Here are a list of suggestions/tips we obtained from our informal interviews:
General suggestions:
- Link learning targets with First Peoples Principles of Learning objectives
- Remember to slow down and teach at a speed that allows students to learn rather than rushing through content goals (in line with the FPP "Learning takes time and patience"). Emphasize content that is important and spend less time on content that would be nice to cover but won't effect the students' ability to succeed in the future.
- Build relationships with students (FPP and also SEL)
- Create an atmosphere where students are able to express and explore their identity (FPP and SEL)
- Show students tangible examples of roles in their community and tie those into class lessons (e.g. talking about astronauts feels far away but maybe a local job where they can actually see it’s doable would work better)
- Find the math in the Indigenous culture/history, avoid tokenism
- Don’t generalize
- not all Indigenous students are comfortable sharing their culture or info about themselves
- Bring in/attention to people in STEM who happen to be Indigenous.
- we don’t refer to people as “the White biologist” so don’t do the same thing for Indigenous people
- Challenge 1D story of Indigenous people by introducing more contemporary and positive viewpoints
- Professional development - don’t be afraid to learn alongside the students
- This is an ongoing process so it's a good idea to keep learning about Indigenous culture and continue to build/maintain relationships with your Indigenous Education department (and Indigenous communities if possible)
Activity Examples:
- Talking circle activity: explain the significance of this Indigenous custom and implement it into your class as a regular/reoccurring element.
- Basket story example: Disclaimer: We do not own or have permission to use this story - we are simply using it to illustrate a point for the purposes of this class: One of the storytelling application problems we were told was about a cannibal woman who lived on a hill. In this story, they talk about this cannibal woman and how parents would warn their children that if they were bad (or maybe were out after dark? I can’t quite remember), that they would be taken by this woman. Sure enough, some children in this story ignore the warnings and are taken by the cannibal woman, who carries them up the hill in a cedar basket. There are say, six children of various ages who are placed in this basket and taken. The question is, how big would that basket have to be to carry all six children? This is a non-numeric question that requires students to research and figure out what they need to solve this problem.
- 3D/360˚ totem pole - classes came in and asked questions about the process and the artist was able to talk about his technique, which included a lot of mathematical concepts
- be on a look out for local projects where you may be able to do this
- patterns in weaving
- storybooks of local Indigenous stories with teaching guide (available at your local Indigenous Education Department)
Guest Speaker/Co-teachers:
- It's better to build up to Indigenous guest speaker co-teacher (i.e. mention Indigenous Perspectives in the classroom regularly and also prepare students by letting them know a guest speaker might be able to tell us more about whatever topic it is we're talking about)
- check with speaker first if it’s okay to put your hand up for a teachable moment/making connections to previous class
- etiquette is huge:
- invite them like a guest to your house
- prep students to be respectful
- make sure students thank the guest afterwards
- send a thank you gift - often a reflective card about what you learned
- possibly invite them to your class again
- kind of like meeting the mayor - give them the proper respect they deserve
- don’t isolate the Indigenous aspect
- Indigenous guest speakers and videos etc. not just for content goals, but also for representation for students
More Resources:
- Abbotsford website: curriculum.abbyschools.ca
- Suggested books: Dr. Martin Brokenleg Reclaiming Youth At Risk
- Dr. Joann Archibald Indigenous Storywork
- Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World: https://mexikaresistance.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/american-indian-contributions-to-the-world.pdf
- When looking for resources, it’s often helpful to look at things that
are not necessarily targeted at math because you might be able to
identify the math within those resources yourself (we were recommended
the general FNESC website because it has a lot of content)
