Disrupting Colonial Thinking in the Classroom

In this session, presenters will discuss first how the 2023 Lodge Approach Conference acted as a disrupter (in line with disruptive learning theory) for two pre-service teachers who attended the conference. By illustrating how exposure to and engagement with indigenous thinking, culture, and people, we will show how such experiences like The Lodge Approach Conference can and often do result in divergent thinking - away from colonial constructs which imposes a hierarchy of agency, towards an acceptance of multiple centers of knowledge which while different are equally valid. We will trace the disruption from the Lodge Approach Conference through the participants’ experiences as pre-service social studies teachers. Secondly, presenters, both teacher educators at Kent State University, will explain how the Lodge Approach Conference has disrupted their practice as well, providing lesson plans and ideas they have instituted in their practice as a result of the conference, including the use of rocks as a symbol of collective and timeless wisdom and knowledge acquired across time, space, and cultures.