Weaving Knowledge Systems Resource Materials

In November 2014, the lead researcher’s interest in the conceptual development of digital technology and her cultural connection to Indigenous Knowledge Systems created an opportunity to explore a culturally relevant use of technology with urban Indigenous youth: the Indigenous Robotics Prototype Workshop. The workshop achieved a sense of cultural pride and confidence in Indigenous traditional knowledge while inspiring the youth to continue with their engagement in coding and programming through building robots. Yet, the outcomes from the prototype workshop further revealed a need to investigate how Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and particularly Pattern Thinking, might hint toward a possible paradigm shift for the ethical and advanced design of new technologies. This article examines the implications of such a hypothetical shift in autonomous systems in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), using the Indigenous Robotics Prototype Workshop as a case study and springboard. [From Author]

A Venn diagram with accompanying description developed by Lorna Andrews based on her interpretation of the concepts from the open access BCCampus textbook: Pulling Together: a guide for Curriculum Developers. [From Author]

The University of the Fraser Valley has presented its first-ever Indigenization and Reconciliation Award to Teaching and Learning Specialist Lorna Andrews. Lorna speaks about her work to educate faculty and staff on Indigenous issues in the efforts towards reconciliation in Canada. [From Website]

The Indigenization Committee of the FECHD worked with colleagues from the College of Arts, the FPS, and the Teaching and Learning Office to create this video and we are excited to share it with faculty, staff, and students at UFV. We were hearing a number of concerning stories from Indigenous faculty and students regarding microaggressions they were experiencing in classrooms, meetings, and in the hallways at UFV. These micoagressions are contributing to a lack of cultural safety on our campuses. We wanted to create a video to encourage conversation, share resources, and provide an entry point into considering how to make UFV a more culturally safe environment for everyone.

This video looks specifically at territorial acknowledgements and introductions with guidance from UFV Elders. It includes examples and discussions from interdisciplinary perspectives. It is not a ‘how-to guide,’ nor does it represent the official expectations of UFV. Instead, it provides some guidance around important things to consider when starting to Indigenize and decolonize our work and spaces at UFV. [From Website]

The VALUE rubrics were developed by teams of faculty experts representing colleges and universities across the United States through a process that examined many existing campus rubrics and related documents for each learning outcome and incorporated additional feedback from faculty. The rubrics articulate fundamental criteria for each learning outcome, with performance descriptors demonstrating progressively more sophisticated levels of attainment. The rubrics are intended for institutional-level use in evaluating and discussing student learning, not for grading. The core expectations articulated in all 16 of the VALUE rubrics can and should be translated into the language of individual campuses, disciplines, and even courses. The utility of the VALUE rubrics is to position learning at all undergraduate levels within a basic framework of expectations such that evidence of learning can by shared nationally through a common dialog and understanding of student success. [From Author]

Employing metasynthesis as a method, this study examined 52 empirical articles on culturally relevant and responsive science education in K‐12 settings to determine the nature and scope of complementarity between culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science practices (i.e., science and engineering practices identified in the National Research Council's Framework for K‐12 Science Education). The findings from this study indicate several areas of complementarity. Most often, the inquiry‐based practices Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, and Developing and Using Models were used to advance culturally responsive instruction and assessment. The use and development of models, in particular, allowed students to explore scientific concepts through families’ funds of knowledge and explain content from Western science and Indigenous Knowledge perspectives. Moreover, students frequently Analyzed and Interpreted Data when interrogating science content in sociopolitical consciousness‐raising experiences, such as identifying pollution and asthma incidences in an urban area according to neighborhood location. Specific inquiry‐based practices were underutilized when advancing culturally responsive science instruction, though. For example, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking and Engaging in Argument from Evidence were infrequently encountered. However, culturally responsive engineering‐related practices were most often connected with these, and thus, represent potential areas for future complementarity, particularly as the United States embraces the Next Generation Science Standards. In considering innovative directions for advancing equitable science education, several possibilities are discussed in light of the findings of this study. [From Author]

Are you in the CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY?
Do you want to improve your awareness of the Indigenous community? Do you want greater access to Indigenous workers? Do you want to take action? [From Website]

"This report summarizes the findings from the twenty-nine sessions held with over 400 participants, who work with Aboriginal clients. These sessions were across the country from December 2010 to June 2011. These workshops were hosted by the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum -- Forum canadien sur l'apprentissage (CAF-FCA) in partnership with Aboriginal (First Nation heritage, status and non-status, Métis, Inuit) organizations. The purpose of the sessions was to create awareness about Essential Skills tools and to share strategies for implementing effective interventions. Ultimately, improved Essential Skills should prepare Aboriginal people to complete their apprenticeship training and to obtain employment in the skilled trades." [From Author]

A new baby boom is underway in Canada, and its influence is just beginning to be felt. Within the next 20 years, this baby boom could help create an economic success story or be the source of an economic problem. This baby boom is occurring among Canada’s Aboriginal population which is growing twice as fast as the non-Aboriginal population.

Aboriginal youth are tomorrow’s workers and consumers. But they will need to have skills that are demanded in the workplace and opportunities
and access to well-paying jobs. At the moment, the average unemployment rate among Aboriginal people is double that among non-Aboriginal people. And their average income level is one-half to two-thirds that of non-Aboriginal people. To make this baby boom a success story, Canada must invest more in the development of skills and employment opportunities for Aboriginal people today. [From Author]

Learning About Walking in Beauty: Placing Aboriginal Perspectives in Canadian Classrooms comes from the Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies (CAAS) with funding support from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF). Walking in Beauty is a term that speaks of conducting oneself in harmony with all of the living world, and is respectfully borrowed from the Navajo People.

In 2000-2001, the CAAS conducted a national Student Awareness Survey, measuring awareness, attitudes and knowledge of facts about Aboriginal Peoples' histories, cultures, worldviews and current concerns. Five hundred and nineteen young adults (460 Canadian, 35 Aboriginal and 24 Newcomer students in first year university and college courses across Canada) responded to this 12-page survey. The survey questionnaire was developed and administered by Aboriginal and Canadian educators, scholars, traditional Elders and advocates within the 300-member CAAS network.

The Learning About Walking in Beauty report includes the findings from this survey, together with pedagogical, social and historical analyses. The report offers a pedagogical framework and proposals for learning about "walking in beauty" together. [From Website]

Jon Corbett, one of the presenters at the Elephant Thoughts Indigenization 2019 conference, is a professional computer programmer and Canadian Metis media artist.

He coined the phrase Indigitalization, which refers to bringing an Indigenous perspective to the programming and tech world. He is combining his art and computer programming for the cause. [From Website]

In this article, I explore the question, “What is the relationship between appropriation of Indigenous thought and what might be called ‘deep learning’ based in years of education in Indigenous contexts.” Beginning with an examination of meanings ascribed to cultural appropriation, I bring texts from Gee on secondary discourses, Foucault on the production of discourse, and Wertsch on the deep structures underpinning discourse into conversation with critical fieldwork experiences extracted from years of research and teaching. Ultimately hopeful, I conclude the article with direction from Indigenous scholars on appropriate cultural protocol in the use of Indigenous knowledges by non‐Aboriginal people in educational contexts. [From Author]

ITA is committed to providing equal opportunity to trades training and careers for Indigenous people in British Columbia. ITA’s Indigenous Initiatives team works closely with Indigenous communities, Indigenous Skills and Employment Training (ISET) holders, training providers and employers across B.C. to make trades training accessible to rural and urban communities. [From Website]

Diverse perspectives, including those of Native Americans, are needed to drive innovation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Tribes such as the Navajo Nation are seeking to strengthen their communities, create economic opportunities, and improve the lives of their peoples by encouraging members of their tribe to become engineers. Research investigating how Navajo engineers experience and understand engineering design and practice in the context of their culture and community can provide insight into how to engage Navajo students in pathways to careers in STEM. [From Author]

Achievement gaps between underrepresented minority (URM) students and their white peers in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classrooms are persistent across many white-majority institutions of higher education. Attempts to reduce this phenomenon of underperformance through increasing classroom structure via active learning have been partially successful. In this study, we address the hypothesis that the achievement gap between white and URM students in an undergraduate biology course has a psychological and emotional component arising from stereotype threat. Specifically, we introduced a values affirmation exercise that counters stereotype threat by reinforcing a student’s feelings of integrity and self-worth in three iterations of an intensive active-learning college biology course. On average, this exercise reduced the achievement gap between URM and white students who entered the course with the same incoming grade point average. This result suggests that achievement gaps resulting from the underperformance of URM students could be mitigated by providing students with a learning environment that removes psychological and emotional impediments of performance through short psychosocial interventions. [From Author]

Indigenous peoples throughout the world have sustained their unique world views and associated knowledge systems for millennia. Many core values, beliefs, and practices associated with those world views have an adaptive integrity that is as valid today as in the past. However, traditional educational processes to transmit indigenous beliefs and practices have frequently conflicted with Western formal schooling and its world view. This paper examines the relationship between Native ways of knowing and those associated with Western science and formalized schooling in order to provide a basis for an education system that respects the philosophical and pedagogical foundations of both cultural traditions. Although examples are drawn from the Alaska Native context, they illustrate issues that emerge anywhere that efforts are underway to reconnect education to a sense of place. Elements of indigenous and Western world views are contrasted. Vignettes and examples depict the obstacles to communication between state agency personnel and local elders discussing wildlife and ecology issues; a cross-cultural immersion program for non-Native educators, held at a remote camp with Native elders as instructors; areas of common ground across world views; and indigenous implications for a pedagogy of place. Educational applications of four indigenous views are discussed: long-term perspective, interconnectedness of all things, adaptation to change, and commitment to the commons. [From Author]

This research is part of a larger three-year study investigating the impact of humanoid robots on students’ learning and engagement. In this case study, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students worked with a humanoid robot to develop, in parallel, both their programming skills and their understanding of the traditional Narungga language and culture. For six months a school engaged students in learning two languages: the coding language required to program the robot and the Narungga language. Qualitative data were collected and triangulated to determine how the humanoid robot was utilised in the classroom and re-occurring themes were identified through the case study. This research drew on questionnaires, interviews and journals from teachers to understand the impact of humanoid robots on student learning. The case study demonstrated how using humanoid robots enhanced pride and interest in Aboriginal language and culture. [From Author]

American Indian/First Nations/Native people have been historically under-represented in the ranks of college and university graduates in Canada and the United States. From an institutional perspective, the problem has been typically defined in terms of low achievement, high attrition, poor retention, weak persistence, etc., thus placing the onus for adjustment on the student. From the perspective of the Indian student, however, the problem is often cast in more human terms, with an emphasis on the need for a higher educational system that respects them for who they are, that is relevant to their view of the world, that offers reciprocity in their relationships with others, and that helps them exercise responsibility over their own lives. This paper examines the implications of these differences in perspective and identifies ways in which initiatives within and outside of existing institutions are transforming the landscape of higher education for First Nations/American Indian people in both Canada and the United States. [From Author]

Based on a review of works by Indigenous educators, this paper suggests a four-domain framework for developing course outcome statements that will serve all students, with a focus on better supporting the educational empowerment of Indigenous students.
The framework expands the three domains of learning, pioneered by Bloom to a four-domain construction based on the four quadrants of the Medicine Wheel , a teaching/learning framework that has widespread use in the Indigenous communities of North America (Native American, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, etc.). This paper expands on the cognitive (mental), psychomotor (physical) and affective (emotional) domains to add the fourth quadrant, spiritual, as being essential for balance in curricular design that supports students in their learning goals. The description of the spiritual quadrant includes a progression of learning outcomes and suggested verbs for developing learning outcome statements. Evaluation and practical implications are also discussed. [From Author]

This article examines teacher preparation and teacher change in engineering and computer science education. We examined culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy (CRTSE), culturally responsive teaching outcome expectancy (CRTOE) beliefs, and attitudes toward computational thinking (CT) as teachers participated in one of three treatment groups: robotics only, game design only, or blended robotics/game design. Descriptive data revealed that CRTSE gain scores were higher in the robotics only and blended contexts than in the game design only context. However, CRTOE beliefs were consistent across all treatment groups. In regard to CT attitudes, teachers’ gain scores were higher in the game design only and blended contexts than in the robotics only context. In addition, there were differences by treatment group related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) practices, while cultural artifacts were evident in each learning environment. The results of this study reveal some variability by treatment type and inform future research on equitable practices in engineering and computer science education. [From Author]

Adoption into an Indigenous society can be thick with obligations and relations if the adoptee understands they are entering into a legal order that organizes and regulates their new kinship relations. Implicit within these kinship orders are limits to what inclusion into an Indigenous society provides. Conversely, adoption can be used as a thin line of extraction, aiming at social capital within Indigenous communities. Adoptions void of an understanding of the legal order they should be accountable to, may be used in a way that circumvents obligations towards Indigenous stories, knowledge systems, and law, and to continue to prop up the modes of extraction of Indigenous cultural knowledge. A turn towards Indigenous laws and legal orders provide an accountability against those who may use adoption into an Indigenous society as a means for extractive, unreciprocated, personal gain. [From Author]

Decolonizing Pedagogies Teacher Reference Booklet presents: an overview of what “decolonizing pedagogies” means; how and why educational scholars and Indigenous educators suggest they be used to support learning in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal education environments; examples of decolonizing pedagogies (especially in history education); and, some of the opportunities and challenges identified by educators and scholars in implementing decolonizing pedagogies. [From Author]

Nunavut Arctic College will be recognized as the post-secondary institution of choice for the people of Nunavut by offering a wide range of pathways to culturally relevant programs of the highest national standard. The College will promote opportunities, innovation and leadership while enhancing knowledge of Inuit language and culture to permit all learners to proudly take their place in Nunavut and beyond. [From Author]

This paper will explore how Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) can be ethically merged with Northwest Coast Sculpture Manufacturing. Additional emphasis will be focused on resolving issues encountered while Integrating CAD/CAM technology with Native Design. The basics of digitizing designs through various scanning techniques, such as the point probe and point cloud method will be discussed along with obstacles encountered during the scanning of existing sculptures. Several approaches to computer modeling will be outlines focusing on MasterCAM’s Surface, Solid, and Art modeling features, as well as Zbrush’s organic tool-based digital sculpting program. The issues of integrating these technologies with Indigenous Northwest Coast design will be sewn through this discussion. The paper will further elaborate on the market potential of sculpted cultural wood products, along with resulting intellectual property issues, focusing on current legislative protection and areas of interest for artists pursuing computer aided manufacturing of their designs. Finally, a case study will be presented discussing ways in which Native communities, such as the Nisga’a Village of Laxgalts’asp, might benefit from CAD/CAM manufacturing. Furthermore it explores the computer aided manufacturing of a specific Northwest Coast design in wood. From this inquiry, directions forward are highlighted, focusing on how the Native Community might approach the issue of integrating this growing technology with existing design capabilities in a modern cultural context. [From Author]

The historical and ongoing struggles for Indigenous communities in settler-designed school systems across what is now named the United States call for radical educational reform that includes a decolonized curriculum model for Indigenous children. These efforts must first acknowledge that Indigenous education existed prior to European contact and that settler-designed schools were and are detrimental to the well-being of Indigenous children and communities. Radical reform efforts must also recognize the continued systemic racism ingrained in school structures that privilege the dominant, whitestream communities and disadvantage communities of color, including Indigenous communities. [From Author]

Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development, made headlines last November when he urged the Canadian provinces to liberalize their apprenticeship programs. Kenney urged the provinces to dump 'antiquated' ratio systems that limit the number of apprentices who can work, relative to the number of ticketed journeymen. This paper argues that obsolete protectionist regulations are the reason Canadian employers are unable to employ more workers in the skilled trades, particularly Aboriginal workers. [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]

The Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated nine key Essential Skills for the workplace. [From Website]

A new body of research is beginning to demonstrate that Aboriginal students’ self-esteem is a key factor in their school success. An educational environment
that honours the culture, language and world view of the Aboriginal student is critical. Schools need to meaningfully represent and include Aboriginal people’s
contributions, innovations and inventions.2 Aboriginal students require a learning environment that honours who they are and where they have come from. These
strategies nurture the self-esteem – the positive interconnection between the physical, emotional-mental, intellectual and spiritual realms – of Aboriginal
students. [From Author]

This article presents findings from TechTales, a participatory design research (PDR) project where learning scientists, public library staff members, informal science educators, and staff members from Native-American-serving organizations collaborated to design a family-based robotics workshop that was grounded in storytelling. We approach this by engaging Indigenous ways of knowing and being from a sociocultural learning theory perspective. Through analyzing families-in-interaction as they constructed dioramas with robotics that told their family stories, we explore how cultivating consequential learning environments in STEM is intimately intertwined with historicity, knowledge systems, and the agentic positioning of learners to design new technologies. We find that using storywork as the design focus of building dioramas created learning environments where computer programing and robotics became dynamic tools toward family-making, collaboration, and the active presencing of Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices. Living and interrelating with story and its knowledge systems through making were enactments of Indigenous resurgence in everyday ways. From a structure of social practices perspective, this opens up learning spaces for engagement in STEM-Art practices and in relation to other social practices of consequence, such as cultural flourishing and affiliation, collaboration and family-making, and societal repositioning. [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]

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]