Focus Question 1: Teachers, Knowledge, Building Relationships: Invitation and Hospitality
Core Questions: Using your own educational experiences to date, how did you see teachers honouring different ways of knowing and doing in the classroom? In what ways did teachers build a sense of community in the classroom? In what ways can teachers build hospitable and invitational educational environments and relationships with all students?
Thinking back on my own educational experiences as a student, I don’t remember anything that my teachers did to honor/welcome different ways of knowing and doing in the classroom or that building a sense of community within the classroom was important. I think a big reason for this is that 25+ years ago when I was at school, we had not yet realized the value and importance of creating and inviting space were all students felt valued and welcomed. As an adult working in high schools, I have seen some teachers trying to create that sense of pride and community within their classrooms as well as the school with a variety of activities and competitions intended to be team building. The addition of Indigenous advocates, knowledge keepers and curriculum surrounding residential schools, orange and pink shirt day and pride clubs is also attempting to bridge those gaps and help students to feel more welcome and connected.
Teachers can build hospitable and invitational educational environments and relationships with their students by being present, approachable and welcoming. Take the time to get to know their students. What are their likes and interests? How do they learn best? What kinds of things would they like to learn more about? When they talk, listen. I mean REALLY listen and not just to their words but to their body language and tone. Know when to push and when to back off and pick your battles. Let them lead, let them know that you are hearing them and that you value and respect what they have to say. Have those difficult discussions about racism, discrimination and something invite people from your community in who can share knowledge and information about their cultures and beliefs, to get below the tip of the iceberg. When you don’t know something, admit it, ask them to teach you, and don’t be afraid to share your own experiences when appropriate. I have shared with students my struggles with having to take math 11 three times which has enabled me to bridge the gap with students and have them view me as someone who really does understand. Once you have made those connections, keep feeding the relationship. Ask to see their latest art work or how their dance competition went. Let them know that you are genuinely invested in THEM as an individual and that you see and value their worth.
Focus Question 2: Students & Learning Environment: Focus on places, spaces, and boundaries
Core Questions: Using your own educational experiences, what did the learning environment look like? Describe and draw a sketch of what your classrooms looked like as you went through the grades. How did your classroom space indicate power relationships in your classrooms? Did the space in your classrooms provide you with opportunities to engage with all students in your classrooms? How did this space make you feel? What could teachers do to make classroom spaces more relational?
The educational settings I was exposed to throughout my school career was the fairly typical set rows with the teacher positioned at the front and all eyes facing forward. That type of set up did not always present an opportunity for us to communicate an interact with all of the students in our class. There very much was an unspoken power hierarchy based on where the teacher and even other students were positioned within the room such as the “brains” in the front and the “trouble makers” hiding at the back. More often than not the room felt very cold and institutional with little to no visual acknowledgment of different cultures or ways of learning and to me had a cold, sterile and formal feeling. It wasn’t until my final year of college in an ECE classroom that I was exposed to a learning environment that was warm, welcoming and where I felt like a valuable member of the learning “team”. Our tables (not desks) were set on the outside perimeter facing inward at each other enabling us to easily engage with anyone in the room. The instructor typically placed themselves in the center of the open area between the tables giving a sense that we were all equal.
As teachers I think we need to look at our spaces from a different perspective other than just a place to deliver curriculum with us in control. It’s like the sunflower photos I took for our assignment of an object from different perspectives. In the one photo the sunflower looks sad, droopy and even dying which is similar to how our traditional classrooms set ups instill a sense of cold, unfeeling, and institutional in nature while clearly defining boundaries of who holds the power. The other photo from taken from a new perspective shows us that the sunflower is still very much alive with a warm beauty to share and so much to offer. By getting underneath the flower and looking up at it, we begin to see the details of the flower we may have never seen before just as we would if we put ourselves into the role of learner and gave our students the opportunity to teach and share with us their beauty as well as help us to create a classroom space that is warm, safe, respectful and inclusive.
Focus Question 3: Indigenization Core Questions:
Core Questions: Describe what you learned in your K-12 education about Indigenous history in Canada. Based on your learning in the course, what new understandings have you gained and what would you do for the call to action?
My formal K-12 education took place during the 80’s and early 90’s, a time when Indigenous history being taught was minimal. I vaguely remember some brief mention and learning surrounding the settlement of Canada as well as the fur trade with reference to the Indigenous people and how settlement affected them. Residential schools, colonization, treaties and the reserve system were not things that I had even heard of let alone learned about in school. Knowing what I do now, the absence of discussion and education around residential schools during my schooling is because residential schools were still in operation in Canada until sevral years after I graduated high school. It wasn’t until I began working in the school systm as an adult that I began to learn about these things.
Through the learning I have been able to participate in during this course, I now have a much greater understanding of the atrocities that colonization imposed upon the Indigenous peoples. I am shocked, appalled, disgusted and embarrassed. I have a better understanding of the struggles facing Indigenous people’s as a result of the long-term effects of the multi-generational trauma they as a people have had to endure for almost 200 years. While I have learned so much, I realize I have only just begun to know and there is so much more I want and need to learn. I am eager for my Indigenous Studies course next semester so I can continue to learn more about the Indigenous people, their beliefs, traditions and culture in an accurate, untainted way from First Nations University. Most of all, I am grateful to be given an opportunity to be “a witness” going forward; to share the stories and knowledge that I have received and to speak up and share that information in the hopes of respectfully educating not only my future students, family and friends but also being able to incorporate some of their ways of knowing and learning into my future classroom.