Indigenous Nurse and White Settler Nurse Teaching Teams: Learning to Disrupt With Indigenist Nursing Education

Abstract

Purpose: Nurse educators are called on to confront the reality of systemic racism embedded in their own institutions as they educate students to promote equity through strength-based Indigenous-specific anti-racist practice. However, schools of nursing and nursing pedagogies centre whiteness. White settler nurse educators often lack the competence and confidence to teach an anti-racist and Indigenist curriculum. Indigenous nurse educators often bear a disproportionate responsibility for anti-racist and Indigenist curriculum while also being in the minority and lacking institutional support. Innovative and effective teaching strategies are required to address these issues.

Method: Through a teaching and scholarship grant, Indigenous nurses working in the community and white settler nurse teaching teams were established. These teams, led by an Indigenous scholar, delivered an Indigenist curriculum focused on core concepts of decolonization, relationship, and obligation.

Results: Educator feedback demonstrated how Indigenous and white settler collaboration in the classroom is a mutually beneficial yet challenging innovation.

Conclusion: Indigenous community nurses and white settler nurse teaching teams can collaborate to effectively deliver an anti-racism curriculum, promoting confidence and competence.