Curriculum and Pedagogy for the Indigenous Perspectives Teacher Education Module (IPTEM)

Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipient: Dolores van der Wey, Faculty of Education

Project team: Angela Brown, Professional Development Program, Faculty of Education, and Willow Allen, Ph.D. candidate, and Victoria Lam, research assistants

Timeframe: January 2016 to October 2016                               

Funding: $5,000

Program addressed: Professional Development Program (PDP) Indigenous Perspectives Teacher Education Module (IPTEM)

Final report: View Dolores van der Wey's final report (PDF)

Description: The over-arching purpose of this project is to refine our curriculum, pedagogy, instructional strategies and facilitation in the Indigenous Perspectives Teacher Education Module (IPTEM) for our Professional Development Program students.

We intend to develop a means of evaluating our practice, in terms of how it meets the Teacher Regulation Board mandate that requires every pre-service teacher in BC to take a course or course equivalent pertaining to “First Nations pedagogy and issues related to the historical and current context of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis learners.”

In addition, we wish to investigate students’ responses to their program over the duration of this initial term (EDUC 401/402) that may provide evidence as to the likelihood of students embedding such pedagogy and curricula in their practices – in their final practicum term (EDUC 405) and beyond.

We argue that students’ responses to aspects of the critical pedagogy we will employ will enable students to reveal to themselves the underlying conflict they may experience when studying Others; we further assert the imperative of addressing and supporting the unpacking of student resistance, should it arise, in relation to their experiences of other perspectives of the world. 

Questions addressed:

• What are student perceptions of their relationship to Aboriginal peoples, and how have those perceptions been informed?
• How do students’ attitudes and perceptions evolve over the duration of their initial term in PDP?
• What evidence do students provide of their attitudes and perceptions of the importance of addressing the Teacher Regulation Board mandate, and of long-term implications for practice?

Knowledge sharing: Findings will be disseminated to PDP colleagues through seminars and workshops. Dissemination will also be through appropriate academic conferences and publications, where implications of our findings may inform teacher education programs, including those beyond the bounds of British Columbia.

van der Wey, D., & Brown, A. (2017, February). Critical Indigenous Curricula and Pedagogy in Teacher Education with Predominantly Non-Indigenous Student Teachers. Paper presentation at the Provoking Curriculum Conference, February 17-19, 2017, McGill University, QC.

Keywords: First Nations Pedagogy; First Nations current and past context; critical pedagogy, interviews, student reflections, student perceptions