Areas of interest

Dr. Fettes was first drawn to education through his work with First Nations organizations around issues of language maintenance and revitalization, which stemmed in turn from his long-standing involvement with the international language Esperanto. This has led him to focus his scholarship and teaching on how individuals, schools and communities—Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike—can build flourishing relationships embedded in land, culture and community. A long-term Director of SFU's Centre for Imagination in Research, Culture and Education, he has worked with teachers at all levels of the formal education system with a focus on helping them find more imaginative and engaging ways of teaching the mainstream curriculum. He has also been involved in several community-based research projects focused on school district-First Nation partnerships and decolonizing place-based education. Internationally, he is known for his work on approaches to language policy and planning that go beyond the usual state-centric assumptions of the field.