Decolonizing Community First Aid Education: Sharing Epistemologies and Pedagogies

Abstract

Community education is intended to serve the community; however, embedded in that goal is an assumption that all community members are served by education designed by the privileged. Canadian community education tends to universalize Western normative ideologies, reinforcing colonial power structures. While healing knowledge is an area in which Indigenous and Western worldviews have potential to share space, first aid programs are based on Western knowledge and practices. In response to the TRC Calls to Action to integrate Indigenous knowledge and practices in educational spaces, this literature review considered Indigenous health care and teaching philosophies and practices in relation to Western pedagogies and evaluated the possibility of incorporating Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing into Canadian first aid education. This inquiry examined existing evidence and prioritized Indigenous voices, concluding that Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall’s Two-Eyed Seeing offers the best opportunity to bridge the gap between Indigenous and Western worldviews.