Landscapes of Literacy: The Challenges of Reading Cree-English Dual Language Picture Books as a Decolonizing Strategy

Abstract

The article theorizes the possibilities of a decolonizing methodology in a reading of David Bouchard’s Cree-English dual language picture books Nokum is My Teacher and <em >The Drum Calls Softly. Paulo Freire’s (1971) call to educators to become teacher-learners and Luis Urrieta Jr.’s (2007) concept of figured worlds as they relate to forms of identity work to inform the reading. The article suggests that not only can dual language picture books be read as social documents, but also that reading these texts as a decolonizing strategy provides opportunity for dialogic engagement across cultural boundaries.Keywords: Cree; education; decolonizing pedagogy; dual language texts; picture books; language revitalization