Hello everyone, my name is Rhett and I am from Regina, born an raised! I am not, nor have I ever been a teacher. It’s fair to say I’ve experienced a good amount of imposter syndrome during my career! I stumbled into the realm of education when I was completing my undergrad in business and was hired for a coop work term and the U of R. Later in life after completing that degree, I saw a position advertised at the university and I applied! Since then, I spent over 5 years working in instructional design, until recently I have pivoted myself and find myself working in corporate training. I’m excited for all the new challenges that come along with it! In this course I am hoping to gain practical strategies that I can implement in my pedagogy to tear down colonial assumptions and help Indigenous learners succeed in the courses/training material I help develop.

While I read chapters 1 and 2 this week, I found myself reflecting on my own experiences or what I’ve been taught. Something that resonated with me was this discussion about power relationships and sense of belonging. This took me back to a workshop I participated in hosted by Darryl Isbister from The U of S Gwenna Moss Center. During this workshop, the first thing he did was tear down the “implied hierarchy” that a standard classroom has. This opened up the opportunity to allow all of us to learn from each other, not just the instructor, and has been something I’ve tried to apply into my practice whenever I can. Seeing it mentioned here in this book further exemplifies the importance of tearing down this implied hierarchy to allow students to succeed. Practices like this show me how Indigenous ways of knowing and practices can easily be applied to curriculum and be beneficial to everybody involved. Simple changes like this do not take much effort from the instructor, but tear down barriers to learning and will help students succeed. I’m always thankful when I learn about practices such as this that I can apply into my lessons right away.

Chapter 2 also contained material which was a great reminder and reinforcement of knowledge. As a descendant of white settlers myself, I need to remind myself to challenge the way teaching and assessment is done. In this chapter I’m reminded how the ways I was taught in school growing up is based on biased and oppressing assumptions that all people learn the same way, which is disadvantageous to Indigenous learners and their ways of knowing. This is especially important considering that teachers teaching styles typically mimic the way they themselves have been taught (I do not have a direct source for this, though have been told this many times in my career and education). Chapter 2 highlights the importance of breaking these norms, having the important discussions about racialization in education, and bringing awareness to as well as adjusting teaching styles for different cultural ways of being. Learning in different ways should never be a set back, and in fact, should provide strength among learners, demonstrating the diversity among each other. This chapter was a good reminder to me to do my best to enable that type of environment.

Overall, through what I learn in this class I hope to be better equipped to structure my courses to be more inclusive for all. I hope to apply what I learn to enable universal design of my lessons so my students learn and succeed in ways that work for them, rather than bend their style to the prescribed “norm”. This will be beneficial for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners, enabling the success of everyone. I’m excited for this class and to challenge my own ways of thinking along the way. I’m looking forward to taking this journey with all of you!