Weaving Knowledge Systems Resource Materials

The articles in this e-book exemplify the sense of optimism that was present at the “Creating Circles of Hope in Teacher Education” conference held at York University on 21-22 February 2014. A joint effort between the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, its four Affiliates and the Ontario Association of Deans of Education, the conference brought together teachers, students, academics, and other education partners to discuss selected topics. For 2014 the focus was on inquiry, identity, innovation, and integration in teacher education programs. Examples of research projects from a variety of perspectives were shared, with the focus on improving teaching and student learning. Practical resources were also presented, offering immediate and useful options to those ready to engage in supporting these four pillars. A focus on indigenous content, the connection between theory and practice, and reflection in teacher education were also common themes at the conference. Participants saw many examples of university faculty partnering with teachers from various school boards, bringing forth innovative and collaborative projects to be shared, while several participants from the Ministry of Education offered current best practices and ideas. The theme “Creating Circles of Hope in Teacher Education” was clearly evident in the presentations, as all walked away with an increased understanding of the importance of inquiry, identity, innovation and integration in education today. [From Author]

Of the 94 Calls to Action within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) Final Report, almost one-fifth focused on matters of education. This represents a strong belief that formal teaching and learning can positively impact the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. However, there is no established framework for such education. Reflecting on the report and drawing on critical pedagogy scholarship, I work towards a better understanding of the necessary pedagogy required for education for reconciliation. Recognizing the ways in which the work of “reconciliation” is situated in particular cultural, historical, and social realities, I outline an approach to education for reconciliation that is attentive to the Canadian context. Drawing on both critical pedagogy and Indigenous knowledges, this framework attempts to honour the TRC Final Report, offering an approach that is both pointedly critical and deeply relational. [From Author]

Aboriginal Peoples are facing a number of serious and complex environmental issues within their territories. Post-secondary environmental education programs in Canada have been slow to adopt curriculum and develop programs to meet the needs of Aboriginal students and their communities. This manuscript outlines necessary components of successful Indigenous environmental education programs at the postsecondary level based on the author’s participation in three such programs as a program developer/director, curriculum developer and instructor, the current literature and in addition to her experiences as an Anishinaabe student studying western science.[From Author]

This section presents a timeline of historical sqwélqwel focusing on specific people and events from just prior to and throughout the contact era. It is presented beside a world timeline of events for the same period. Sq’éwlets historical events that took place before this period are described in the sxwōxwiyám and Archaeology sections. [From Website]

A virtual exhibit about the Sq’éwlets First Nation introducing main concepts in Halq’eméylem including sxwōxwiyám and sqwélqwel and the importance of the sturgeon to their heritage. [From Website]

Recently I was invited to join a provincial discussion about the high school social science curriculum. One area of contention was whether all students should be required to take a course that would combine and integrate social studies, history, and native studies. Aware that integration of native studies content into existing courses could easily result in the erasure of native studies, I suggested, at that provincial meeting, that all students should take such a course if its starting point and continued foundation was native studies. One participant, in response to this suggestion, stated, “Aboriginal people are not the only people here.” [From Author]

A detailed map of the Stó:lō peoples. Click on view in Zotero to download attachment.

This article examines the possibilities around what we have come to call a pedagogy of Land. The authors explore what it means to bring a pedagogy of Land into classrooms and communities within urban settings. The authors consider the ways Land as pedagogy might translate from rural to urban contexts while addressing some of the ways this work moves forward in meaningful and relevant ways. Further, the authors share some aspects that have allowed Land to inform both pedagogy and praxis in teacher education focusing on student success, particularly Aboriginal students within schools and teacher education programs. [From Publisher]

This Journal focuses on critical discourse and research in diaspora, indigenous, and minority education; is dedicated to researching cultural sustainability in a world increasingly consolidating under national, transnational, and global organizations. [From Publisher]

This article seeks to contribute to the knowledge base regarding efforts to increase the supply of employed Indigenous teachers. In addition to supporting the learning and well-being of Indigenous students, increasing Indigenous teachers is critical for remote Indigenous communities with chronically understaffed schools. This study was conducted as a scoping review of 50 Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) across Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States that have enacted efforts to increase Indigenous teachers. The study found a range of effective strategies, and this article will depict three strategies that can be enacted by TEPs to support Indigenous teacher graduates as they transition to employment. The strategies are: (1) creating employment opportunities, (2) identifying community needs and collaborating over practicum placements, and (3) providing ongoing support. The article concludes with a call for collaboration, funding, and data collection for the continued evaluation and improvement of strategies to increase Indigenous teachers. [From Author]

Achieving Indigenous Student Success presents goals and strategies needed to support Indigenous learners in the classroom. This book is for all teachers, grade 9 to grade 12, who have Indigenous students in their classrooms or who are looking for ways to infuse an Indigenous worldview into their curriculum. Although the author's primary focus is the needs of Indigenous students, the ideas are best practices that can be applied in classroom-management techniques, assessment tools, suggestions for connecting to the Indigenous community, and much more! The strategies and information in this resource are about building bridges between cultures that foster respect, appreciation, and understanding. [From Publisher]

Report published by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada that deals with the history and purpose of the residential school system, its effects, and its ongoing legacy.

Our goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. The easy adoption of decolonizing discourse by educational advocacy and scholarship, evidenced by the increasing number of calls to “decolonize our schools,” or use “decolonizing methods,” or, “decolonize student thinking”, turns decolonization into a metaphor. As important as their goals may be, social justice, critical methodologies, or approaches that decenter settler perspectives have objectives that may be incommensurable with decolonization. Because settler colonialism is built upon an entangled triad structure of settler-native-slave, the decolonial desires of white, non-white, immigrant, postcolonial, and oppressed people, can similarly be entangled in resettlement, reoccupation, and reinhabitation that actually further settler colonialism. The metaphorization of decolonization makes possible a set of evasions, or “settler moves to innocence”, that problematically attempt to reconcile settler guilt and complicity, and rescue settler futurity. In this article, we analyze multiple settler moves towards innocence in order to forward “an ethic of incommensurability” that recognizes what is distinct and what is sovereign for project(s) of decolonization in relation to human and civil rights based social justice projects. We also point to unsettling themes within transnational/Third World decolonizations, abolition, and critical space-place pedagogies, which challenge the coalescence of social justice endeavors, making room for more meaningful potential alliances. [From Author]

The Canadian Journal of Native Education is published twice yearly: in spring/summer a theme issue is compiled at the First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia; and in fall/winter a general edition is compiled by the First Nations Graduate Education Program at the University of Alberta. Occasional supplements are also published. [From Website] Available online to 2013 and then in print in Chilliwack Library.

Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society solicits any work purposefully engaged in the decolonization process, regardless of discipline or field, encouraging work that actively seeks undisciplinary connections that work both against and beyond the Western academy. We recognize that this is a wide net to cast but feel strongly that decolonization must happen at all levels, in all fields, and all locations; decolonization seeks to explore the relationships between knowledges and tears down the artificial disciplinary demarcations of dominant ways of knowing and being. Colonial power affects all areas of life and thought - this journal seeks to engage and confront that power at every level. [From Publisher]

in education is a peer-reviewed, open access journal based in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, in Saskatchewan, Canada. The journal has been in existence since 1993, but published its first issue as an online journal in December of 2009.

The editorial board invites scholarly articles and reviews of works that explore ideas in teacher education, as well as broader and more inclusive discussions in education. We envision works that augment the latitude and significance of the idea of education, while acknowledging the ubiquitous growth of the digital arts and sciences in the everyday practice of life and how that might (in)form notions of formal and informal education. [From Website]

Online resources for K - 7 social studies curriculum including local Sto:lo resources.

The title of this article is from the Líl̓wat language. In this language, there are various ways to speak about knowing. “Zwaten’ ” describes what a person knows, and the closest word that could be translated as “knowledge” is “emham,” meaning “to be skilled at doing something or to be good at something.” “A7xa7” is the state of wholistic knowing, knowing after a lifetime of training, practice, and study. Like most Indigenous languages, the Líl̓wat language focuses on the process, on the action, not on the object (Battiste, 27). How do we become “emham” or “zwaten” or “a7xa7”? For each individual, it is a process from before birth and continues throughout life. When asked to define the term “Indigenous knowledge,” it is a struggle because of the disruption of the languages and lives of Indigenous peoples due to colonization and the need to discuss the term using another language and worldview. The knowledge of Indigenous peoples is of value today as Indigenous peoples rebuild their lives after near annihilation. All people can learn from this knowledge. [From Author]

First Peoples: A Guide for Newcomers aims to fill the need for clear information in simple language about the First Peoples in Vancouver. It introduces newcomers to three important topics: who are Aboriginal people (or First Peoples) in Vancouver and Canada; a brief overview of the relationship between the Government of Canada and First Peoples; and current initiatives and ways for newcomers to learn more about Aboriginal people in the community. [From Author]

This article presents an evolving transformative praxis referred to as “a potlatch methodology” to establish wholistic truth and reconciliation engagement for diverse classroom compositions, drawing on traditional ways of knowing in the authors' Híɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) communities. The Potlach is a high-context (ancient, culturally and spiritually informed) approach designed to apply intercultural /transformative learning concepts necessary for witnessing greater intergenerational learning and success. At the micro level, the method can be used to engage your students and to design your lessons plans and rubrics; at the macro level, its utility can also serve to respectfully engage community scholars to help indigenize your institution (Wilcox et al. 2008). In this article, we model the ways in which we create inclusive teaching spaces by incorporating our Indigenous languages, storytelling, and ways of knowing and learning into our courses and teaching approaches. For example, as you read the article, you may notice the ways in which we articulate our positionality and sources of knowledge to create an inclusive learning space, or the ways in which we infuse traditional academic writing with storytelling, argumentation, and unique concepts from our cultures, represented in our original languages and spelling in order to decolonize academic discourse. [From Author]

Finding ways to validate and encourage traditional Aboriginal values and customs into modern western (whitestream(f.1)) educational practices must become a priority for teachers who work with Aboriginal students. Circle work, sometimes referred to as "talking circles" (Four Worlds Development Project 1985) is one of many customs that can be adapted for classroom use, parenting (Bruyere 1984), healing (Hampton et al. 1995), and culturally relevant sentencing and justice treatment programs (Ross 1996). While serving as a useful tool for behaviour modelling and classroom management, the circle embraces and teaches the traditional values of respect, care, and noninterference (Ross 1992). [From Author]

Colonialism is a significant problem that impacts how Indigenous (and all) students engage with learning, and how teachers create learning contexts. In this dissertation study, I examined how a Community of Inquiry (CoI), comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, parents, academics, and community members came together to (re)imagine educational contexts that could better support Indigenous (and all) students. Although much of the research was co-constructed with members of the CoI, the research design, activities, and interpretation were informed by literature discussing colonialism, decolonization, and collaborative inquiry focusing on CoIs. I used a four-dimensional model of colonialism to clarify challenges in the educational system. Decolonizing perspectives were used to critically confront colonialism, and (re)imagine ethical relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. CoI models offered a way to build on the strength of diverse perspectives. These theoretical considerations were a springboard for investigating how the CoI came together, what they identified as key challenges students and teachers navigated, and the pedagogical principles and practices they co-constructed to support Indigenous (and all) learners in a small school district in British Columbia, Canada. This research was conducted using a critical ethnographic case study methodology, grounded in decolonizing perspectives. Within this approach, research methods were co-constructed with participants to ensure that the research undertaken was situated and responsive to the needs of Indigenous students. Findings from this study highlighted specific CoI structures, such as facilitation, context, communication, and goals that opened possibilities for reflection and transformation among CoI participants. Using these structures, participants co-constructed understandings, grappled with pedagogical questions, and (re)imagined a shared future. Participants built from this foundation to create a set of seven principles and practices that could cultivate supportive learning environments. The principles and practices they co-constructed were designed to inspire educators’ self-reflection, create a space that accepts and builds from the strengths of Indigenous and decolonizing perspectives, and bolster supports for Indigenous (and all) students. Lastly, I discuss how these findings contribute to the literature on CoIs, decolonizing possibilities, and pedagogical practices, and provide suggestions educators may use to open decolonizing possibilities within their own contexts. [From Author]

Learning Bird was founded on the principle that students learn best when the content they are engaging with is interesting and relevant to them. This is why we work in collaboration with schools and communities to integrate local Indigenous culture, language, history, and teachings into the content. We help communities infuse their voices into classrooms across Canada, to the benefit of all students. [From Website]