Understanding Roles and Relationships: Teachers’ Work in a Northern Ontario Remote First Nations Community

Abstract

This article explores how teachers negotiate their roles and relationships in a Northern Ontario First Nations community. Through a case study approach, utilizing interviews and focus groups with 15 participants, I constructed four categories: (1) pedestal people, (2) educational transitioners, (3) relationship builders, and (4) community integrators, for the purpose of explaining the ways in which teachers navigate their roles and relationships in the community and the implications for their work as teachers. I argue that community integrators embody an understanding of Indigenous approaches, centralized in relational knowing and being, and model a practice most efficacious for Indigenous student success.

Keywords: Indigenous education, relationships, teachers’ work