Tag Archives: math

Module Four – Culturally Responsive Inclusion of Stories

Taking into account the importance of involving community members along with educators as co-creators of culturally responsive education with a sense of place, I wanted to explore what resources support or exemplify such partnerships and approaches to learning and storytelling.

(1) Listening to Our Past

With the community support and involvement of sixty-seven Nunavut elders, ten scholars, dozens of students and numerous interpreters, translators and proofreaders, twelve books were made available online on this site, most of which were produced as a research project, Iqaluit Oral History. It is a tri-lingual site with dynamic links to imagery and stories spanning a range of relevant topics. The Francophone Association of Nunavut hosts his website, produced in partnership with multiples parties including the Nunavut Arctic College, the Iqaluit Elders Society, Laval University, the governments of Nunavut and Canada, and many others.

(2) National Film Board of Canada Unikkausivut – Sharing Our Stories

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB), in collaboration with a number of Indigenous government and community organizations, selected more than 60 films from its collection that represent all four Canadian Inuit regions (Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut and Inuvialuit). Some are available in Inuktitut. Filmmaking reflects multidisciplinary and highly collaborative work, exemplified in some of the traditional stories found on the NFB site. For example, animator Co Hoedeman’s work is represented in films such as Luumaq, The Owl and the Raven, The Owl and the Lemming and The Owl Who Married a Goose. Although NFB is famous for animation and documentary, and many of its Indigenous stories are documentaries, traditional stories, produced in collaboration with a range of community members, are present in the collection.

(3) Culturally Responsive Instructional Resources for American Indian/Alaska Native Students

The Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI) is a collaboration of WestEd and CRESST, two American leaders in the standards and assessment field. This page on their site provides an extensive list of resources that support culturally responsive teaching for American Indian/Alaska Native students and whose lessons can be applied to other Indigenous contexts. CSAI defines culturally responsive teaching as “the application of cultural knowledge, prior experiences, perspectives, and performance styles of AI/AN students to develop more personal connections to classroom learning.”

(4) Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching

The Education Alliance at Brown University has published a page dedicated to communicating the principles of culturally responsive teaching. This is a simple and useful reference (with resources) that could be modeled or adapted by educational organizations seeking to define and educate its stakeholders, and hold itself accountable for its own approaches to culturally responsive education. It defines the characteristics that the institution operates according to, by explaining What, Why and How under each of the following:

  • Positive perspectives on parents and families
  • Communication of high expectations
  • Learning within the context of culture
  • Student-centered instruction
  • Culturally mediated instruction
  • Reshaping the curriculum
  • Teacher as facilitator

(5) Miscellany: Publications

The following publications cover a range of pedagogical and social issues that can inform culturally responsive Indigenous education in Canada. They are listed in no particular order, reflecting diverse geographic and social perspectives that contribute to the larger discussion.

 

Aboriginal Voices: The Importance of Storytelling in Math and Science

Having narrowed down my research question onto the use of Aboriginal voices in digital media in classrooms, I have been able to focus my research a little better over the past couple of weeks. This week I have been looking particularly at how story fits into all strands of the curriculum; there are many teachers who feel the Aboriginal perspective doesn’t fit into their curriculum because they “don’t teach that unit”. Rather than a “one and done” approach, I would like to look at how stories told from the Aboriginal perspective in the voices of First Nations peoples can be woven through our classroom work particularly in science and math. The resources I have found this week include:

  1. Highlighting Aboriginal perspective in the classroom seems like an easy first step for teachers. Some of the unease for teachers remains in differentiating between when we are highlighting culture and when we are teaching religion, an uncomfortable distinction for many teachers, which often leads to simply ignoring the topic. An easy first step seems to be the integration of the Aboriginal perspective in the science classroom. APTN Kids provides teachers with bilingual links to powerful, research-based programing like Coyote Science and here that demonstrate that including the Aboriginal perspective in classrooms is as fundamental as the characters in the story. When Coyote helps to explain science concepts, includes a joke of the week and the medicine wheel is included in the set design, students see a valuable perspective. This is a good example of what happens when the First Nations perspective is woven through the resources used in the classroom.
  2. Show Me Your Math is a site developed by Lisa Lunney Borden and supported by her doctoral research that highlights the Aboriginal perspective in math learning. It highlights inquiry learning for students related to math that begins with authentic artifacts and continues through the use of authentic voices in telling the stories of the artefacts and the related math.
  3. My former board of education, the Regina Board of Education developed a list of resources related to an Indigenous calendar. The thinking being that teachers weave First Nations teachings into the curriculum throughout the year rather than viewing it as a stand-alone unit of teaching. The book Aboriginal Success in the Classroom highlight the fact that a First Nations perspective is just that: a lense for viewing classroom work.
  4. Two Eyed Seeing in the Classroom is an analysis of how the Aboriginal perspective can be highlighted in science classrooms. The paper explores how “Indigenous Sciences are underlain by the perception of multiple realities at that reality perceived by our five senses is but one of those.” (Cajete, 2000)
  5. Aboriginal Perspectives in Teaching Science from the University of Regina highlights the importance of First Nations stories and the role of Aboriginal Elders in the science classroom as essential guides for teachers in integrating this approach. The paper discusses the importance of understanding the philosophical underpinnings of the story and how story can be misunderstood and the lesson miscommunicated if the teller doesn’t fully understand the story.

In the next few weeks, I will continue to seek examples of stories told digitally and how they are being used in classrooms.

Module 1 Weblog – Susan Beeley

I am still working towards selecting a particular area of interest for my research but two seem likely.  The first is based on my recent experience teaching in an alternative learning center.  I work with at-risk youth and a disproportionately large number of our students (45%, far greater than the % of students throughout the district) are identified by the school district as having Aboriginal ancestry.  We spend a lot of our time making social and emotional connections with the students and follow many of Dr. Martin Brokenleg’s Circle of Courage teachings.  These teachings apply to all at-risk youth as many of them, Aboriginal or otherwise, feel a great disconnect with the community around them and this has, in many ways, contributed to their educational and life struggles.  The second possible theme of interest to me is based on 16 years experience teaching science and math based on curriculum that very much views aboriginal content as an add-on (something that became very obvious to me while marking the solar system module in a grade 8 science workbook last week).  While the new BC Curriculum offers hope for improvement by allowing a more constructivist approach to teaching and learning teachers still need to reflect upon and embrace change if it is to be successful.

Journal Article: Native Wisdom on Belonging by Dr. Martin Brokenleg

  • This link will take you to a PDF file that outlines the key developmental needs of children as presented in the Circle of Courage: Mastery, Belonging, Generosity and Independence.  These needs are compared to the value system set up by Western cultures and the importance of each is outlined.  This is a great starting point for those interested in adhering to the philosophy “it takes a village to raise a child” and developing this culture in their classroom.  A beautiful poster and summary can also be found by clicking the link.

Website:  Martin Brokenleg

  • This website contains information about cultural healing and resilience.  It is a great place to start for those looking for an understanding of the issues faced by Aboriginal populations and the role that educators can play in helping to overcome some of these issues.  The website has links to articles, power points from presentation, and Dr. Brokenleg’s summarised thoughts on different topics of interest.

Journal Article: Integrating Western and Aboriginal Sciences: Cross-Cultural Science Teaching by Glen Aikenhead

  • This article discusses the power differential that exists for Aboriginal students in a science classroom.  Practical research that offers an alternative approach that moves away from “enculturation” is introduced and a new way of teaching science is presented.  In this new approach teachers “play the role of a tour-guide culture broker” making clear to students the language that they are speaking (western science or Aboriginal science) so that students can move between the two languages without one being seen as superior to the other.

Website:  Institute for Integrated Science and Health

  • This website out of Cape Breton University helps us to “view science in a broadened and culturally inclusive way”, and is guided by the principle of Two-eyed seeing.  The website has a vast array of resources to support a changing view of science education that have to be seen and explored to be believed.

Blog: Aboriginal Mathematics K-12 Network

  • This is a great website/blog out of UBC for anyone who is hoping to introduce Aboriginal ways of knowing into the Math curriculum.  There is information on symposiums, ideas and lessons, and resources to support teachers.  Though the primary contributor seems to be Cynthia Nichol, this webpage offers hope to those of us who need some guidance with authentic ways to incorporate Aboriginal ways of knowing into the math curriculum.  It offers an amazing platform for knowledgeable individuals to share ideas and resources to support educators.

Games for the Aboriginal People of North America

http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/RR/database/RR.09.00/treptau1/index.html

This website lists 3 main types of games: game of chance, strategy and life-style based mathematics.  These games came from the aboriginal nations, and they sometimes have different meaning and are used as learning tools for young children.  This is a great website to incorporate aboriginal ideas into our regular math curriculum.

Module #1: Post 2- Multicultural Curriculum

A good starting point for school communities may be to make connections with the educational resources developed by the First Nations Educational Steering Committee which was established in 1992.

First Peoples Authentic Learning Resources K-7

http://www.fnesc.ca/curriculum

As discussed in Dr. Lee Brown’s video interview, curriculum and our way of teaching needs to be reevaluated in order to accommodate different points of view. For example, the way some math concepts are taught are not in line with First Nations beliefs. This can cause anxiety and feelings of not being listened to or understood in the classroom. This is further compounded with standardized provincial test where questions are often close ended with students not having the opportunity to show their knowledge in different ways. The following link- http://www.fnesc.ca/curriculum/math offers a resource guide to help Math 8 and 9 teachers in developing curriculum and an learning environment where students feel more comfortable and motivated to participate with the goal of helping develop numeracy concepts and skills for lifelong learning.