First Nations teachers are significantly under-represented in the public education system, impacting all learners.

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One of the challenges is that First Nations teachers experience racism in both their pathway to become a teacher and during their employment. Examples highlighted in the in the 2018 BC Public School Employers’ Association Sustainable Teacher Workforce Labour Market Report include:

• comments from students during teacher education programs;
• assumed not to be a teacher when entering a new school; and
• being seen by colleagues as “the Indigenous expert.”

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Action Plan commits the Province of BC to “Develop and implement an effective recruitment and retention strategy to increase the number of Indigenous teachers in the K-12 public education system” (Action 4.2).

FNESC, the Ministry of Education and Child Care and the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills are working together to identify key strategies that will improve First Nations recruitment and retention, such as the development of community-based teacher education programs and reducing barriers to recertification.

FNESC is also exploring how the collective bargaining process may pose challenges and opportunities for the recruitment and retention of First Nations teachers.