Indigenous cultural genocide, special consideration is granted to educators around Indigenous
spirituality. The Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of Servatius v. Alberni School District No. 70
(2020), justified the education of Indigenous spiritual practices, citing the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDRIP, 2019). UNDRIP argued for the educational inclusion of
Indigenous spirituality in school curriculum as a vital component to Truth and Reconciliation (The Truth
and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – Calls to Action, 2015).
With this sanctioned pedagogical approach, teachers and students can build on the cointerpretations of relational conflict in Nielsen’s novel (2015) to co-transform relational conflict, but the
FPPL (2007) principle of relational reciprocity is key to this co-transformation. To clarify the principle of
reciprocity, Archibald (2008) explained that if people “come to understand and appreciate the power of
a particular knowledge, then they must be ready to share and teach” (p. 4) which defines reciprocity.
Students and teachers practice reciprocity when they share their knowledge of the interconnected,
relational, and sacred nature of all life, with all its diversity, with other people beyond the classroom.
For co-transformation, teachers and students are supported by the Government of Canada
(1982), the TRC Calls to Action (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – Call to Action
2015), the BC curriculum (Province of British Columbia, 2017), the FPPL (2007), and Nielsen’s novel
(2015). Archibald (2008) said there is more needed for people to be “storyready” (p. 7) for ultimate
transformation of SOGI diverse stories.
Indigenous Storywork
Archibald (2019) coined the term storywork to describe her pedagogical framework comprised
of seven principles, which include “responsibility, reciprocity and interrelatedness” (p. 1). These

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principles, if followed, prepare “storytellers, story listeners/learners, researchers, and educators [to pay]
better to and engage with Indigenous stories for meaningful education and research” (p. 1). Archibald
(2008) elaborated:
Patience and trust are essential for preparing to listen to stories. Listening involves more than
just using the auditory sense. We must visualize the characters and their actions. We must let
our emotions surface. As the Elders say, it is important to listen with “three ears: two on the
sides of our head and the one that is in our heart”. (p. 8)
To view Archibald’s storywork pedagogy through a SOGI lens, teachers and students are encouraged to
employ patience and trust when co-interpreting the characters and their actions in Nielsen’s novel
(2015). Allowing for emotional connection by bringing our hearts into the process co-transforms the cointerpretations.
Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies for Holistic Co-Transformation
By combining IP and CP approaches to holistically advocate for SOGI, co-transformation is
possible. Freire (2018) encouraged the re-interpretation of his philosophy of Critical Theory and CP
which empowers teachers to re-interpret literature through the lens of IP. Freire insisted that to
critically enact social justice, educators must be humane in their pedagogy and practice. For the humane
pedagogical promotion of SOGI diversity, holism is crucial, a principle shared both by IP and CP. Gunio
(2021) argued that people needed to have “a more holistic understanding of [identity]” (p. 197). This
desire for teachers and students to understand one another’s identities more holistically defines what
Carter Andrews (as cited in TedxTalks, 2014) described as critical love. The role of love in critical
pedagogy intersects with holism in IP, where the heart occupies one of the four domains of identity.
Holism is another one of Archibald’s (2008) seven principles of storywork; holism is defined as
the “interrelatedness between the intellectual, spiritual (metaphysical values and beliefs and the
Creator), emotional, and physical (body and behaviour/action) realms to form a whole healthy person”

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(p. 11). This pedagogy offers a more nuanced interpretation of holism for the benefit of teachers and
students co-transforming SOGI diversity, which connects back to the decolonization action of including
the two-spirit narrative. “Stories” explained Archibald, “have the power to make our hearts, minds,
bodies, and spirits work together. When we lose a part of ourselves, we lose balance and harmony (p.
11). Actively engaging and balancing the heart, mind, body, and spirit through IP enhances CP by adding
a spiritual component. This strengthens cultural diversity in curriculum. Holistic health prepares teachers
and students for action.
Praxis and Synergy
Archibald (2019) quoted a spokesperson at a Coast Salish gathering to describe the cotransformation of social injustice, “My dear ones, the work is about to begin” (p. 1). The work of
teachers and students is empowered by the intersection of praxis and synergy. For transformation to
occur, Freire (2018) insisted that “praxis” (p. 86), or philosophy and action together is needed to
interrupt oppressive forces in our education system. Praxis defines dialogical action when teachers and
students reflect on “re-created, synthesized knowledge, and then act on it, for the liberation of
humanity” (p. 87). All action requires energy for sustained commitment to liberation, which can be
achieved through intersecting the principle of praxis with Archibald’s (2008; 2019) Indigenous principle
of synergy.
Synergy circles back to the importance of stories in curriculum for co-transforming SOGI
diversity. Archibald (2019) grounded the principle of synergy in the interactions amongst the storyteller,
listener, and story and these interactions create sparks or ideas (p.133). The interactions are active,
meaning:
The story listener must become a participant who is actively engaged with the story. The story
doesn’t work without a participant. There has to be a participant and someone has to listen. I
don’t mean listening in the passive sense. You can even listen by contradiction. (p. 33)

19
The stories have a “way of living” (p. 133) or being perpetuated by both listener and storyteller,
demonstrating synergy. Archibald illustrated that the sparks of synergistic action create a “symbolic fire”
until finally the “embers” of this fire, or “emotions”, inspire us to “think more deeply, help us to problem
solve” and to finally “take courageous action” (p. 4). Synergy and praxis together provide the teachers
and the students with the love, the critical thinking, and the courage to co-transform social injustice.
Summary
The SOGI lens focuses the scholarly literature around co-contextualization, co-interpretation,
and co-transformation through intersecting IP and CP. These pedagogies can help students and teachers
co-transform a literature-based curriculum by addressing stereotypes, and the hidden and null curricula.
The FPPL (2007) and Indigenous storywork (Archibald, 2019) provide the pedagogical foundations for
SOGI equity. Holistically intersecting IP and CP strengthens the co-transformation process, wherein
synergy and praxis provide the inspiration and energy to humanize learning. The theoretical lens of this
chapter will expand in the next chapter to apply the findings of the literature to EDID in a literaturebased curriculum, the essence of this paper’s argument.

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Chapter Three: Application
In this chapter, I describe the practical setting in which I apply the findings of the literature
review. I then introduce the novel of the literature-based curriculum through which EDID is cocontextualized and co-interpreted. Next, I explore the power of intersecting IP and CP for cotransformation in the practical setting. Finally, I summarize the application of the literature review to
advance my argument of the importance of co-transforming EDID in a literature-based curriculum. By
detailing intersecting pedagogies, I aim to assist other teachers and students in co-transforming their
own curriculum.
Practical Setting
The practical setting is a middle school English class in a rural BC public school. The colleagues at
this school and TRU M.Ed. classmates helped to guide the application of the findings in Chapter Two. I
wish to help teachers who are afraid to address the hidden curriculum (Castro & Sujak, 2014; Gunio,
2021; Thornton, 2003) and the null curriculum (Flinders et al., 1986; Kazemi et al., 2020; them, 2018). As
per Castro and Sujak (2014) and Thornton (2003), well-intending educators fear they lack knowledge
and expertise, the time to develop new curriculum due to the demands of standardized testing and
assessment, the support of school administrators, and the support of communities who feel sexual
education is the responsibility of the family, not the school, despite evidence of non-heteronormative
youth experience discrimination within their own families. The students in the practical setting have
inspired the choice of novel on which this literature-based curriculum focuses.
Selecting We Are All Made of Molecules For a Literature-Based Curriculum
Last year during the pandemic, I was overwhelmed by a sudden change to my teaching
assignment which would put me in charge of 25 learners for most of their subjects, including English.
Through preliminary relationship-building activities, it was clear that there was significant need for EDID
transformation. Several students were struggling with social-emotional conflicts that were impacting

21
their academic learning. Others struggled with their SOGI identities, socioeconomic hardships, and
family instability. The reading and writing levels varied from approaching Grade 7 to extending beyond
Grade 7, and all course work required adaptations to meet the needs of all learners. Overall, one-third
of the students were formally identified by the School Based Team as having learning, and or socialemotional challenges, receiving supports from Certified Educational Assistants, school counsellors, and
outside counselling agencies.
Wanting to address the EDID needs of the class, I began from a place of personal strength, which
was the English 7 curriculum. If I could successfully transform a literature-based curriculum, I felt I could
apply the process to the subjects about which I was less confident in teaching, such as Science 7. The
first step was a visit to the school’s book room to find a class set of novels through which to address
EDID. Seeing what was available to Grade 7 teachers, I was dismayed. No novels included SOGI diversity,
and only one novel portrayed a non-nuclear family. From the perspective of decolonization, only one
novel included Indigenous content.
Eager to research and order a new novel set that was more inclusive in its content, I reached out
to my colleagues and to my TRU classmates. One novel that was recommended in both of these
contexts was Nielsen’s (2015) novel We Are All Made of Molecules. This novel explores relevant EDID
topics. Two of the novel’s characters are victims of homophobia. The two protagonists live in a blended
family, and they exhibit learning and socio-emotional challenges. However, though Nielsen vividly
describes the setting of Vancouver, BC in the 1990s, the text completely lacks Indigenous content. This
omission exemplifies the null curriculum if teachers and students do not co-transform the novel’s
curriculum through IP.
Co-Contextualization for EDID
Co-contextualizing literature for EDID helps teachers and students navigate the null and hidden
curriculum. In a literature-based curriculum that includes exploring SOGI diversity, it is important to

22
address the hidden and null curriculum because students and teachers cannot anticipate the diversity of
contexts that will emerge, nor the diversity in reactions to new contexts. For instance, if one student’s
belief is that the only normative identity in the class is straight, how will that student emotionally react
when a classmate openly identifies as being gay? If the unplanned reaction is outright fear, the teacher
must not neglect this emotion. Instead, the teacher and other students must collaborate to cocontextualize the angst. To ignore the fear, or silence it, legitimizes it, potentially resulting in
homophobia, as argued by Thornton (2003). To reverse the null and hidden curriculum’s culture of
silence, the students and I co-contextualized diverse narratives through researching and dialoguing to
expand the individual and collective comfort zones.
Comfort Zones: The Banking Approach vs Dialogical Methodologies
Comfort zones refer to topics and or situations that individuals are comfortable exploring. I
identified the main topics of the novel and listed them as “Comfort Zone Topics” (Figure 1). The topics
included stereotypes, family dynamics, bullying, SOGI, and homophobia. To avoid Freire’s (2018)
banking approach, I did not want to assume what the students’ comfort zones were, nor did I want to
transmit information about the Comfort Zone Topics. Instead, I designed a survey that all my students
could complete to indicate their levels of comfort based on what they felt they knew and could explore
in the class discussions and in other learning activities. This provided the foundation for dialogical
methodologies.
I administered the surveys to the students and then shared the anonymous survey results with
the class. Together, the class ranked the discussion topics in the order of the least to most comfortable
peoples’ vulnerabilities in our learning community, by sharing my own narrative of the topic. I confided
the conflicts within my own past as a child and how these conflicts jeopardized my stability when I was
the same age as my students. I invited the students to connect their contexts to my context.
Figure 1

23
Comfort Zone Survey Excerpt (Barnes, 2019)

WE ARE ALL MADE OF MOLECULES Comfort Zone Survey

NAME: Teacher

We all have different comfort zones based on our experiences and knowledge. Sometimes our
comfort zones shift, depending on how our day is going, or whose influences impact us in our
immediate environment. For example, my parents growing up were married, so discussing the
topic of divorce in gr. 7 would not have taken me out of my comfort zone of stable emotions.
The topic would have been neutral for me. However, if the topic discussed was cancer, which
would not have been in my comfort zone as a grade 7 student, because in my family, it was not
considered appropriate to talk about cancer or death in general.
Before we participate in activities about diversity topics in the novel, we need to know about
each other’s comfort zones. If we know that, we can be more thoughtful, caring, and respectful.
Please complete and hand in the questionnaire, which only I will see (unless you choose to
show others).
KNOWLEDGE: Based on personal experience or based on information you know or feel strongly
to be true. Recall our discussion about sources of information, and which sources, like “rumors”
should not be accepted as truth.
COMFORT ZONE: How comfortable you are in thinking, talking, listening, or interpreting a
certain topic (ex. through journaling or drawing a picture, etc.)
Keep in mind what other topics could be added to this list.
- - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - Circle a Number: 1 = Not at all, 5 = Extreme Topics:
1. STEREOTYPES: Example: What are stereotypes around gaming? What does this stat suggest?
“On average, eighth and ninth grade girls play video games about five hours a week, and boys at
the same age play, on average, 13 hours a week” Source:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4343312/
a) Knowledge:

1 2 3 4 5

b) Comfort:

1 2 3 4 5

_________________________________________________________________________
This initial discussion framed the inquiry project for which students would research comfort
zone topics. To increase their contextual knowledge, students were challenged to choose the topics they
knew the least about. They were provided with diverse links that enhanced EDID. For example, some
resources were video-based for visual learners, all topics included links to Indigenous content, and there

24
were opportunities for students to share resources they discovered, so that they became experts of a
sort. Students co-created a list of formats from which to choose for reporting their findings so that the
assessment was equitable. Formats I recommend to others include PowerPoint presentations, posters,
comic strips, and mini-Ted Talks.
After the presentations, students were invited to reflect on their new learning through writing,
talking or voice memos, depending on the learning and or social-emotional needs of the students. Based
on the findings of the inquiry project, students also suggested adding a new topic to the comfort zone
surveys. The class findings of the chosen topics were referred to throughout the reading of the novel to
remind students of their important contributions to the co-contextualization of the novel’s main topics. I
urged the students to co-identify connections to a graphic (Figure 2) in the novel in which the character
Stewart graphs his comfort level at a new school, and how he is socially fitting in. The graph shows
Stewart’s optimism in his final estimate, and our class took the time to co-contextualize our comfort
levels when newly arriving to the current school, including the length of time in weeks to start feeling
more comfortable. This moment to reflect created connections amongst the class and with the novel’s
character. The inquiry project also included students’ ideas for acting on new learning, ideas which were
reflected upon when the novel was finished.
The co-contextualization of the topic of stereotypes, via class discussion, was based on the
findings of the inquiry projects and what the novel presented through the thoughts, feelings, and
actions of the characters. In keeping with CP, which emphasizes the analysis of stereotypes through
dialogue between teacher and students (Freire, 2018; Greene, as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014, 2017) I
confided my personal SOGI narrative. To teach them Adichie’s (as cited in TED, 2009) single-story theory,
and to embolden my students in exploring their own SOGI contexts with which to meet the characters in
the novel, I cautioned the students not to adopt my story or view it as the only important narrative.
Rather, I introduced the sharing of my own story as an act of risk-taking, for I did not know how the

25
students would react to my story. By transparently making myself vulnerable in this way, I increased my
personal comfort zone. I divulged that I identify as female and express my femininity through wearing
makeup and dresses. Though this might reinforce the stereotype of makeup and dresses defining a
female, there is more to me than this single-story. My stories include my intelligence and creativity to
frame the celebration of my femininity. Aware of my various feminine expressions, when I encountered
the novel’s female protagonist, Ashley, I could empathize with her challenges. As a teenage girl, she is
the object of stereotypical definitions of what she should look like, powerful stereotypes that she has
co-opted and that limit how she and how others view her. After contextualizing my stories, I
empowered the students to explore single-stories that described their diverse identities. They could
choose the mode of exploration whether it was thinking quietly, writing in a private journal, or
discussion with a trusted partner. After ten minutes we would come back together for a class discussion.
The co-contextualization of the topic of gender stereotypes began with me asking how
stereotypes lead to discrimination (Greene, as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014), a line of questioning that
leads the students to reflect on the times when they or someone they knew had been excluded because
of being stereotyped. The next day, I led a blind vote, asking students to close their eyes and raise their
hands to answer if they were comfortable learning more about transgender identities. Confident that
both the students and I were ready for this next step, I offered the background context of the video
What Does Two-Spirit Mean (them, 2018). The students had already learned about colonization and
residential schools in our social studies class, so I bridged that content to inquire how many students
had talked to a transgender person face to face. I reminded them of when the school had watched a
documentary on transgender youth during the school’s Diversity Week, then explained that the What
Does Two-Spirit Mean video would intersect transgender identity with colonization. This prepared the
students to co-contextualize the two-spirit narrative and then later connect this new learning to the
transgender characterization in the novel.

26
Figure 2
Stewart’s Comfort Level Bar Graph (Nielsen, 2015b, p. 138)

At the novel study’s conclusion, the last step in the comfort zone survey was to analyze how the
class initially felt about the topics and to then indicate any difference in knowledge or comfort level. I
transparently reflected that my own knowledge and comfortability of the topics had improved through
the co-contextualization process. Through building trust in the critical co-contextualization process, the
next step was to delve into the novel’s diversity topics through co-interpretation. This would involve a
holistic approach to the novel, accomplished through becoming “storyready” (Archibald, 2019, p. 2).
Co-Interpretation for EDID: Becoming Storyready

27
CP allowed us to co-contextualize the facts around the novel’s main topics. To holistically co-interpret
major diversity topics in the novel, the class needed to privilege storywork (Archibald, 2019) through the
principle of interconnectedness (FPPL, 2007). This principle encourages readers to become storyready
(2019) not just intellectually but also emotionally and spiritually. Together, the students and I holistically
co-reflected, through discussion, on the character Phil and his SOGI story. The class co-interpreted how
Phil’s admission of being gay impacted the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other characters and why.
In the novel, his daughter and ex-wife are conflicted and Phil is the recipient of outright discrimination
by another character. IP reinforces that all people are sacred and interconnected, so in discriminating
against Phil, the characters are attempting to deny Phil’s sacredness. If Phil is connected to everyone
else, then his unsacred state sullies even his oppressors, so they too may no longer feel sacred.
However, according to IP, all living things are sacred, no matter the attempts of one being to desanctify
another. Likewise, equity in SOGI diversity is justified, for if through interconnectedness, an individual
does not get the necessary support that befits their sacredness, that inequity holistically impacts others.
Nielsen (2015) conveys this principle of interconnectedness through the novel’s title and
through the dialogue between the protagonists. Stewart explains to Ashley that by “breathing in
his [dead mother’s] molecules” (p. 119) he is staying connected to her. In his view:
When someone dies, their molecules break down into smaller molecules as well as individual
atoms. When that person dies, [an atom] could become part of a molecule in something else,
like a blooming flower, or even another human being. I think it’s beautiful. Everything, and
everyone, is interconnected. (p. 120)
Stewart concludes at the end of the novel that he views his newly blended family not as the original
triangle (Figure 3), nor as the idealized quadrangle with a sister, but as an octagon (Figure 4), with his
mom “[belonging] there along with everyone else, because her memory- and her molecules- live on” (p.
241).

28
Figure 3
Stewart’s Nuclear Family, Pre-Mom’s Death (Nielsen, 2015c, p. 3)

This is an example of transformation, where Stewart moves from what he views as his triangular family
in which his mom was the base that held up the “whole structure” (p. 2) and when she died, the triangle
collapsed.
Figure 4
Stewart’s Blended Family (Nielsen, 2015a, p. 241)

29
Later in the novel, the characters honour this notion of interconnectedness to build empathy and
support by wearing t-shirts on which they had printed the slogan and title of the novel We Are All Made
of Molecules and the final words of the novel. This holistic co-interpretation as a result of
privileging Phil’s narrative had the potential to enhance EDID awareness amongst the class, which could
be documented in their reflective journaling.
Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies: Reflective Journaling
The next learning activity revolved around journaling. CP, as per Greene (2017) encourages
learners to “make associations…from the reader’s own daily life” (p. 146) through journaling. In IP (FPPL,
2007), learning is reflective. The students and I listed the topics they wanted to write about based on
previous activities. Together we decided the writing format, some learners choosing to type while others
preferred to write freely in journal booklets we made together. These booklets had blank covers on
which artists could draw or make title pages. I suggested that 10 to 15 minutes each class of quiet time
would be adequate for journaling. Students could opt to read from their journals or to have other
readers read their work aloud. The journal reflections illuminated what the students were most curious
about in the novel which became the topic for our next learning activity: role playing as characters from
the novel in a talking circle.
Indigenous Talking Circles
Indigenous talking circles (First Nations Pedagogy Online, n.d.) foster EDID in a literature-based
curriculum. Everyone sits in a circle, symbolizing interconnectedness, equality, and inclusion. When one
person chooses to speak, no one else speaks, which shows respect. To respect the listeners, the
speakers are expected to respond to what others have said, and to say only what they feel is important.
To prepare for the talking circle, students randomly select character names. From the perspective of
their chosen character, students were asked to answer guiding questions, like what the consequences of
the events in the novel should be.

30
No student is expected to have expert knowledge of the chosen character, and in the
preparation session, the class is encouraged to work collaboratively to craft what become informal
scripts. This allows students to practice speaking and listening in talking circles without the anxiety of
not knowing what to say or feel. Talking circles provide opportunities for equal participation (First
Nations Pedagogy Online, n.d.) and through this critical creative role play the potential for participants
to internalize the ethics of social justice through exploring what consequences characters should face,
based on the novel’s plot.
The talking circle is an active way to co-interpret the novel’s diversity topics for increased EDID
in the curriculum. If the class runs out of time for every student to share their ideas in role, participants
can stop in time to journal their ideas to refer to for the next day’s continuance of the talking circle. The
talking circle activity prepares students for the final stage of the curriculum: co-transformation.
Co-Transformation for EDID: Intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies Across Disciplines
In the novel, Stewart quotes Einstein who maintains, “the world is a dangerous place to live, not
because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it” (2015, p.
244). I re-read this quote to the students when we had finished the novel and co-reflected on the ideas
for action they had articulated in their inquiry projects. Through action, learners can co-transform their
co-interpretations of literature for EDID. Archibald (2008) reinforced the importance of sharing new
learning for the benefit of the larger community, which defines the IP principle of reciprocity. Freire
(2018) advocated for critical praxis, or theory put into action, to enact social justice.
After critical and creative reflection (Province of British Columbia, 2021) on the class activities
throughout the novel study, the class were invited to brainstorm actions that individuals, groups, or our
whole class could realistically achieve to improve EDID in the larger school community. The
brainstorming process reflected the Indigenous principle of synergy (Archibald, 2019) in which one idea
of critical and creative expression sparked another idea, which ignited a bonfire. In the flames of the

31
bonfire a vision emerged that exemplified intersecting pedagogies and disciplines to integrate the
diverse talents of the class and of the greater school community. We named the project the Wings of
Freedom (2021), a detail of the project shown below. Our class launched this project connecting diverse
student poets, artists, Aboriginal support workers, Indigenous community members, and SOGI
advocates of the school’s Pride Club. On the left wing are the words to a local Indigenous song, learned
from an Indigenous educator. This song conveys the interconnectedness of humans and nature, in which
the beauty of all people is owed to the beauty of the land. Another local Indigenous educator had taught
the students about the Kamloops residential school, where her mother attended. This history inspired
an Indigenous student to compose the poem featured on the right wing. For intercultural solidarity, I
worked with two South Asian students to paint, draw, and assemble the mural. The mural was launched
during the 2021 Diversity Week, a week of school activities organized by a two-spirit student. They were
the first student to stand between the wings to have their photo taken. Since then, community
members have posed for and have taken photos of the Wings of Freedom, including my own adult son,
portrayed in Figure 5.
Figure 5
Wings of Freedom (Barnes, 2021)

32
Summary
I have described my lived experiences of co-developing a literature-based curriculum to cotransform EDID with and for an English 7 class. Colleagues, community members, TRU classmates, and
scholars have also helped to shape the exploration of Nielsen’s (2015) novel. This curriculum is intended
to help other teachers and students explore the novel and to co-transform EDID themselves. Another
application could be for others to integrate IP and CP to a different literature selection and/or for a
different grade level to improve EDID in a new curriculum. In Chapter Four, I connect the literature and
its application to the successful defense of my argument and this paper’s implications.

33
Chapter Four: Conclusion
The sun now sets on this quest for bettering the educational experience for all students and
teachers. I have a new story to share around the bonfire in the alpine meadow of Chapter One. It is a
tale of liberation through interconnectedness, the moral of the story demanding that co-transforming
EDID in a literature-based curriculum is not only possible, but also significant. Like finding two
complementary food sources in the landscape to nourish adventurers after a long trek, I discover two
humanizing pedagogies to intersect: IP and CP. In this chapter, I summarize the connections amongst
Chapters One, Two, and Three in advancing my argument. I then explain the success of my paper,
measured by the strength and application of the literature to catalyze internal and external outcomes.
The internal outcomes describe the transformation of my ideas about my topic. The implications of my
paper in diverse practical settings defines the external outcomes of this paper’s success. I end with
“dreamwork” (Archibald, 2008), or my dreams of the future achievable through collaborative work.
Summary
This journey begins in Chapter One with my internal reflection on the effectiveness of my
teaching in the contexts of the TRC Calls to Action (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
– Calls to Action 2015), the new BC curriculum (Province of British Columbia, 2021), the suicide of a
student I knew, and the TRU M.Ed. program. Below, in Figure 3, I provide an image of Chapter One’s
extended metaphor of a meadow dance to contextualize the significance of my topic. This painting
mirrors the narrative of the TRC Calls to Action (2015) for educators, where from a place of pain rooted
in the residential school system and consequent cultural genocide, comes new insights and
opportunities for healing and liberation through education. I had painted Meadow Dance (2013) while
experiencing personal pain, anxiety, and loss. Forcing myself to imagine a new identity, I had rendered
myself very much at peace, and happily positioned in a beautiful world where I could dance with
abandon amongst the wildflowers.

34
Figure 6
Meadow Dance (Barnes, 2013)

Decolonization through intersecting IP and CP holistically restores the beauty to the practical setting of a
rural BC school curriculum. The untethered tree in Meadow Dance symbolizes an opportunity for
reconciliation, a metaphorical reforestation of an EDID landscape.
The core competencies of the new BC curriculum (Province of British Columbia, 2021) also
justify my quest for a transformed EDID curriculum. The competencies of critical and reflective thinking
and positive personal and cultural identity are EDID landmarks, signalling self-worth, self-awareness, and
overall well-being. The suicide of the UBC student I knew prompts a deeper analysis of the intersecting
sources of discrimination that tragically contributed to their mental instability. To help students navigate

35
discrimination requires education devoted to EDID, embedded in the TRU M.Ed. program, an alpine
meadow in full bloom. Here, I learn how to transform my pedagogy. My guides in this transformation
range from scholars to trusted professors and classmates, like Michelle Smith. She introduces a new
interpretation of the floating tree in my Meadow Dance painting, in which the tree represents how
students must feel when their identity is seen as negative or even shunned within the hidden
curriculum. This reference to the hidden curriculum connects to Chapter Two.
The review of the literature In Chapter Two solidifies my argument, which includes the
possibility of SOGI transformation in the context of the null and hidden curriculum. Freire (2018) gifts
me with the hope that pedagogies that humanize ideologies can eradicate oppression. Greene (2017)
paints a picture of authentic pedagogies of care; here I seek to strengthen my critical lens to include
love, as per the lessons of Carter Andrews (as cited in TedxTalks, 2014). The world is ever-changing, and
Greene reminds us (as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014) that teachers must learn alongside their students
as “perpetual beginners” for “equity and equality demand that our stories or histories should not be
fixed by the dominant culture” but “rather, teachers and students alike can “[participate] in society’s
historical process” (Greene, 2017, p. 182). I critique how the status quo has shaped my own life
experience and education. Routinely identifying and disabling any biases, I transform my pedagogy and
practices through critical self-love to mitigate guilt and denial and identify pitfalls for obliviously
discriminating against students. To add to the offerings of CP, I draw from Freire (2018), “students and
teachers [can] analyze stereotypes through dialogue” (p. 74). Dialoguing with my learners is
forevermore a part of my pedagogy to disrupt power, the antidote to the banking education (Freire,
2017) that had dominated my pre-TRU educational journey. To humanize single-story interpretations
(Adichie, as cited in TED, 2009), as the empowered teacher I initiate collaboration with marginalized
students to truly be connected with each other and with the world (Archibald, 2008, 2019; FPPL, 2007).

36
This collaboration sparks a cultural synthesis, synergized by intersectional pedagogies, which unifies all
members of diverse learning communities.
Implications
This paper successfully proves my argument for EDID through the review and the application of
the scholarly literature. Contextualizing literature builds humanity and compassion (Gioia, 2011), but
pedagogical intersection allows all readers to co-contextualize, co-interpret, and co-transform
curriculum when applied to a practical setting, establishing a system that denies oppression. The success
of this paper is two-fold in its internal and external outcomes; internally, my thoughts on this topic are
transformed, and externally, the implication of this paper exceeds my expectations in its expansiveness.
identifying barriers other teachers and students face in co-transforming their curricula, and
articulating ways to remove these barriers through applying the pedagogical shifts referenced in the
literature review. I had expected to learn about EDID, but I did not expect to meet new versions of
myself as the diverse struggles of others re-defined my worldview. Freire says his “curiosity never stops”
(as cited in LiteracyDotOrg, 2009), and likewise I am curious to see what will unfold when I continue to
collaborate
with Indigenous community members and critical educators to decolonize and humanize the null and
hidden curriculum. I avoid assuming that all students feel like they have the “right of self-expression and
world expression, of creating and re-creating, of deciding and choosing, and ultimately participating in
society’s historical process” (Freire, 2017, p. 181-182). Instead, inspired by intersecting pedagogies, I
continue to co-contextualize, co-interpret, co-transform, reflect, then circle back to co-contextualizing to
address shifts in practical settings.
With critical love (Carter Andrews, as cited in TedxTalks, 2014), I am not afraid to teach my own
indoctrinated racism. I can locate where I have come, assessing how and with whom I have traveled,
which in turn informs my next journey. Archibald (2008; 2019) tasks me with demonstrating reciprocity

37
and privileging storywork so that I am aware of and acting upon events. I track which narratives are
heard, seen, and honoured, and am now aware of the power of intersecting IP and CP to mirror,
complement, and strengthen curriculum for holistic co-transformation of EDID.
The external implications of my paper involve why and how educators in Canada should and
could transform EDID in their various professional settings, which scholarly literature supports. Critical
pedagogists (Adichie, as cited in TED, 2009; Carter Andrews, as cited in TedxTalks, 2014; Freire, 2017,
2018; Giroux, 1995; Greene, as cited in ColumbiaLearn, 2014, 2017) promote dialogical methodologies,
critical and reflective thinking, and critical love for EDID. IP (FNESC, 2017) illuminates that all people are
sacred and connected and thus responsible for each other. Both pedagogies argue for the transforming
of the hidden curriculum (Castro & Sujak; Gunio, 2021; Thornton, 2003), and the null curriculum
(Flinders et al., 1986; Kazemi et al., 2020; them, 2018) for social justice. Intersecting pedagogies
strengthen holism through synergy (Archibald, 2008; Archibald et al., 2019) and praxis (Carter Andrews,
as cited in TedxTalks, 2014; Freire, 2017, 2018).
Pedagogically, this curriculum based on Nielsen’s (2015) novel could be adapted for any novel
study in any English class. The topics for inquiry projects, discussions, journals, talking circles, and other
activities should align with what the chosen novel presents around EDID. The order of the topics
discussed should be based on the findings of a Comfort Zone Survey, the first topic being one that the
teacher is vulnerable about, so as to model respectful discussion and support of other peoples’
vulnerabilities. The teacher and students should co-create time and opportunities for students to
spontaneously share excerpts from their journals. Literature-based curricula can help create a safe space
in which learners can explore various identities and experiences beyond the dominant culture. Together,
teachers and students can aspire to gain greater understanding, empathy, and acceptance for those
whose struggles are different from ours. Ideally, people will act on their newfound awareness by first
asking what they can do to help others in the class, in the school, in the greater community, and beyond.

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Dreamwork
My dreamwork to fulfill my dream of a culture shift in which all people collaborate to overcome
oppression. Pedagogists, educators, and knowledge keepers should all be learning together and
alongside diverse learners to humanize education. In doing so, barriers to EDID in every practical setting
could be removed, for education has the power to raise up generations of humanists dedicated to
preserving the beauty of the world. This is the reciprocity that IP (Archibald, 2019) reinforces, a principle
that keeps us connected. The never-ending circle of life and learning forms concentric circles to show
both the synergistic influence of and our responsibility toward the generations of ancestors, the
generations of today, and the generations yet to come (Archibald, 2019).
In the pond of an alpine meadow, one drop of rain ripples throughout the molecules of water.
Acts of solidarity, like a collaborative mural displayed in the halls of a rural BC middle school, are the
raindrops that enact the rippling, concentric circles that span diverse landscapes. My praxis includes
collaborative artistic expression, as per the Wings of Freedom (2021), for artistic holism is what inspires
my meadow dance. I invite other educators and learners to take my hand and dance with me, together
restoring to the world its natural beauty.

39
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