Ignas, V. (2004) Opening doors to the future: Applying local knowledge in curriculum development. Canadian Journal of Native Education. (28)1/2. 49-60.
Ingas begins her article with statistics comparing Indigenous and non-Indigenous graduation rates and, like many others, identifies the significantly lower Indigenous graduation rates as evidence of an education system that is failing Indigenous students. The result, she postulates, of the contemporary system’s lack of valuing Indigenous cultural contexts and local level knowledge, and therefore failing to be meaningful to Indigenous students. More typically, the contemporary system has “distanced and denied First Nations [sic] knowledge” (p.49) and left students feeling that “their ways of knowing are inferior or inadequate.” (p.55)
Ingas goes on to describe how successful curricular models must value Indigenous ways of knowing, world view and traditional ecological knowledge, and describes the Forests for the Future science curriculum that she co-developed for the BC high schools through the partnership with community members, parents, Elders and educational professionals. Ingas’ preferred method of instruction is an inquiry based model that requires students to “assume the primary responsibility for planning, conducting and evaluating their investigations” (Moore, Moore, Cunningham & Cunningham, 1998, p. 280) through content that “should address issues, controversies or provocative questions inspired by experiences in the [students’ lives].” Kanevsky, 1999, p. 58)
Kanevsky, L. (1999). The toolkit for for curriculum differentiation. Lanny Kanevsy. October Edition.
Moore, D., Moore S., Cunningham, P., & Cunninghamj., (1998) Developing readers and writers in the content areas (3rd ed.) Don Mills, ON: Longman.