LUCID began as a five-year community-based research project, funded by SSHRC for the years 2004-2008, which explored the potential of imaginative education to improve academic and other educational outcomes in three B.C. public school districts with high numbers of Aboriginal students (Chilliwack, Haida Gwaii, and Prince Rupert). Since the initial research funding ended, the Prince Rupert Aboriginal Education Council has continued to support the project, which marked its 10th year in 2014.
LUCID (Learning for Understanding through Culturally Inclusive Imaginative Development)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mark Fettes
Co-Investigators: Dr. Kieran Egan, Dr. Geoff Madoc-Jones
Funding Agency: SSHRC
Additional Team Members: Dr. Sean Blenkinsop, Kym Stewart, Tannis Calder, Raegan Sawka
What's Proposed
LUCID brings insights from work on imaginative education at SFU together with the field of Aboriginal education, with the aim of helping teachers work more effectively with students from all backgrounds. This entails finding ways of making curriculum topics emotionally engaging, intellectually exciting and culturally relevant.
How This Project is Carried Out
LUCID is a large-scale action research project involving many dozens of workshops, conferences, and planning sessions for teachers and other school dsstrict staff, along with two Master of Education programs designed to build capacity for this work. The research encompasses teacher development, curriculum design, classroom teaching, and district-wide cultural change.
Why This Project Matters
LUCID offers classrooms teachers a well-tested set of tools and strategies for fostering student engagement in multicultural classrooms, especially in Aboriginal settings. It is unique in pairing a commitment to cultural inclusion with a broader theory of educational development that provides specific guidance for classroom teaching.
How This Project is Put into Action
Over a thousand students at all grade levels have directly experienced teaching influenced by LUCID, most of them in the Prince Rupert school district. The long-term aim is to make this approach to teaching and curriculum a part of district culture. Already much of the direction of the project is in district hands.
Where to Learn More
The LUCID website is currently being revised; a new link will be posted as soon as it it launched.