Statement Connecting Weblog to Research Interests

The College of the Rockies (COTR) serves the communities of the East Kootenays and is located in the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa Nation and the Kinbasket people. Five Bands are located within the College region, four Ktunaxa Bands and one Shuswap – Kinbasket Band.

I teach in the Child, Youth, and Family Studies program at COTR, and while there is a strong Aboriginal presence in our institution, it is strangely absent in my department.  Last year the Aboriginal Strategic Support and Education Team (a team of faculty members whose goal is to “work collaboratively with the College community to promote the integration and use of Aboriginal scholarship in programs and courses offered by College of the Rockies”) approached our department requesting we include more Aboriginal content in our courses.  The request was denied, as my department felt we were very multi-cultural in our approach, and that it was not necessary to single out any one specific culture or group of people.  Although very early in this course, I’m already realizing that there are deeper issues that we never considered.  There are distinctions to be made and questions to be asked.

Why do we have almost no First Nations students enrolled in our program?  Many of the courses I teach are online courses.   What can I do, as an instructor, to meet the needs of Aboriginal students in my online classes?  What are those needs?  How are the goals and needs of Aboriginal students taking online courses different and/or similar to non-Aboriginals’? These are the questions I will use as the basis for my weblog research.

References:

A.S.S.E.T.  (2011).  College of the Rockies.  Retrieved September 20, 2011 from http://www.cotr.bc.ca/aboriginal/cotr_web.asp?IDNumber=175

Who We Are. (n.d.) Ktunaxa Nation.  Retrieved September 20, 2011 from http://www.ktunaxa.org/who/index.html