“Why do we keep measuring the weaknesses of Indigenous students rather than their strengths?”
Chapter 9 made me reflect on a class I have previously taken on curriculum design. That class taught me how evaluation methods such as standardized testing are unfair and an outdated practice, but commonly used because it can provide data to say “how” students are doing academically. Standardized testing is a very Eurocentric idea that does not integrate into indigenous ways of knowing. As chapter 9 highlights, Indigenous teaching takes a holistic approach including the land, community, and cultural values in their teaching, instead of focusing only on unfair standardized testing.
Like when I was in the curriculum design class, this chapter challenged me to re-think how educators should define success. If our traditional measures only capture academic output from standardized testing, then we are missing a lot of other important output that standardized testing cannot capture, such as confidence and identity growth. For example, in this chapter Bonnie Werner shared how she was able to design her curriculum through collaboration with parents and the community she worked in. This approach got the students involved in the community and created a more holistic learning experience, showing the students the positive impact of their actions. This type of result is something that simple standardized testing would never be able to capture or replicate!
Moreover, Cheryl Morin’s story in this chapter touched on another concept that is important to me, universal design for learning. Cheryl talked about students having a poor self conception related to “negative school abilities” but how that would turn around and students would relax once learning outside on the land. The idea of universal design is so important in my world of training. If I were to design my training to only appeal to one learning style, my learners could experience negative feelings toward their learning and the task, similar to the feeling Cheryl described. By incorporating multiple approaches to learning in my sessions, I can help learners overcome these negative feelings, and hopefully speak to them in ways that make sense to their learning styles.
As someone who used to work in education, and still very relevant in the training world, I find myself asking the same question over and over again: Am I helping learners become good test-takers, or helping them actualize and apply their learning? This chapter made me reflect upon this question again as it emphasized the importance of looking beyond the results of simple standardized tests. This reflection is important for all educators and trainers alike, we need to ensure we are empowering our learners for success more than just inside the classroom.