Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Students choose one of 10 FASSFirst Special Topics seminars open only to first-year FASS students by invitation from the Dean’s Office. Top ranked professors from across the Faculty work with students to discover the surprising, profound and interdisciplinary reach of the arts and social sciences. Students will learn to draw connections between values, ideas and evidence while developing core academic skills, from reading to research, writing and dialogue.

COURSE DETAILS:

Balancing Claims and Methods: Cultural Diversity and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Throughout your university degree, you will encounter alternative ideas and theories. What strategies will you develop to compare and balance those different claims and research methods? As one example of this challenge, this FASS First course will focus on recent proposals to Indigenize university courses and research, building from the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015). Although the course will primarily examine approaches to the study of language, the readings will examine research methods from the perspective of Criminology and will consider basic issues in the Philosophy of Science. To integrate these ideas, students will undertake the same task that the SFU university administration and senate will be studying in Fall 2017: How should SFU Indigenize its courses?  

This course will also help you understand university expectations, especially in relation to writing clearly and effectively.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

REQUIRED TEXTS:
All of the readings will be available without charge through the internet, including a number of book excerpts that will be placed as pdf files on the SFU Canvas site in accord with Fair Dealing Copyright policies. The readings include:  

• Battiste, M., & Henderson, J. S. Y. (2000). Protecting Indigenous knowledge and heritage: A global challenge. Saskatoon, SK: Purich.
• Fowler, H. Ramsey; Aaron, Jane E.; & McArthur, Murray. (2001). The little, brown handbook. Third Canadian Edition. Toronto: Addison Wesley Longman.
• Harris, Muriel, & Pilz, Joan. (1997). Prentice Hall Canada reference guide to grammar and usage. Second Canadian Edition. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon.
• Ontario Ministry of Education. (2002). Native Languages: Ojibwe and Cree – Resource Guide, Grades 1 – 12. Queen’s Printer for Ontario.
• Palys, T. (2003). Research decisions: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives (3rd ed.). Scarborough, ON: Thomson – Nelson.
• Poudrier, J. (2007). The geneticization of Aboriginal diabetes and obesity: Adding another scene to the story of the Thrifty Gene. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 44,  237–261. Simon Fraser University Aboriginal Reconciliation Council. (2017). Walk this Path With Us: Report of the SFU Aboriginal Reconciliation Council. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. Winnipeg, MB: Author.