Kathryn's Teaching Journey

18Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

Where Do We Go From Here?

Education, Reconciliation, Uncategorized

Where Do We Go From Here? Summary of Progress: As you can read in previous posts, none of the Calls to Action for Education have been fulfilled. This is disappointing, seeing as they were released over five years ago. However, some progress has been made. The current Liberal Government of Canada has promised and provided more funding for Indigenous educational initiatives and schooling. However, no project has been completed and more often than not, the funding that is actually provided is less than was promised originally. The gap in access and quality of education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students still very much exists. Advocacy is Key! A lot of the time, it can seem overwhelming to realize the amount of progress that has yet to be made. This is a…

14Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

Culturally Appropriate Programs

Uncategorized

Early Childhood Educational Programs We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.TRC, 2015 Final Report Culturally Appropriate Programs In order to preserve Indigenous culture and languages, it is so crucial to have quality and culturally appropriate educational programs. As the TRC Final Report shows, Residential Schools were a blatant attempt at assimilating Indigenous children by removing them from their families, forbidding them from learning about their cultures, and from speaking their languages. You can read more about that in detail here. In order to reconcile with these past events, the TRC recommends creating culturally appropriate early childhood educational programs that teach about Indigenous languages and culture. It is important to teach Indigenous children about their culture and…

14Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

Post-Secondary Education

Education, Reconciliation

Funding for Indigenous Students We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.2015, TRC Final Report Why It's Necessary As mentioned in an earlier post, Indigenous people are less likely to receive a Bachelor's degree than other students. This could be due to a variety of reasons, including inadequate funding for schools on reserves and for Indigenous students in K-12 education. This issues have been addressed in other Calls to Action, which are discussed here. The issues are all interconnected, and the Educational and Employment gaps that Indigenous people face can make it more difficult for them to afford post-secondary education. Our universities should be inclusive of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives and they should be accessible to…

10Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

New Aboriginal Education Legislation

Uncategorized

Educational Legislation We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:- Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.- Improving education attainment levels and success rates.- Developing culturally appropriate curricula.- Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.- Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems.- Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children.- Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.TRC, 2015 Final Report Drafting New Aboriginal Education Legislation This Call to Action is asking the Canadian federal government to…

07Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

Eliminating Educational and Employment Gaps

Education, Reconciliation

Creating Equal Opportunities "We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians"-TRC, 2015 Final Report We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.TRC, 2015 Final Report We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal people.TRC, 2015 Final Report These are Calls to Action in the Education Category, and the 7th, 8th, and 9th Calls to Action listed out of…

03Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

The ‘Spanking Law’

Education, Reconciliation

Repealing Section 43 "We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada"-TRC, 2015 Final Report This is the first Call to Action in the Education Category, and the 6th Call to Action listed out of all 94. As of August 2020, nothing has been done to start the process of meeting this Call to Action. Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada This section of the Canadian Criminal Code is often referred to as the 'Spanking Law'. It allows caregivers (including parents and educators) to use force on a child as a form of punishment or correction as long as "the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances" (Government of Canada). You can read this law here. It…

01Aug 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

The Educational Calls to Action

Education, Reconciliation

Calls to Action for Education: These Calls to Action include recommendations to change curriculum, fix funding gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and schools, and to teach in culturally appropriate ways. The goal of this area was to close the gaps in educational opportunities (and the associated outcomes) between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. It is important to fulfill our Treaty obligations, and part of that entails providing quality education to Indigenous students. Education is a fundamental human right, and it affects all aspects of life. The Calls to Action in the Education category are as follows: We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and…

31Jul 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

Reconciliation in Education Continued

Education, Reconciliation, Uncategorized

TRC Calls to Action for Education In an earlier post, we discussed why Reconciliation is necessary in education. To read more about that, click here. In this post I will discuss how the TRC Calls to Action were created. Further posts will explain and examine each of the seven individual Calls to Action for Education, explaining what each call to action is looking for, the progress made, and what can be done to fulfill them. How were they created? In June 2009, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created, with Justice Murray Sinclair, Marie Wilson, and Chief Wilton Littlechild appointed as the commissioners. They spent five years investigating and collecting statements from Residential School survivors as well as families, and communities affected by Residential Schools. Nearly seven-thousand statements were collected,…

27Jul 2020 by Kathryn No Comments

Reconciliation in Education

Education, Reconciliation, Uncategorized

I chose to take a deeper look into this section because of my connection to it. As a teacher, I have the ability, more than most, to create positive change inside of schools. I can educate our future leaders about the horrors Indigenous peoples have been faced with and the complicated relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples. I can also make an effort to actively include Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing in my lessons and activities. Before we take a deeper look into what needs to be done, it is important to understand why it needs to be done. Why Reconciliation is Necessary in Education: As many (but not enough) know, Canada's history with Indigenous peoples has consisted mainly of attempts to assimilate them into white-European culture. One of…

10Dec 2019 by Kathryn 1 Comment

ECS 210 Summary of Learning

Uncategorized

The end of the semester has quickly approached, and with that comes final projects and reflections upon learning. I have comprised a video presentation describing my learning journey in this class and the key concepts I will take away. Below, you will find a transcript of what I say in the video and a link to the video. Thanks for a great semester ECS 210! When I started my learning journey in this class, I was under the impression that curriculum was simply a set of documents with rigid outlines to follow to meet the set outcomes and indicators. How hard could it be to understand? I was so off!What I didn’t understand is that there are many different ways of interpreting curriculum documents and teaching incorporates much more than just…