Indigenizing education
New technology connects educators across the region for conference
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, November 3, 2016
INUVIK
Indigenizing education - shaping curriculum to reflect indigenous experience - was a top theme when Educators gathered at East Three School late last month for a two-day teaching conference.
Angela James, with the aboriginal languages secretariat of the ECE, was a keynote speaker at a conference at East Three School. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo
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This continues a two-year emphasis the Beaufort Delta Education Council has placed on the subject.
Angela James, with the aboriginal languages secretariat of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, was one of the keynote speakers at the conference this year. She talked about indigenizing education and the difference between that and de-colonizing education.
"Indigenizing education means to really take an indigenous perspective, honour the worldview, the values, the spirituality, the beliefs of the indigenous peoples and integrating that into the content and the fabric of the formal education system," said James.
One example she gave was using symbolism to teach lessons, drawing out the similarities, for example, between developing a capable person and raising a teepee.
De-colonizing education is a little different. It still infuses indigenous values, James said, but it's more about deconstructing the power relations that existed in the last century between the western world and the indigenous world.
"(It's) taking a look at those two ways of knowledge acquisition and not placing one in a superior or inferior manner," she said.
Out-of-town educators and staff were able to benefit from the conference while remaining at their home school thanks to relatively new video conference technology the Beaufort Delta Education Council has put into use.
The technology streamed the presentations from Inuvik to nine schools in eight communities in the region.
"This (technology) has meant nobody has to leave the community," said Chris Gilmour, acting superintendent of Beaufort Delta Education Council.
"Everybody can work together in their schools, in their cohorts, in their teams and ultimately those resources can be redirected to support our students and our teachers.
"When you consider approximately 150 people, including EAs (educational assistants) across our district - all of whom would have to meet here - bringing people in, the logistics of flights and schedules, (all this) can make it very challenging and taxing on teachers and the communities when we have to close schools for additional time because of travel."
It's not the first time the streaming technology has been used by the education council. For the past couple of years, teachers in Inuvik have been able to teach to a number of different schools in the region and across the territory using a video conferencing system.
The step this year was to bring that technology to the teachers.
"I think it's a very innovative way of stretching our resources as far as we possibly can to ensure we're supporting our teachers as best as we possibly can," said Gilmour.
The district has advanced greatly over the past five years, Gilmour said. "I really feel like we're providing an added service not only to the teachers, but to the students.
"The students are now becoming exposed to this type of learning environment, what I would call a hybrid learning environment.
"(It's) where you have a little bit online or through video conference and then some in person, and that's increasingly going to be a skill our students need when they leave high school, to be comfortable in those environments."
