There is a lot of important point of views stated from Dr. Mike Capello addressed in his "Citizenship Education" podcast and Joel Westheimer in "What Kind of Citizen?" video about citizenship and Treaty Education. After listening to both, citizenship means helping the marginalized society we live in around us that we ignore. It is about shaping who we are and who we want to be. As Joel Westheimer said, striving to be the best version of who we can be. Happy, supportive, welcoming people of Canada, of society. To rear away from our bias stand points and Eurocentric thoughts. To end the production of superior white race and aim for inclusion. Inclusion in society and inclusion in schools. We need to recognize that being a citizen of Canada is living with equality among the people who's land we are living on, the Indigenous peoples.
I honestly never really stopped to think what a citizen looks like. I feel like I am not proud of claiming myself as a Canadian citizen when I look back on Canadian history, the genocide that my ancestors created. How unwelcoming Europeans were to Indigenous peoples. Capello stated that if we took spirit intent of treaties seriously, we would be able to develop welcoming aspects. Canadians need to develop more Indigenous ways of knowing and mindsets such as, tawow, meaning "there's room here". It made me tear up a bit when Capello said this because it is true, we were so closed off to the idea of new and different that is seen throughout history. When in reality it is so easy to be inclusive, people choose to be exclusive. It is sad that we have to work towards being inclusive when for the Indigenous peoples, it is their nature. Capello stated that we need to work on our Justice Citizenship and by doing that it starts with including critical engagement, anti-racism, and anti-oppressive curriculums. We still struggle for that. "No matter what we do, settler colonialism is reflected and this needs to change" (Capello). Starting with including Treaty Education into the curriculum.
Capello talked about how citizenship is not just what we are/should be but what we want to reflect. We should be reflecting the brilliance of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous land. It is so easy to state what treaty land we are on but Capello stated that doing this does not change anything. "If you are not growing in your relationship with understanding who we name i.e. when saying land acknowledgements, than we are just using that for performative political goodness (Capello) which truly does not strive for change at all. Taking time to individually learn and understand them is what will help change the marginalization of Indigenous peoples. "Land acknowledgments are not about the past but are important for our future in recognition of Indigenous peoples" (Capello).
Lastly the short video of Westheimer talking about teaching citizenship and what that should currently look like. Citizenship should be about the roles we play in power to justice, defining as a privileged person who stands up for the voices that are unheard. A great example of working towards change in society along with participation. In education we need to be able to teach the differences in society, the controversies, that not all people see eye to eye. If we focus only about teaching the basics, especially in the world we have created, that is "the enemy of imagination and creativity. An impoverished view of what education goals are" (Westheimer). Standarization tests are yes important but like Westheimer said is that it stops teachers from teaching what they believe in, different point of views, and straying away from sameness because we are not all the same. It can be damaging to teach that we are all the same because it does not emphasize uniqueness of the world. No more colonialism ideologies and no more assimilation.
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