Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to Indigenous education in Canada and BC. There will be a critical examination of historical and contemporary issues in education and an exploration of culturally based Indigenous education grounded in Indigenous philosophies. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

The intention of this course is to serve as an introduction to critical issues in Indigenous education.  The recent uncovering of more than 1700  unmarked graves at former residential school sites across the land called Canada have clarified the legacy of institutional and physical violence perpetrated by colonial education systems against First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. These events unfold against the backdrop of provincial and territorial school systems that purport to have taken-up the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) through recent curriculum revisions.  Former senator and Chief Justice, Murry Sinclair, optimistically predicted that “Education got us into this mess and education will get us out of it;” however, this “mess” is exacerbated by the truth that curricular shifts are meaningless unless we who inhabit educational systems do a better job of considering our ethical accountability to one another and the specific actions that we can take to continue to move reconciliation ahead in this land that is called Canada.  Therefore, the goals of this course will be three-fold: broadening our understanding of the context out of which this “mess” has emerged; developing an inquiry into our individual and collective roles within this ecology; and reflecting on the teachings of the world around us as a means of journeying beyond colonial educational structures.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

This inquiry will be conducted against the backdrop of the revised BC curriculum and four broad themes. Through each of these themes we will think self-reflexively, comparatively, and historically about dominant cultural assumptions and the relation to education:

1. Who are the Indigenous peoples of this land known as Canada and how is this related to understanding Indigeneity, ourselves and Canadian society?
2. How has Indigenous education been enacted historically and contemporarily in different contexts?
3. What are Indigenous knowledge systems and pedagogies? To what extent can they be compatible with existing K-12 and post secondary systems?
4. How can we engage in an ongoing inquiry process to deepen understandings of Indigenous content, perspectives, pedagogies, and knowledge to influence our current/future professional practice?

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: