7 of 8: Decreased Planning Time as a Barrier to Reconciliation Education

Abstract

This article considers the way neoliberal reductions in teacher planning time work to impede progress in reconciliatory education. Methodologically informed by phenomenology, the study described here was qualitative in nature and featured interviews with six Nova Scotia high school teachers who were teaching the social studies course Mi’kmaw Studies 11. This paper represents one consideration from the larger study. It focusses on the ways participants pointed to the restrictions on planning time in their workload as a direct impediment to actualizing reconciliatory work in education. Drawing together the literatures of time and neoliberalism in education, the authors argue that without time to engage with colleagues, to connect with students, and to just think about the process of course building, teachers—both in Nova Scotia and internationally—are being moved away from Giroux’s (2025) idea of educators as transformatory intellectuals. Teachers need time and space to think and feel their way through the complex histories and contemporary contexts involved in reconciliation, and the data presented in this study suggest that Nova Scotia high school teachers currently have neither. To conclude, the authors call on governments, particularly those that profess a commitment to truth and reconciliation in and through education, to make truth and then reconciliation education more than a discursive shift by abating policies that reduce teacher planning time.

Keywords: reconciliation, reconciliation education, teaching time, neoliberalism