I live in a city surrounded by fifteen First Nation Bands that are of diverse languages, beliefs and traditions. This makes for a dominant push to have the First Nation culture to be part of the BC curriculum in this area. I feel the inclusion of First Nation culture in the curriculum can and will benefit many people whether they are attending a class or teaching as class or one subject in general. As I am from the First Nation decent, I appreciate the in-depth ideas that are put forth by the First Nation Principals of Learning to have in the school setting for all staff to see and include in their lesson plan. It is also a opportunity to share as a poster for guests to see and have some understanding of why their child is learning about First Nation culture in the daily lesson. I have included some of the principals in my lessons but are not worded the same. In reading what Madjidi & Restoule wrote, “knowledge is firmly grounded in a particular sense of place’, reference to the Earth as the place for Indigenous peoples (2008.p 83). As Indigenous learners, our education teaches and at times makes a connection to the mother earth by engaging to plants, animals, bugs, birds to name a few. I truly believe that the outdoors provides a powerful tool in learning, it gives opportunity to experience new discoveries in new areas and in different seasons. According to Coates & Pimlott-Wilson there is decline in children engaging with nature and the outdoor play, despite the obvious connection between play, learning and development (2009). In my years of experience I feel I can make the change students need to get outdoors and enjoy their experiences while in nature, I would love to hear the connections children in grades kindergarten to grade six have as they will all see, feel the experience differently. I have worked in a daycare, pre-school and elementary setting so I feel I designed my curriculum to be well suited for that age group. Although the past seventeen years have only been in the elementary I feel the students will have a much deeper connection to mother nature, storytelling and legends with multiple characters from nature in curriculum I have developed as I have a personal connection this lifestyle being of First Nation decent. The knowledge I must share with my students and co-workers, I hope to encourage them to include more culture into their lesson plans, that will also benefit their students in their classrooms. As John Dewey stated, “he believed that human beings learned from a hands-on approach” which emphasizes the learn by doing and the opportunity to learn the learner”. This being noted I truly believe children use all their senses by this approach and as a First Nation person I believe our children have an innate learning style similar to this as we teach our children at a young age to be involved in the culture. I had the opportunity to do an assignment that was presented to me in my class, the assignment provided multiple choices of lenses to learn from, I chose the Indigenized Lens to help create part of my curriculum design. Although, I am First Nation I am far from being an expert in my knowledge but I had a connection that sparked my interest to do a lesson plan on storytelling/ legends as I would like to do more of this in my class this year. I also provided some of the requirements from the BC curriculum to help with the layout and flow of the plan, it is also mandatory to include First Nation/ Indigenous curriculum in your topics (B.C Ministry of Education, 2017). I had to be mindful not to offend students of other ethnic backgrounds by including the First Nation culture, so I would also provide stories and legends from other countries when the opportunity arises. With John Dewey, philosophy I believe children/students and teachers would also experience the true affects that mother nature has to offer. The Indigenized Lens offered a great opportunity and ideas to include in my personal learning as I said earlier I too have much to learn. The lens offered ideas of the past to help understand some of how we got to where we are today in the field of education. This gives the education, teachers, and students the opportunity to experience lessons on the stories and legends that were passed down and to learn to create unique stories without judgement. I also feel it is important to recognize The Gender Lens as many people are now becoming comfortable with identifying as such, in the First Nation culture they are described as “two spirited”, but in society today we know it as LGBTQ, and they are also people with feelings, abilities and knowledge just like the rest of the world. Do not single people out because of their gender or choices as they can educate us in a way we need to learn and educate all to include everyone as every child matters and diverse perspectives can help the educator to learn to learn theory. In saying this I must acknowledge Nel Noddings in her theory of ethics of care, it prioritizes the concern for relationships”. She also states the importance of distinction between natural caring and ethical caring (1984,81-83). The distinctions between acting because “I want” and “I must”, When I care for someone because “I want” to care, say I hug a friend who needs hugging in an act of love, she claims that I am engaged in natural caring”. As we read in stories or legends both genders are acknowledged but only at certain age levels in books and novels, I feel it is time we change this concept and make everyone feel like they belong. In the Principles of Learning a document that has nine educational beliefs of the first nation people can also be used to educate us on inclusion of all people. It helps the learner connect to their self, their community, family, mother earth, spirituality and our ancestors. This tool can help the student, teacher, educators, and parents how many subjects in the new curriculum are so important and can help support each other when we are learning and being taught together in any school setting.
When I am in my class teaching the First Nation Language and Culture, I like to point out that we are all unique and have multiple beliefs and religions that we believe in and that its okay to be proud of our backgrounds. This helps students understand that we are different and not everything one believes is the correct way to view our world and education. I believe by including both the Indigenized Lens and Gender Lens I will open new perspectives on education and acceptance of diversity. I feel it is my responsibility to share my knowledge with students, co workers and parents to understand First Nation culture, one way of doing this is by implementing lessons, plans into the curriculum either by the B.C Curriculum and by inviting knowledge keepers to my class to share oral history. When I invite a knowledge keeper, I am also implementing parts of the Truth and Reconciliation as the true story can only be told by someone that experienced those actions against them. My curriculum stems from a couple of sources John Dewey, Nel Noddings and Dr. Martin Brokenleg. According to Dr.Martin Brokenleg, we use the medicine wheel I many parts of the life cycle for example, The circle of Courage is a model of positive youth development. The model integrates North American philosophies of child-rearing, the heritage of early pioneers in education and youth work, and contemporary resilience research. The Circle of Courage is based in four universal growth needs of al children: belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. I truly believe we need all these items to survive in the field of education, society and life in general. This will also help in understanding the First Nation culture as we base our lives around the medicine wheel, if it is unbalanced in one area, we must work on that to create balance and live holistically. In the wheel it shows four different sections and in one section are when we sit with our knowledge keepers to learn storytelling and legends, this is a true gift that is passed on from generation to generation.
In the past I’ve tried the Montessori Style of teaching as this teaches children independence, but coming from the day school I felt there wasn’t enough one on one teaching for students with abilities that needed the extra help and assistance although I feel I can also fall back into that style in certain grades as many love to work independently. As an educator, I recognize that my ancestors contributed dearly to teaching us life lessons by oral storytelling and legends I also feel we were cheated out of a traditional life by having to attend school and be removed from our families. We almost lost our identity, but with the few knowledge keepers that survived we will revive the language and we will continue to tell the stories past down and the legends will still be told in schools and in the home. I feel I have been handed a gift by becoming an educator and sharing my knowledge in the education system with my students and sharing the gift of creating a place where people have a sense of belonging. At the end of the day we are good people trying to make diverse world gentler in understanding and accepting of all people, through storytelling and legends of the past and ones of new generations. The unit I designed is based on teaching the storytelling and legends which is found in the Language Arts curriculum. It is designed to teach with respect, to teach respect, and the importance of including nature by storytelling and the First Peoples Principles of Learning. In this aspect the curriculum is incorporated with Indigenous knowledge and it uses the environment indoors and outdoors to help complete the curriculum.
Required Elements for Written Reflection:
Written Reflection: The length of the written assignment is flexible to a maximum of 1000 words (not including references). Include answers to several of the following questions:
- Reflect on how this project went for you. What were your challenges? What successes did you experience? What questions do you still have about this process? What might you do differently if you were to plan this project again?
- Reflect on the inquiry process. What did you learn about inquiry in going through this process? Did you have any insights about your initial questions coming into this course? What are you still wondering about inquiry after doing this project and taking this class?
- Citations and references from a minimum of three required and recommended readings and resources studied in class, to demonstrate your understandings of the connections between theory and practice.