I was looking for curriculum in BC and Alberta that I could use to easily integrate aboriginal culture – or curriculum that has already been focused around aboriginal culture. Sean Lessard and I are working on an integration of a program between place based learning and constructivism and we wanted to ensure that we are solidly covering curriculum.

One of the biggest questions Sean keeps getting asked is, what is curriculum – how can we cover it – and how can we integrate indigenous culture into the curriculum, and still ensure indigenous students are meeting curriculum expectations.

I am working on the assessment strategies – part of that is ensuring that outcomes are clearly laid out ahead of time, and integrating indigenous cultural competencies as well.

Today I spent some time looking for BC High School courses that Sean Lessard could use for his alternative education project. In Alberta, to be more creative, educators often use CTS (Computer and Technology Skills) Courses in order to offer a wider variety of curriculum to their students. In particular, I will thinking of using CTS Mentorship and Leadership courses for students in alternative programs – in Alberta.

In BC, there are BAA courses which are similar but different. BAA courses stand for: Board or Authority Authorized Courses. They are courses that are created by educators within a school board for alternative education options, then they are approved through the board to be offered to students. Once the school board approves the course, any school district can sue the course.

However – the BC Ministry no longer keeps an updated list of all the BAA courses. I found this data extract, somehow, through a google search – only to realize that I think it was last updated in 2011.

However – to find any details on specific courses, you need to:
You have to go to a specific school district website-
Search for  BAA Courses
Scan through courses like http://www.mpsd.ca/schools/baacourses.aspx

My biggest surprise of the day -> not all districts post their BAA courses and there is no actual place to find an accurate and updated list of all the courses.

This problem is BC needs to be addressed to ensure everyone knows what the curriculum “could” be.

Verena 🙂