Dolloff, L. (2015).

A Quallunaaq on Baffin Island: A Canadian experience of

decolonizing the teacher. Forthcoming In Bartleet, B.L., Bennett, D., Power, A. & Sunderland, N.
(Eds.) Arts-based service learning with First Peoples Towards respectful and mutually
beneficial educational practices. NY: Springer Publishing.

Right off the bat, Dolloffs paper about social stereotypes and (de)colonization strikes
home with a handful of stories that are eye-opening and highly relatable. One of the first
concepts that I found to be thought provoking and interesting was the idea of having to know the
background of something before you can ask what am I to do? After learning about this,
Dolloff applied this mindset to her own life and came up with the question of how does her
childhood in Southern Ontario act as a resource for her identity? I found this interesting because
I fully believe that the place one grows up in has a huge impact on their identity. Ones
hometown will forever be a persons roots and hold all the experiences, and typically opinions,
that a child was first exposed to. This paper also focused a lot on changing social stereotypes
about northern Canada such as the misconception that people still live in igloos and dont have
internet.
Another concept that I found interesting was the image of Lady Bountiful. Lady
Bountiful is the persona of a good natured, wealthy woman who spends her time helping the
poor. According to Harper, she is the consummate care giver, her selflessness inextricably
bound to the needs of others, knowing and saving hapless minority students while her own
whiteness and while privilege remain unacknowledged. Dolloff goes on to explain how this led
her to look for a Lady Bountiful within herself, and caused her to reflect on how her pre-existing
Southern Ontario views be limiting herself as a music teacher in the North. After reading
Dolloffs own self-reflection, that made me look for a Lady Bountiful within myself, and reflect
on what views and stereotypes that I might have that could be holding me back from being the
best music teacher I could possibly be.
I really liked the part where Dolloff explained how she changed some simple nursery
songs to better suit the environment she was in. For example, as a teacher, she taught her
students the song Three little monkeys sitting on a tree, but changed it to Three furry seals
sliding on the ice. I could really connect with this from my own experiences as a piano teacher.
As a teacher, you typically try to teach the same thing to every student, but because no group of
students or single student on their own is ever the same, you will end up teaching the same
concept differently every time. I noticed this when I started teaching piano lessons to young
children. I found I had to cater lessons differently to suit the student and their learning style.
Reading about how Dolloff changed the lyrics to a song to make it resonate more with the
students culture reminded me of how I would do similar things.

Another part of the paper I really enjoyed were the multiple perspectives she provided.
Dolloff included the stories, personal journals, and thoughts of the students who went with her to
teach up North. Because of the nature of this kind of adventure, each person has such a unique
experience that one persons story just touches the tip of the iceberg. I felt that including a
variety of perspectives really enhanced the paper and broadened the readers view of the North.
I dont think theres any way society will be able to understand the beauty of the culture
without going up to see it for themselves, but this paper does a such a great job of explaining the
truths and debunking the myths, that any reader would be intrigued to learn more about the
fascinating culture of the Inuit that our Southern views have prevented us from seeing.