Today we had more detailed discussion on a local professional development program that Glen was asked to implement in Saskatoon to increase Indigenous perspective delivered in Science. There were a few key points that I took from this discussion. The first being that professional development programs such as this take time and that teachers should not be expected to sacrifice there own personal time if a program is to be successful. In this program teachers were provided with relief when workshops and meetings were scheduled and only a handful of meetings were held out of school time. Another key point was that teachers were IMMERSED in Aboriginal culture PRIOR to the program beginning. So before they were given any lectures, lessons or workshops they spent a day and a half immersed in traditional local culture. Glen described this process as accepting and feeling with ones heart before taking on new information with ones head. I think that this is vitally important and would enable teachers to begin to make any conceptual change and open the mind to other ways of knowing.
It was in one of the professional development meetings that Glen discovered the importance of story telling in the implementation process and from this he ultimately developed a handbook of teacher stories that can be used by other teachers to assist them in implementing Indigenous perspectives. The stories of these teachers differ dramatically as each are in very different teaching and learning environmentts. Some are in classrooms where teaching is very challenging, as students are disengaged and others are teachers of extension and enrichment students who are less willing to take on a new way of learning. This handbook will be available to purchase as an e-book.
In this program teachers were encouraged to introduce Aboriginal perspectives gradually as they felt comfortable, in some cases this took more than 6 months. Teachers were able to talk to Elders about the content they introduced and were able to have Elders and Keepers of Knowledge come into their classrooms in some cases. Other teachers found that students who were Aboriginal began to bring information to the classroom themselves and others who had neighbours or family friends who were Aboriginal learnt stories and customs in their own time and then shared these with the class. Students began to feel comfortable doing this as is became the learning culture of their classroom.
I was also very surprised when I saw the content of the state Science textbook. It had considerable amount of Aboriginal content weaved throughout the book in every topic. Also within most topics was a page dedicated to an Aboriginal story and/or Aboriginal sharing of knowledge written by an Aboriginal Elder. These pages were called "Ask an Elder" in addition to this were pages written by Aboriginal people who work as professionals in the Sciences, this included a scientist and a nurse. I really like the structure of the textbook, as there is Aboriginal knowledge, culture and history throughout the whole text.
Another piece of information I found very interesting and that I hope to look into more closely is the tertiary courses offered which have units that are only for Aboriginal students. In this way the course is taught from an Aboriginal way of learning and understanding. Glen explained that one of the main issues encountered by Aboriginal students in mainstream units was the fascination in them held by non-Aboriginal students. This caused some students to be uncomfortable and could be a disruption for them. Students ultimately do the same end of year exam, the only thing that is different is the way in which they learn and access the same information.
No comments:
Post a Comment