Through the first few weeks of this course, it has become very clear to me that indigenous learning and identity is place-based.  However, models of place-based education, though they exist, are not mainstream in contemporary educational settings. Upon initial review, those that do exist appear not to take an aboriginal perspective.  These factors may be correlated with trends in many schools that see a disconnect between aboriginal students and their school—which may then contribute to low graduation rates in aboriginal student populations.  At this time it is my intention to direct my research toward a clearer understanding of what place-based education and place-based identity are, what educational models exist and how they can be adapted to include a greater aboriginal perspective.

As an extension, I am also synthesizing my learning in this course with that of ETEC 531: Curriculum Issues in New Media Studies.  What has come up for me there, is that many contemporary educational models ask students to learn through or demonstrate their learning through new media projects.  It then begs the question, “can place-based learning; constructivist, project-based learning; and, new media be combined in such a way that honours each of the theories as well as aboriginal cultures?”  I would think that a model that does this would then be an effective one for everyone’s learning and reconnecting aboriginal students.