At the beginning of Module 3, there was a question that guided much of my thinking as I worked my way through the course material. “Indigenous peoples are diverse, but they share the common experience of being colonized by western and imperialist powers. Can technology be useful in supporting Indigenous communities’ efforts to de-colonize values and thoughts?”
Many of my links have something to do with how technology may be useful to the First Nations people of Treaty 7 as they relate to the Catholic Church and the Calgary Catholic School System post-TRC (Truth and Reconciliation).
- Blackfoot Language & Culture (3-year Program of Studies, Alberta Learning)
http://www.learnalberta.ca/ProgramOfStudy.aspx?lang=en&ProgramId=684282#
This site lays out the curriculum for the three-year high school Blackfoot language and culture program. It outlines the general and specific learner outcomes for all three courses. The curriculum was written in 1993 and unlike other language and culture programs in the Alberta, it contains sections on Community Services (drugs and alcohol abuse), Employment, and Social Responsibility. Within this website, there is no mention of who authored the curriculum, or whether these authors are themselves indigenous. Would the topics of study be different if this curriculum was written today? Interestingly, there is a section on native contributions to technology in the 30-level course.
- Alberta Teachers’ Association – Indigenous Education and Walking Together
https://www.teachers.ab.ca/For%20Members/Professional%20Development/IndigenousEducationandWalkingTogether/Pages/WalkingTogether.aspx
This “Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation Professional Learning Project” is a site put together by the Alberta Teachers’ Association to “support teachers to increase capacity in foundational knowledge of First Nations, Metis and Inuit as outlines in Alberta Education’s new Teaching Quality Standard”. There are a number of workshops available as well as other resources available through the ATA library.
- New Alberta Teaching Quality Standards (TQS)
https://education.alberta.ca/media/3739620/standardsdoc-tqs-_fa-web-2018-01-17.pdf
Being implemented this school year and next, the new Alberta TQS document outlines the responsibilities that Alberta teachers have in and out of the classroom. Now grouped into 6 main sections, this document outlines how teachers are expected to foster effective relationships, engage in career-long learning, demonstrate a professional body of knowledge, establish inclusive learning environments, adhere to legal frameworks and policies and most relevant to ETEC 521: Applying Foundational Knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit.
- Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops – The Church in Canada and Indigenous Peoples
http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/church-in-canada-and-world/catholic-church-in-canada/indigenous-peoples
This site points out that approximately 25% of all indigenous peoples in Canada identify themselves as Catholic. According to the 2011 Canadian Census, 39% of Canadians as a whole identified themselves as Roman Catholic (down from 45.3% in 1991). There is a short discussion of Catholic Missionaries from the 17th to 19th centuries, including a description of the evangelizing process as “uneven and limited.” “If there were bishops and missionaries championing aboriginal rights, there were also theologians and Church leaders defending colonial exploitation. While some missionaries attempted to protect and understand native cultures, others failed to value native beliefs and customs as seeds of the Word of God.”
- The Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project: Methodological Approaches to Child-Centred, Community-Driven Research
I haven’t been able to find a link to the actual Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project, yet. This site is an invitation to a public lecture by Dr. Erin Spring from the University of Lethbridge. It will be interesting to track this one down and see how technology was used in this case to tell Blackfoot stories.