Throughout the course of my practicum, I looked for ways to continue deconstructing subconscious colonizing perceptions and routines in my practice and life. Educators have a meaningful and powerful calling to contribute towards truth, reconciliation, and healing by fostering and implementing Indigenous ways of knowing in their classrooms and personal lives. In my practicum, I looked for ways to integrate more Indigenous perspectives into my classrooms. I got in touch with Yale’s Indigenous resource teacher to collect resources to include in my English units. While doing dissections in Biology, she suggested we sprinkle tobacco leaves on the fetal pigs before we dispose of them with thankfulness for the learning opportunity. These were all tangible ways to incorporate Indigenous ideas into my classrooms — and I am so thankful for resource teachers who make these materials accessible to young teachers like me.
Artifact #1: Homeostasis Project Connections
This project on homeostasis centred itself around the core Big Idea of the Anatomy & Physiology 12 course: “Organ systems have complex interrelationships to maintain homeostasis.” My Biology class explored this idea often throughout the course by making connections between many different aspects of the subject matter, including holistic health, micro- and macro-organisation, and how our body systems work together in complex ways to ensure that our internal environment is carefully regulated. This final project allowed students to explore these complex interrelationships in greater depth with a topic of their choice. One of the First Peoples Principles of Learning states that “Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place.” Essentially, this project was a way to directly explore the interconnectedness of all things with each other, and the relational aspect of learning, all of which are valued concepts in Indigenous worldview.
Artifact #2: English Unit on Our Relationship with the Land
ELA 9 Relationship with Nature Unit PlanFor my certification unit, I constructed a theme around “Our Relationship with the Land,” through which my students explored texts, concepts, and practices oriented around reflecting on and advocating for our connections with nature. This unit centred itself around the interconnectedness we have with nature and the land to our sense of health, story, and identity. Students practiced their English competencies through place-based writing activities, reflections, sharing circles, personal connections, research into environmental issues and their implications, and exploring how we benefit from the land daily. In my experience, this unit was one of the most impactful of the entire course: not only did it inexplicitly incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into the classroom, it directly fostered values that are often disregarded by the Western mindset. Students connected very closely to the learning in this unit, and I was honored to see them asking such deep questions with the Indigenous lens.
Conclusion
When students experience learning through Indigenous ways of knowing, their learning is certainly more meaningful, and it actively engages a worldview that has been silenced for many generations. Personally, I commit to maintaining relationships with Indigenous resource teachers and support workers; it’s really only through these relationships that I can truly come to better understand Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and value Indigenous resources as much as they should be in my classroom. As a teacher, I’m working towards integrating Indigenous ways of knowing, as well as content, into my classes in both explicit and implicit ways. This is an area I would love to grow more in and become more used to using in my classroom. The goal is to make Indigenous perspectives, stories, and ways of knowing and being an integral and “normalised” aspect of my classroom, so that each of my students engages with an environment that deeply respects and values the history and sovereignty of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada.