Suzanne Ericson: Responsible Reading in the English Classroom: Working with Indigenous Literature in Teacher Education to Promote Environmental Justice

Abstract

This thesis responds to the challenge of integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into English education through a focus on teacher training and the pedagogical potential of literary texts. Guided by the work of North American Indigenous writers Driftpile Cree poet Billy-Ray Belcourt, Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, and Nisga’a poet Jordan Abel, the research develops a methodological framework for teaching tomorrow’s educators to critically engage with literary texts with a focus on environmental justice, reflect on their positionality in relation to these, and collaborate towards transformative action. It argues that these texts have significant didactic value in fostering competencies in sustainability, reading, and teaching among student teachers. The reading practices developed are adaptable for upper-secondary English teaching and align with national and international ESD directives. By emphasising the vital role of humanities subjects in sustainability education and the responsibility inherent in reading and thus, also, teaching reading, this thesis contributes to ongoing efforts to build a more environmentally just world through education.