Welcome to
Carolyn Roberts
Carolyn Roberts
Re-Storying Education one step at a time.
Carolyn Roberts
Author, Speaker, Educator, Faculty at UBC Teacher Education
Carolyn Roberts is a renowned educator, speaker and storyteller with a wealth of experience and expertise in Indigenous education and decolonization. She is a St’at’imc and Sto:lo woman belonging to the Thevarge family from N'quatqua Nation and the Kelly Family from the Tzeachten Nation and a member of the Squamish Nation. Throughout her illustrious career as an educator and administrator for over 20 years, she has consistently demonstrated a passion for supporting Indigenous resurgence through education.
Currently Carolyn holds the position as an Indigenous academic and Faculty Lecturer in the Teacher Education Department of the University of British Columbia. Her dedication to building teachers’ understandings in Indigenous history, education, and ancestral ways of knowing has not only garnered her recognition within education community, but it has also had a positive impact on the decolonizing of the education system.
An invaluable resource for educators looking to actively participate in reshaping education to include historically silenced voices in the classroom.
Re-Storying Education is a process of dismantling old narratives taught in education and rebuilding new narratives that include all the voices that have created this place known as Canada today. This vital and timely book outlines how colonialism has shaped both the country and the public school system. Re-Storying Educationuses an Indigenous lens, offering ways to put Indigenous education, history, and pedagogy into practice. It invites readers into an open dialogue in the pursuit of a more inclusive and just educational landscape.
Drawing from her own experiences as an Indigenous student, educator, and administrator, in public and band-operated school systems, Indigenous academic Carolyn Roberts offers a deep understanding of how to support educators with Indigenous education and to create a nurturing and inclusive environment for all students. Re-Storying Education brings wider perspectives, connections to the land and the people of this land, and a deeper understanding of how relationships to these can change the educational experience for all students.
Re-Storying Education contains valuable lesson and assessment ideas, fostering the development of a critical lens in education. Roberts offers questions for self-reflection, suggestions for professional action, recommended resources for further learning, personal stories and anecdotes, insights from her own decolonizing teaching practices, and playlists that reflect the spirit of the work and that uplift Indigenous voices.
This is a must-have resource for all educators and change-makers in education today!
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“Woven in these pages is a masterful contribution to the field of education and to those who work in educating hearts, minds, and spirits. I found myself lit up, excited, eager to turn each page, and also inspired to slow down, reflect, and let all the beauty in the pages find their rightful place in my own learning. Carolyn Roberts invites us to go on a journey with her, to be in relationship with her as we learn, unlearn, relearn, and ignite our excitement in the joy of education. Re-Storying Education is full of knowledge, wisdom, truths, and stories and will influence education for generations to come.”
Monique Gray Smith, Award winning and bestselling author
“An excellent resource for navigating often-fraught waters, turning potential struggle into a hopeful journey of discovery and reconciliation.”
Eden Robinson, bestselling author of the Trickster trilogy
“Carolyn Roberts has created an easy-to-follow, thought-provoking, and foundational guide that draws connections between history, classroom techniques, and, most essentially, her own experiences as a student. Re-Storying Education demonstrates the importance of belonging and community in education. Carolyn invites you to reflect on how your classroom experiences have shaped you and to reflect on your role in maintaining the status quo or pushing the bounds of what we think a classroom can be. Through her personal stories, she shows the profound impact our time as a student can have on how we understand ourselves and others. Carolyn aptly explains the importance of making students feel they belong, not that they’re ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ and her respect for students shines through. This book brings together the deepness of personal stories, the expertise of an educator, and hope for the future.”
Stephanie Kwetásel'wet Wood, award-winning journalist and reporter at The Narwhal
“Re-Storying Education is a practical guide for how to support educators in decolonizing their practice. Through storytelling, Carolyn Roberts weaves her own personal experiences and learnings into her writing, providing strategies on how to disrupt and (un)learn stereotypical narratives and ‘ways of doing’ about Indigenous Peoples by creating space to Re-Story the present and the future. Each chapter starts with a creative musical playlist to uniquely connect each of the chapters’ learnings and ends with critical reflective questions and a resource list. I highly recommend this important resource for all educators but in particular those teaching in the K–12 system. What a wonderful book!”
Sheila Cote-Meek, PhD, author of Colonized Classrooms: Racism, Trauma and Resistance in Post-Secondary Education
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Booklife Review
This impassioned guide serves as a call-to-action for administrators and educators to develop a strong critical lens and actively decolonize the classroom. Written in relatable, inclusive language, Roberts encourages readers to reconnect with one another, the land, waterways, and community.