Dwayne Donald - Directory@UAlberta.ca

Contact

Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and Professor, Faculty of Education - Secondary Education Dept

Email: ddonald@ualberta.ca
Phone: (780) 492-5639
Address: 445 Education Centre - South
11210 - 87 Ave NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 2G5

Overview

About

Dwayne Donald was born and raised in Edmonton and is a descendent of the amiskwaciwiyiniwak (Beaver Hills Cree).

Research

Dwayne is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Reimagining Teacher Education with Indigenous Wisdom Traditions, and this work focuses on ways in which Indigenous wisdom traditions can expand and enhance understanding of curriculum and pedagogy.

To learn more on Dwayne's CRC work, visit this webpage: https://www.unlearningcolonialism.ca/

If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies in education on these topics or related issues, please contact Dwayne directly at dwayne.donald@ualberta.ca.

Teaching

Courses Taught

EDSE 409: Indigenous Curriculum and Pedagogy EDU 561: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Foundational Indigenous Knowledge and Knowing
EDSE 504: Curriculum Inquiry
EDSE 603 A & B: Holistic Approaches to Life and Living

Courses

EDSE 409 - Indigenous Curriculum and Pedagogy

This course is designed to help educators better understand and interpret the significance of recent curricular initiatives in Alberta and across Canada that emphasize Indigenous perspectives across subject areas and grade levels. The class will consider the philosophies and wisdom traditions of Indigenous knowledge systems and the curricular and pedagogical implications of these. The class will also focus in on particular subject area concerns, individually and collectively, and consider the critical contributions that Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives could play in these classroom contexts. One of the unifying messages of this course is that Indigenous curriculum perspectives provide a unique opportunity for teachers to creatively rethink and reframe their approaches to teaching and learning. Credit may only be obtained for one of EDSE 409 or EDES 409.

Fall Term 2025

EDU 561 - Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Foundational Indigenous Knowledge and Knowing

This course provides opportunities for students (as Individuals and as part of a collective learning community) to dwell with the key concepts and frameworks that inform current understandings of Indigenous curriculum and pedagogy. Particular attentiveness will be given to the idea of foundational Indigenous knowledge and knowing what those might be and how we might express our understandings of those in contemporary educational contexts. Sections may be offered at an increased rate of fee assessment, refer to the Fees Payment Guide in the University Regulations and Information for Students section of the Calendar.

Summer Term 2025

Browse more courses taught by Dwayne Donald

Scholarly Activities

Research - Publications

Refereed Articles

Donald, D (2009, Spring). Forts, Curriculum, and Indigenous Métissage: Imagining Decolonization of Aboriginal-Canadian Relations in Educational Contexts. First Nations Perspectives: The Journal of the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, 2 (1), 1-24. Available online at: http://www.mfnerc.org/images

Johnston, I., Carson, T., Richardson, G., Donald, D., Plews, J. & Kim, M. (2009). Awareness, Discovery, Becoming, and Debriefing: Promoting Cross-Cultural Pedagogical Understanding in an Undergraduate Education Program. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 55(1), 1-17.

Donald, D. (2004). Edmonton Pentimento: Rereading History in the Case of the Papaschase Cree. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 2(1), Spring, 21-54.

Donald, D., Hasebe-Ludt, E., & Chambers, C. (2002). Creating a Curriculum of Métissage. Educational Insights, 7(2). Available online: http://www.ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication

Book Chapters

Donald, D. (2009). The curricular problem of Indigenousness: Colonial frontier logics, teacher resistances, and the acknowledgment of ethical space. In J. Nahachewsky and I. Johnston (Eds.). Beyond Presentism: Re-Imagining the Historical, Personal, and Social Places of Curriculum (pp. 23-39). Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei: Sense Publishers.

Chambers, C., Hasebe-Ludt, E., Donald, D., Hurren, W., Leggo, C. & Oberg, A. (2008). Métissage. In A. Cole (Ed). Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 141-153.

Book Reviews

Donald, D. (October 2006). Canada and Its Indigenous Peoples: Resistance or Engagement? Review of Alfred, T. (2005). Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom and Turner, D. (2006). This Is Not a Peace Pipe: Towards a Critical Indigenous Philosophy in Literary Review of Canada, 14(8), 8-10.

Selected Presentations

On What Terms Can We Speak? Aboriginal-Canadian Relations as a Curricular and Pedagogical Imperative. Invited Lecture, Faculty of Education Graduate Studies, University of Lethbridge July 2010. D. Donald.

‘Do They Like Indians?’ Exploring Tensions and Ambiguities Associated with Teaching and Learning from Indigenous Standpoints. Canadian Association for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference. Montreal, Quebec May 2010. D. Donald.

Learning from Difficult Knowledge: Curriculum and Pedagogical Challenges of Truth and Reconciliation. Canadian Association for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference. Montreal, Quebec May 2010. T. Carson, D. Donald.

aoksisowaato’p ki aokakio’ssin: Imagining Organic Curriculum for Relational Renewal. Globalization, Diversity & Education Conference. Spokane, Washington. February 2010. C. Chambers, E. Hasebe-Ludt, R. Big Head, D. Donald.

Curriculum, Colonial Frontier Logics, and Ethical Relationality. The Third World Curriculum Studies Conference. Somerset West, South Africa, September 2009. D. Donald.

Learning from Difficult Knowledge: Aboriginal Peoples, Truth and Reconciliation, and Canadians. The Third World Curriculum Studies Conference. Somerset West, South Africa, September 2009. T. Carson and D. Donald.

Peace and Ecological Imagination: Learning from land, place, and story. Invited public address sponsored by theSummer Institute 2009: Building Peaceful Communities. Edmonton, Alberta. July, 2009. D. Donald

Forts, Curriculum, and Indigenous Métissage. National Panel Keynote Address: Provoking Curriculum Conference. Ottawa, Ontario. May 2009. D. Donald

Curricular and Pedagogical Intents: Aboriginal Perspectives, Social Studies, and Teacher Education. Canadian Association for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference. Ottawa, Ontario. May 2009. K. den Heyer, D. Donald

The Curricular Problem of Indigenousness. Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference. University of British Columbia June 2008. D. Donald

On the Fluxic Nature of Openness and Closure: Frontiers, Forts and the Indigenous Experience with Civilization and Development. Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference. University of British Columbia June 2008. D. Donald