Designed for

This Graduate Diploma in Advanced Professional Studies in Education (GDE) is designed for educators involved in K–12 or community-based education who are interested in developing their pedagogical practice while engaging in sustained reflective inquiry, all within the context of wholistic teachings and transformative pedagogies woven into Indigenous education.

Program Format

• Two-year, 30-unit program
• Cohort model, typically 20-30 students with smaller mentor groups
  
• Interactive and experiential in-person classes: 
  • Wednesday from 4:30-8:30 p.m. (Fall 2023-Fall 2024)
    
• Includes an Orientation Weekend (date TBD) and a one-week Summer Institute each August
  
• No classes in July, during the winter break or ministry-designated spring break

Themes of Study

• Practitioner inquiry and reflective practice
• Indigenous worldviews and perspectives in education
• Indigenous and wholistic approaches to learning, teaching, and well-being
• Exploration of Indigenous knowledge practices and transformative pedagogies
• Indigenous making, circle processes, and story telling
• Ecological place-based practices informed by Indigenous communities
• Community-centered dialogue and leadership
• Education for belonging, kinship, and relationality

Program Capacities 

Program capacities provide a reflective focus for documenting and self-assessing learning.  At frequent intervals throughout the program, participants and their mentors refer to the capacities to assess progress, to set new goals and to create direction for further learning in field studies.  At the end of the program, each participant’s comprehensive portfolio includes a synthesis of learning and self-assessment of growth in these capacities, supported by evidence of learning.  This program provides opportunities to develop these capacities:

• Cultivate orientations of inquiry and critical, creative reflection that nurture Indigenous understandings of transformation of self and educational practice.
• Demonstrate practices of caring for the self and others in intercultural community contexts while honouring your character, gift, and struggle.
  
• Expand the understanding of teaching relationally while being in tune with learners from multiple worldviews and orientations.
  
• Advocate for reciprocal relationships between Indigenous and educational communities, while respectfully weaving Indigenous perspectives, pedagogies, and protocols.
• Nurture sacred kinship with land and its inhabitants and actively integrate them into your ways of knowing, being and doing.
  
• Explore and Embody wholistic learning that acknowledges and honours diversity and belonging.  

Faculty Members

• Vicki Kelly

District Partners

• Síyameythal-Rose Greene, District Principal - Indigenous and Equity Education, SD 44
• Rob Smyth, District Principal ISS - Indigenous Education, SD 41