Decolonizing Educational Environments: An Analysis of Experiences Shared by Educators in The National Capital Region

Five volunteer teacher participants from Ottawa, Ontario, met over zoom individually and answered five guiding questions about decolonizing their personal educational environment. The participants self identified as white/Caucasian, Canadian born, between the ages of 22 and 65, and teaching in an intermediate-senior educational environment. Three participants were men and three were women. Four participants worked at either the Catholic school board (OCSB) or the Public School Board (OCDSB) and one worked for a private school that was OSSD accredited. Participants were recruited through bilingual digital outreach through Meta Business with specific parameters set. Using a qualitative, narrative-based methodology the interview transcripts were collected for analysis through Zoom live translation. Thematic coding was applied by hand to the transcripts to identify recurring patterns in the decolonization process.