Category Archives: MODULE 3

Module 3: Post 4 – Indigenization in the Academy

The following two videos feature Vianne Timmons, former president of the University of Regina, discussing the importance of Indigenization and why it matters. It outlines how within Saskatchewan, the population will be 30% Indigenous by 2045. The video defines Indigenization in the academy as:

“The transformation of the existing academy by including Indigenous knowledges, voices, critiques, scholars, students and materials as well as the establishment of physical and epistemic spaces that facilitate the ethical stewardship of a plurality of Indigenous knowledges and practices so thoroughly as to constitute an essential element of the university. It is not limited to Indigenous people, but encompasses all students and faculty, for the benefit of our academic integrity and our social viability”.

Vianne shares the University of Regina’s strategic plan, Peyak Aski Kikawinaw, which means “one with Mother Earth. This strategic plan identifies “Student Success, Community Engagement and Research Impact” as key priority areas.

The second video discusses a checklist that Dr. Shauneen Pete developed regarding 100 ways the University can Indigenize the campus. Many of these recommendations, such as:

Critically examine colonization and its effects
Practice challenging notions of colorblindness and meritocracy
Identify the long-term benefits of Indigenization for you/your learners, the program, and your profession
Disrupt the dominant idea of deficit thinking directed toward Indigenous learners

All these examples are ways that are practices that we can use outside of the institution.

These videos relate to my final research project as they reinforce the idea that Indigenization is for everyone, as it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that the languages and cultures of Indigenous people thrive. In addition, for all students to understand historical truth as we work towards Truth and Reconciliation. The checklist of Indigenization practices will guide settlers’ role in the Indigenization of education.

100 ways to Indigenize and decolonize academic programs and courses: https://www.uregina.ca/president/assets/docs/president-docs/indigenization/indigenize-decolonize-university-courses.pdf

Module 3: Post 3 – Decolonization is for Everyone

Nikki Sanchez’s Ted Talk Decolonization is for Everyone identifies the role everyone plays in the decolonization of Canada. Sanchez discusses colonization and the historical amnesia that settlers have. She states, “If you are more than a first-generation Canadian, this is historical bystander trauma that your parents and grandparents lived through.” She dispels the myth that decolonization work is only for Indigenous people. She also highlights the difference between decolonization and indigenization.

This video relates to my research topic as it includes the role of the settler in decolonization. Sanchez identifies steps that we must take to work together. These include:

Learn who you are and where you come from
Address the oppressive systems and histories that enable you to occupy the territory you do
Learn whose land you live on and what has been done to them
Find out how you benefit from that history and activate one strategy wherein you can use your privilege from which to dismantle that.
Share the knowledge that the work of decolonization is for everyone.

It is crucial that as settler educators who are investing in the work to decolonize, we are being socioconscious as this is a requirement for culturally responsive teaching.

Module 3 Post 2

Realizing I may need to extend my communication network beyond the periphery of my own college, I have decided to enroll in an online MOOC in Indigenous Education. I have found the following which was designed by UBC’s Dr. Jane Hare, whom I immediately recognized as an MET grad and generous deliverer of video Land Acknowledgement at the outset and on the home page of all of our ETEC courses on Canvas. The 6-week course based on the following topics:

Week 1: Reconciliation Through Education
Week 2: History of Indigenous Education
Week 3: Learning from Indigenous Worldviews
Week 4: Learning from Story
Week 5: Learning from the Land
Week 6: Engaging in Respectful Relations

The course is located here:

Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education | edX

A quick overview of the homepage renders it user friendly and reminds us it is a free course, although attaining a verified certificate is allegedly 50 USD. Credibility is built by displaying the number of course alumni (41,095 students enrolled and successfully graduated from this course at the time of this post.) As this is a cMOOC, it is built on a social constructivist framework that renders voices of participants essential in the knowledge construction and deconstruction.

Module 3 Post 1: Self-Determination of Identity

As I focus my final project on What Identity Is and how Indigenous people are using social media to maintain their identity, language and culture, I needed to determine, How Indigenous community members identify with their distinct identities. This blog is of a self-identified “Kwakwaka’wakw located between Comox and Port Hardy on Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland of British Columbia, I am an initiated member of the Hamatsa Society and am in line to become a hereditary chief. I am a status Indian” (Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., 2018). He establishes the importance and reason why many Indigenous community members have moved to self-identification rather being ascribed their identities. This is due to the historical practices of assimilation, where Indigenous people are constantly being told how to act and what their cultural practices should be like. Even today, many Western perspectives judge Indigenous people on their cultural practices. As well, historically, Indigenous people who lose their identities if they married non-Indian members. This constant control of their identities pushed Indigenous people to reclaim their own identities and reclaiming their own voices of who they are.

Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. (2018, February 8). What is Indigenous identity? Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/what-is-indigenous-identity

M3- POST 5

In my research on how technology and digital media are used by Indigenous people, I found the following articles:

Oppenneer, M. (2009). Using ICTs for indigenous cultural preservation: Challenges and strategies. Ethnos Project. (Link)

The importance of Indigenous knowledge and its contribution to our global society has been recognized recently. We now know that we need to acknowledge the value and significance of Indigenous knowledge to protect it and use it in our global problem-solving plan. In our modern world, however, the most accessible method to do so is to use digital technology and multimedia. That, as Oppeneer (2009) discusses, would impose challenges for Indigenous communities, which can result in the digital divide and inequity.

“Challenges can arise when there is disharmony between the design of the technology and the knowledge traditions of the Indigenous communities using the technology.”

One challenge is the fact that these technologies have been designed with western values and are not associated with the traditional values of Indigenous people.

“Indigenous people are a poor match for technologies that “reflect Western values of individualism, the privileging of texts and the commodification of knowledge, trends that run counter to and likely many indigenous traditions.”

That’s what is mostly known as “computer-mediated colonization”. Ess and Sudweeks (2012) discuss that many computer-based technologies were built based on the cultural values and beliefs of their builders. They will carry their original properties with them when we integrate them into new environments. They wouldn’t probably fit in a community with different cultural backgrounds, so we are faced with digital colonization.

Oppeneer (2009) explains three different projects tested in Australia “to show how the disharmony between the technology and tradition can be addressed.”

One of these projects is organizing digital materials reflecting the cultural identities of the Warumungu Aboriginal community. This project was supposed to “provide a free and open source community archive platform that provides international standards-based content management tools adaptable to the local cultural protocols and intellectual property systems of indigenous communities, libraries, archives, and museums.” You can find more information about it here.

I think these types of projects would help the Indigenous communities to find and share their voice and preserve their culture in the digital world.

“For Indigenous communities willing to embrace ICTs, change is part of the new reality. Change means new technologies, new formats, and new expectations. For such communities, embracing this change will be vital to maintaining tradition in the modern age. It can become a critical aspect for the reintegration of knowledge back into the community.” (Oppeneer, 2009)

Reference

Ess, C., & Sudweeks, F. (2012). Foreword. In P. H. Cheong, J. N. Martin & L. P. Macfadyen (Eds.), New media and intercultural communication. Identity, community and politics (pp. xi –xx). New York: Peter Lang.

Module 3: Post 2 – The Role of Settlers in Indigenous Education

Facing History & Ourselves is a global organization that uses lessons that “challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate”. The website provides many resources for teachers, including lesson plans and professional development. In this search, I found a blog post written by Angela Nardozi that resonated with me titled Settler Educators Teaching Indigenous Perspectives and History. The blog identifies the role that settler educators have in the important work of teaching Indigenous Perspectives and History. She identifies three key ideas that are needed for settler educators teaching in these areas.

Spend time remembering and unlearning your own education about Indigenous Peoples
Listen to Indigenous peoples in terms of what they want taught
Center Indigenous Peoples’ experiences and stories in your teaching.

My research topic includes a focus on the role of settler educators in teaching Indigenous Perspectives. I believe that these key ideas will help form some of the overall ideas needed for my final paper.

Blog post: https://facingcanada.facinghistory.org/settler-educator-teaching-indigenous-perspectives-and-history

Website: https://www.facinghistory.org/

Module 3: Post 1 – Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

This is a part of an extensive asynchronous course that called Project READY: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth. This course covered topics of race and racism, racial equity, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. The course provides an interesting layout as it is laid out into three sections, section one covers foundations of the topics such as colonialism, privilege, racism, identity, and whiteness. Section two looks at transforming practices such as culturally sustaining pedagogy, the importance of relationships and community, and student voice & agency. Section 3 is about continuing the journey which includes leveraging digital learning environments.

Culturally sustaining pedagogy focuses on the importance that students keep their own culture and community practices, while still having access to the practices of western culture. “Culturally relevant pedagogy sees BIPOC students’ heritage and community cultural practices as resources to honour and explore; culturally sustaining pedagogy sees them as resources to honour, explore, and extend.”

This course ties into my research as it covers key ideas of culturally responsive pedagogy, asset-based learning, and relationship building. All important aspects of my research project are to Identify how technology can be used to preserve local knowledge.

Based on Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97.

Access to this course can be found here: https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-2-transforming-practice/module-17/

Here is another link that I found interesting and connected to the post: Gloria Ladson Billings – Successful Teachers of African American Children: Not directly connected to Indigenous Education, but the practices utilized are transferable.

M3- POST 4

I found the following article on digital equity and intercultural education are related to each other:

Resta, P., & Laferrière, T. (2015). Digital equity and intercultural education. Education and Information Technologies, 20(4), 743-756.

DOI 10.1007/s10639-015-9419-z

I would like to share some of the quotes which I found interesting:

“Digital equity and intercultural education both share the goal of promoting opportunity for all people.” (p. 744)

“Traditional intercultural education, with its focus on educational issues concerning communities and their diversities, does not refer explicitly to technology, let alone digital technologies. However, as individual and classrooms get access to the Internet and its tools and resources, opportunities for intercultural education arise.” (p. 744)

“Both digital equity and intercultural education are social reconstructionist in nature, and represent a movement to identify and eliminate the inequities and injustices that plague our schools, societies, and world.” (p. 744)

Authors believe that “The lack of access to the Internet is here considered not only a challenge to digital equity but a lack of opportunity to support intercultural education.” (p. 749).

And digital equity is especially needed for Indigenous communities to empower them through intercultural education:

“Information and communication technologies may be used to empower indigenous communities to learn about other cultures, to share their own culture with others and to create their own cultural content and curriculum resources. For technology to be a tool for empowerment, there are a number of conditions that must be met: native peoples must have access to digital devices, connectivity to the Internet, teachers who are skilled in using the new technologies, technical support, ongoing professional development, and high quality, culturally relevant digital content. Under these conditions, the digital technologies offer the potential for Native peoples to create
their own cultural content and curriculum resources Bat their own speed, in their time, under their own conditions, using their own knowledge and judgment that defines equity/equality” (Delgado 2003: 98).” (p. 750)

M3- POST 3

As it was discussed earlier, limited access to high-speed internet and its proper infrastructure is one of the elements in the digital divide. Overcoming Digital Divides workshop series is looking at this issue to invite policymakers from the education and industry sectors to look more closely at these issues and how they would lead to digital inequities in Canada. According to their report, “the groups impacted and disadvantaged most by Canada’s digital divides include Indigenous peoples, people with lower incomes, older adults, people with disabilities, and rural and remote Canadians.”

Source: Overcoming Digital Divides Workshop Series

That impact was more obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic as many people (according to Statistics Canada, approximately 5.4 million Canadians) were working remotely, and those who did not have a reliable internet connection at home had lower chances of working from their homes safely. In addition, almost all k-12 and post-secondary classes were switched to an online or hybrid mode which again caused problems for students without or with limited interact connectivity.

“With the possibility that remote work and learning may play a larger role going forward and even past the pandemic, digital inclusion has become increasingly imperative — a necessity that a large number of working families cannot afford to forgo.”

Based on this report, many Indigenous communities feel digitally isolated and excluded. The report asks two important guiding questions:

Are recent public investments and policies sufficient to achieve digital inclusion of Indigenous, rural and remote communities?
What Indigenous-specific needs must be addressed to secure digital inclusion?

Federal and provincial governments must get in touch with Indigenous people to properly answer these questions. “Moreover, First Nations communities have cited barriers to building and independently owning their own digital infrastructure, including the federal government’s tendency to overlook Indigenous-specific concerns and self-determination during infrastructure development negotiations.Indigenous communities have also called for greater data sovereignty over information collected from internet infrastructure networks.”

module 3: post 5 – Haudenosaunee teachers at residential schools

Norman, A. (2015). “True to my own noble race”: Six Nations Women Teachers at Grand River in the early Twentieth Century. Ontario History, 107(1), 5–34. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050677ar

I found this fascinating article in my research for my final project, which is about Indigenous people – and specifically Haudenosaunee peoples – educate their own people, now and in the past. (Although it’s difficult to find a lot of specifics about pre-contact teaching and learning practices, beyond oral storytelling and learning by observation and then doing.)

This article is a history of three Indigenous women (out of many) who taught at residential day schools on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario (near where I live), during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The author writes:

“These three women negotiated multiple identities as Six Nations women, as Christians, as teachers in a Western school system, and as ‘good women.’ They took part in a process of cultural negotiation, exerting flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to look for opportunities to do the work they desired to do in and for their community.”