An example of incongruence where I was left confused and wondering what exactly the point was came about a few weeks ago.  I teach in two schools that have large First Nations populations.  As such, much of our professional development and planning focuses on decolonizing and incorporating First Nations teachings into our curriculum and classrooms.  The session began off well enough, making clear the distinction between “Western” and “an imposed colonial” education, which I was grateful for as the terms are often used interchangeably.  My colleagues and I had deep discussions about how we felt things were going in our respective departments and shared ideas.

A video that was shared just before a break, clearly stated the scope of indigenization and decolonization, with the roles clearly spelled out.  When the last speaker of the day began, all of the previous definitions and clarifications went out the window.  Colonial and Western were used interchangeably once again and the focus was on indigenizing our educational approaches.  If there was not going to be consistency in terminology, why did we focus so much on them?  I left the session feeling confused, as those I had missed the point of the day.

While there was no assessment within this, I found, and still find, that I have no clear idea how to move forward in my course planning in regards to these topics.  Congruence could be achieved with an agreement on the terms and how they are to be used.