Teachers, Knowledge, Building Relationships: Invitation and Hospitality
I attended École St Margaret School from pre-kindergarten until the end of grade six. In my time attending the French immersion school, there was little diversity among the students. The students who came from different culture backgrounds weren’t encouraged to share their stories or cultural practices. The only occurrence of diversity from my memory was during show-and-tell with a young girl from Saudi Arabia. Her mom accompanied her to show different clothing as well as jewelry from the country. The two even gave each of us classmates a date because dates are known for being one of the most popular fruits within the country. Although teachers didn’t necessarily encourage diversity at École St Margaret School, all culture backgrounds were welcomed. When I was in grade seven, I switched to Sacred Heart Community School. There was a substantial increase of diversity among the students as opposed to my experience at St Margaret’s, students from all over the world attend Sacred Heart. Teachers are sensitive about addressing different culture backgrounds and gave students opportunities to express themselves during presentations. At Sacred Heart Community School, students are honoured and respected – regardless of their culture.
In high school I went to Central Collegiate Institute in Moose Jaw. Every year at Central, there is an event known as “Culture Fair”. Students from grades nine to twelve are encouraged to create a poster representing their culture during their social studies classes –students outside of the classes are also welcome to present. Once the presentations are completed, the school assigns an entire day for the posters to be displayed within the gymnasium. Some examples of the presentation on top of the posters can be bringing food and charging students a dollar for a small portion, wearing traditional clothing, as well as representing cultural practices through the representation of song or dance. During “Culture Fair”, not only students are welcome to attend but the community is welcomed to visit. This event brings light to diversity among the school and helps students get to learn about their classmates on a more personal level.
Students & Learning Environment: Focus on places, spaces, and boundaries
From pre-kindergarten up until grade one, my classrooms had been very open – there weren’t desks in the classroom. Instead, the classroom was accompanied by a carpet, a painting station, a sand station, and tables to do crafts, listen to stories, and sing songs. As I got older, the learning environment changed from an open space into rows of desks or tables. Although the desks were rotated frequently and seating plans were changed, the classroom was constantly lacking movement. Teachers were always at the front of the desk in a hierarchal position at the front of the classroom. Rather than engaging with the students, teachers were often times reading off of PowerPoint presentations or textbooks which can be difficult to focus on for hours at a time. There were several occurrences throughout the years when teachers would stray away from the hierarchal form of teaching by placing desks in pods or taking the class outside for the lesson. I remember many times the class would be rewarded for working hard by being permitted to play games in the classroom, watch a movie, or play games outside.
I never found the desks being placed in rows an issue within my experience learning, but I did at times have a hard time focusing on the lessons over long durations of time. I preferred when we sat at tables or when desks were shaped in the form of pods. Having a variety of seating structures, classroom layouts, different learning environments, and group work encourages engagement for students of all learning styles. When educators promote open spaces and create choice for students, the students will feel more welcome in the classroom. If teachers incorporate self-reflection, positive affirmations, posters, and icebreakers they will create a relational model among the classroom as well as create value in future relationships in the school.
Truth & Reconciliation
During elementary school, I learnt little about the Indigenous community. In my younger elementary years, I was briefly taught about the hanging of Louis Riel; he was represented as a Canadian hero for taking a stand for the Metis nation. Towards the higher levels of elementary school, I was taught that bad occurrences took place in Residential Schools but I was never taught about the extent of the damage that was brought upon the entire Indigenous culture. In high school, we were only taught Indigenous studies if we took the class. We had the option to either take Indigenous studies or history in grade eleven for a mandatory credit but I chose history. I always live my “you don’t know what you know until you know”, one of my goals as a future educator is to remove the stigma of forwarding my knowledge about Residential Schools onto my students. I didn’t realize the importance of learning Indigenous studies until my first semester in university. Learning about the history of the Indigenous community has been extremely eye-opening for myself, and brings me a lot of emotion. Although learning the history of the Indigenous peoples may bring upon uncomfortable feelings, we must share the truths we’ve learnt to show respect and understanding as future educators.
The Truth and Reconciliation booklet sheds light on the hardships children and families have had to face during the period of Residential schools and currently today. While reading this booklet, I’ve had the opportunity to explore different perspectives of the Residential School survivors and from those who have experienced intergenerational trauma relating to the Residential Schools. I have experienced intense emotions reading this booklet and I grew an even larger respect for the Indigenous community than I had prior to the reading. The messages that resonate with me the most were describing words of Residential School survivors such as “strong” and “brave”, as well as the quotes “It’s a very important conversation and it’s a long conversation.” And “It will help and begin to repair the relationships broken and rebuild trust.” Acknowledging the fact that the Residential Schools system was a form of genocide will be a big step in our journey towards reconciliation. The Indigenous community has demonstrated peace, power, and resiliency and have throughout all of history; now it’s time for us to honour them.