The following is a response and reflection to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action written for EDPR 3200, specifically to section 62 i, which is in regards to topics of Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada.
Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of CanadaÂ
62 i. Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).
The curriculum of Social Studies has plenty of opportunities to make curricular inroads with the Truth and Reconciliation’s mandates. For a Grade Three classroom, we as a school could invite a willing elder, following the suggestions of proper practice as suggested by Hogan, McCraken, and Eideingar (2019). I have a close personal Coast Salish friend who could help guide me in finding a willing Elder to speak about Coast Salish traditional and modern life here on the island, and how that has shaped the foundation of Coastal British Columbia from everything from place names to modern art and architecture.
Students could write a few simple sentences on a scaffolded handout and draw an accompanying picture about something they learned during the lesson as a form of assessment.
In the Grade Three curriculum, there is a key component about how “Indigenous societies … value the well-being of the self, the land, spirits, and ancestors” for Social Studies (page 4). This section of the curriculum is, in turn, a response to the first First Peoples Principles of Learning that “[l]earning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors” (First Nations Education Steering Committee, n.d.). The curriculum is becoming more and more indigenized, with or without educators, as both a mandate of the curriculum as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. Personally, I would wish to fight for something positive than perpetuate the old colonial paradigm.
First Nations Steering Committee (FNESC). Background of FPPL and current contexts. First Peoples Principles of Learning. https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/background-and-current-context/
Government of British Columbia: Ministry of Education. (2016, June). Area of learning: Social studies. British Columbia: BC’s Curriculum. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/curriculum/social-studies/en_social-studies_k-9.pdf
Hogan, S., McCraken, K., and Eidinger, A. (2019, January 14). How and when to invite indigenous speakers to the classroom. Active History. https://activehistory.ca/2019/01/how-and-when-to-invite-indigenous-speakers-to-the-classroom/
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Truth and reconciliation commission of Canada: Calls to action. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf