As a teaching fellow, I developed the Indigenous Teaching and Learning Series. Recognizing that decolonizing comes before Indigenizing, this unique online education series was geared toward university instructors with the goal to increase their understanding of the colonial roots of the academy, the movement to transform universities to be more inclusive of Indigenous peoples, and to inspire them to move toward decolonizing their pedagogies.
I played a lead role conceptualizing the series and developing the three following online open access modules:
Module 1 – Decolonize the Academy
In this video, learners will be introduced to the colonial roots of the Westernized university with a particular focus on its systemic allegiance to Euro-Western ways of knowing. In the context of increasing reconciliation discourses in Canada, learners will be exposed to the structural ways that settler colonialism has shaped the university system, its disciplines and teaching practices with the goal to inspire instructors to attend to academic colonialism in their disciplines, and more proactively include Indigenous perspectives across the curriculum.
Module 2 – Toward a Decolonizing Pedagogy
In this video, learners will be introduced to specific ways that colonialism shapes higher education and curriculum at various levels. The module will offer Indigenous perspectives on decolonial change and introduce instructors to four guiding principles that can help them start to move toward decolonizing their pedagogies by: increasing decolonial consciousness; reflecting on complex positionalities; engaging critical and relational pedagogies; and taking responsibility for ongoing lifelong (un)learning.
I played a lead role conceptualizing the series and developing the three following online open access modules:
Module 1 – Decolonize the Academy
In this video, learners will be introduced to the colonial roots of the Westernized university with a particular focus on its systemic allegiance to Euro-Western ways of knowing. In the context of increasing reconciliation discourses in Canada, learners will be exposed to the structural ways that settler colonialism has shaped the university system, its disciplines and teaching practices with the goal to inspire instructors to attend to academic colonialism in their disciplines, and more proactively include Indigenous perspectives across the curriculum.
Module 2 – Toward a Decolonizing Pedagogy
In this video, learners will be introduced to specific ways that colonialism shapes higher education and curriculum at various levels. The module will offer Indigenous perspectives on decolonial change and introduce instructors to four guiding principles that can help them start to move toward decolonizing their pedagogies by: increasing decolonial consciousness; reflecting on complex positionalities; engaging critical and relational pedagogies; and taking responsibility for ongoing lifelong (un)learning.
Module 3 – Indigenous Students, Indigeneity and Experience in Universities
In this video, learners will be introduced to some background and reading materials relevant to the Indigenous Students, Indigeneity and Experiences in Universities. The purpose of this video and the supporting guide are to offer university instructors an introduction into the complexities of Indigenous student’s collective and individual identities and experiences accessing and navigating the university.