Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

This course involves students in critical examination of policy, curricular, instructional and assessment practices related to a particular theme. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Variable units: 2, 3, 4, 5.

COURSE DETAILS:

Meeting Dates/Times: Wednesdays
Jan 10^th- April 17^th
(No classes on March 20^th or 27^th)

Prerequisite:  Participants must be enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Advanced Studies in Education Program

Course Description:
The centering place is a preparation for the wholistic journey of learning based on the understanding of one's own creative spirit and capacity. Through this orientation, students begin the process of finding their own center…that place of 'self-knowing and empowerment that forms the foundation for a transformative process of learning and creation (Cajete, 1994, p. 196).

EDPR 562 Advanced Field Studies in Educational Practice I
This course is designed to flow from the pathways of learning and the principles of inquiry as they relate to what Cajete (1994) calls, the Connected Rings of Indigenous Visioning. The principles of inquiry and the ‘learning pathway of vision’ will be used as a way to explore wholistic approaches to learning and as a way to track ones’ orientation. As revealed in the Connected Rings of Indigenous Visioning, “the learning path begins with appropriate orientation, acknowledging relationships, setting intentions, seeking, creating, understanding, sharing, and then celebrating one’s vision with reference to the place of centering (Cajete, 1994, p. 68). The intention is to enable teachers to further their disposition toward Indigenous inquiry by weaving inquiry within personal and professional practice. We invite personal, professional visioning and practitioner inquiry along with critical, creative, contemplative reflection which can be braided together to discover, articulate, and explore ‘two-eyed seeing’ of Indigenous Teaching and Learning Orientations, theory, and educational practice.

EDPR 535 Indigenous Pedagogies and Wholistic Approaches to Teaching and Learning 
This course aims to provide opportunities for teacher-learners to explore Indigenous Pedagogies, wholistic principles, protocols, and philosophies. Teacher-learners will deepen their understanding of Land as well as the diversity of the Indigenous wholistic and relational practices of Kinship by engaging in Land Practice and Making Practices. They will also engage in Indigenous Inquiry or Visioning explorations in relation to All Our Relations. This exploration involves the whole person: head, heart, and hand as well as honouring the four Indigenous Principles of Learning: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of being. This course will continue from our exploration of Indigenous Orientations and Foundations of Learning and broaden the exploration into wholistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational aspects by focusing on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place. Throughout the semester teacher-learners will be invited to inquire into the nature of the wholistic principles and protocols so foundational to the Indigenous Learning pathway and focus on enabling them to enact these principles within their own practice.

Educational Rationale:
These stories, this language, these ways, and this land are the only valuables we can give you-but life is in them for those who know how to ask and how to learn (Cajete, 1994, p. 40).

EDPR 562 Advanced Field Studies in Educational Practice I
Teacher inquiry is a methodology that is well established as a powerful tool to bring about effective change in teaching and learning (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Himley & Carini, 2000), and move educators toward transformation of practice, as well as enable flourishing within communities. Critical reflection, self-study and professional learning are foundational underpinnings, which support personal and professional change, growth, and development. This course provides opportunities for teacher-learners to explore inquiry-based theories, methods, and frameworks in order to critically and creatively examine practice, inquire into pedagogical practices, and assess the implications of taking on particular educational stances.  Teacher-learners will engage in professional learning communities in order to examine theoretical readings, share personal learning, and expand pedagogical understandings.

EDPR 535 Indigenous Pedagogies and Wholistic Approaches to Teaching and Learning 
Indigenous, wholistic practices are situated in relation to the land and the people that live in that place.  In relation to this, is the increasing expectation, to articulate and enact Indigenous Pedagogies in the current educational context in British Columbia.  This course intends to address the complexity of weaving ‘two-eyed’ seeing within Indigenous and wholistic approaches to educational practice.  This course will invite teachers to practice and presence wholistic teaching and learning principles, which are fundamental aspects of engaged learning, fostering the development of an interconnected curriculum (intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional social and aesthetic).  This course aims to provide teacher-learners with a deeper and broader theoretical and practical understanding of Indigenous and wholistic approaches to learning and teaching.  This course introduces various wholistic practices of wholeness and well-being. It focuses on ways in which learners’ unique and diverse abilities can be fostered.  This course also aims to provide teacher-learners with recognition of the importance of Indigenous perspectives on human development and the continual pursuit of spiritual, emotional, physical, and intellectual balance (Shared Learnings, BC Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 4).

 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES: