Decolonizing Teacher Education Through Creation of an Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigenization (EDI&I) Coalition

This chapter explores how educators can center equity, social justice, and student voice in teacher education in the face of colonial logic and anti-woke discourse characterized by neoliberalism, divisive rhetoric, and profit-driven agendas. Specifically, the chapter will explore the following questions: What does equity, diversity, inclusion, and indigenization (EDI&I) mean to us and our work as scholar-activist-professors in higher education in the field of teacher education where learning is prescribed and saturated with colonial logic? How do we create spaces for belonging and resistance led by voices of students from equity-deserving groups through coalition work? Through duo-ethnography as a methodology and critical race theory as a theoretical paradigm, we weave and center our lived experiences as counter-stories from the positionality of an Indigenous Métis professor and a Middle Eastern Iranian Muslim professor within teacher education. We highlight the creation of the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigenization (EDI&I) Coalition as of 2020 at our university situated in Ontario, Canada, and its trajectory, challenges experienced, and growth over a three-year period. We highlight some of the achievements of the coalition, particularly the creation of a resource bank, revisions to the lesson plan template with a new section about EDI&I, and hosting of a one-day event on the university campus led by teacher candidates targeting secondary students from equity-deserving groups to increase teacher diversity in Ontario. Overall, it is recommended that the implementation of coalitions can be an effective way to create alternative brave spaces that prioritize equity, social justice, and voices from equity-deserving groups through activism initiatives. We argue that by creating spaces for belonging and resistance, led by equity-deserving groups and their lived experiences through the coalition, counter-stories can be amplified leading to decolonization in teacher education. The EDI&I coalition serves as a case study with insights into how faculty, staff, and students can work collaboratively to decolonize higher education and develop educators who are not afraid to engage in social justice issues in teacher education.