Indigeneity, Technology, and Education
I was inspired by this film on a youth co-creation workshop for education.
The youth of the Workshop propose the following Declaration
Braiding Indigenous knowledge with science education is an article on a University of Alberta Profesor using Indigenous education in the classroom, and establishing a point that western education and indigenous education have a place in the same classroom and should be used in sync with one another.
CBC Beyond Beads and Bannock – Indigenous Curriculum
Listening to Deering’s interview with the CBC about decolonizing her teaching and classroom was really inspiring. Her classroom decolonization began when she introduced the First Peoples Principles of Learning to her students. By allowing students to question her and her teaching methods and providing them with inquiry projects, she has created a more holistic learning environment. A major challenge I have found in my own practice is finding support and being able to support others who are working to indigenize their classroom, their courses, and their school.
This week I have become more inspired by the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FNESC). I appreciate how this describes what learning is and the emphasis on relationships and what learning involves. The knowledge shared in this poster is great, but the broad reach of it can be daunting when considering how to utilize this information when creating unit plans and a classroom culture. Being aware of how our own experiences, beliefs and identities impacts our classrooms and students is an important first step to embracing these principles.
This is another wonderful resource published in 2002 by the BCTF. Particularly useful are the case-studies that can be used to facilitate deep discussions around racism. It also describes how classrooms and schools can ensure they are inclusive of all students by exploring such topics as: how to identify bias and stereotypes in learning resources, how to teach controversial issues, resources for school improvement, etc.
https://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/AboriginalEducation/BeyondWords(1).pdf
This article written by Erica Neegan gave me a new perspective on viewing the Education System in Canada. Written by a woman who is a visible minority whose partner is Cree, her view on how the education system is Eurocentric and the way schools are set up provide limited support for visible minorities and the schooling system is viewed as being unsupportive for First Nations people. There is a lot of fear around teaching about who the First People of Canada are, but there is also fear around the Canadian education system and its Eurocentric Colonial structure. This perspective shows that there is a lot we can learn from Canadian history and there are many changes that could be made in our own classrooms and schools to be more supportive of all students and their cultures.
After listening to Lee Brown’s interview in Module 1, I realized that he has a lot of insight into making inclusive classrooms for First Nations Students. I have downloaded his thesis Making the Classroom a Healthy Place: The Development of the Affective Competency in Aboriginal Pedagogy and begun to unpack what he is noticing in classrooms.
There is a lot of fear for teachers when teaching about cultures that are not their own, but Lee Brown helped me to realize that it’s not specifically about the academics, but about the emotional attachment, the values, and the connection to each other and our place, that will create more culturally inclusive classrooms.
To support Indigenous community development, new approaches to education are needed. This paper describes an approach leading to community-based knowledge through partnerships between First Nations and educational institutions in Canada. Using a “generative curriculum model, Indigenous knowledge is brought into the process of teaching and learning by community Elders, and this is considered alongside with Eurowestern theory, research, and practice” (Ball, J, 2004). This partnership approach of how to bring the two different visions together demonstrates to strengthen community capacity through education that encourages broad community participation and emphasizes Indigenous knowledge and experience.
Ball, J. (2004). As if Indigenous knowledge and communities mattered: Transformative education in First Nations communities in Canada. American Indian Quarterly, 454-479.
With the push to save endangered Indigenous languages, this site has been designed to archive and record as well as engage in cultural revitalization by providing teaching resources for Indigenous language learners.
This site is still in beta preview and is an improvement over the old version of the site. It has been developed with the input of over 50 community partners.
You can choose to listen to the recorded words, play a game, there even is a “Kids Portal” which includes, words, phrases, games, songs & stories for student learning. The Kids Portal can be accessed here: https://www.firstvoices.com/kids/FV/sections/Data/
https://students.ubc.ca/ubclife/what-land-acknowledgement
Visited 6 September 2018
This site introduces the land acknowledgement at UBC, stating that “this land acknowledgement has become common practice at University events, business meetings, and in official documents” but it is not “just a formality.” The site defines traditional, ancestral, and unceded, and what most strikes me about this statement is the acknowledgement of unceded—that UBC is built on “land that was not turned over to the Crown by a treaty or other agreement”—and the silence of anything else. It feels like a person standing before a judge saying, “Your Honour, I admit that the $2,000,000 piece of land on which I built my house I acquired from Bob without asking Bob for it.” There is no apology. There is no offer to give the land back or purchase it at a fair price. It is simply an acknowledgement of guilt: “Yep. I took it.” Is unceded a legal euphemism for stolen?