Post date: Jul 23, 2012 4:32:2 PM
Making decisions relating to this garden project has not been easy. There are so many paths that could be taken with this project, and deciding which one to take has been a constant discussion with the people involved. I am really hoping to use this blog as a place for reflection on my contributions to the project as a whole.
I am currently working on a lesson plan involving the gardens in a project for COM 2215, a Communication Technology course under CTS(Career and Technology Studies) involving photography. It relates to the gardens and creating a mood or feeling through multiple photographs over time. As a student completes the project, it hopefully becomes obvious that the gardens will change and grow, they are not static or unchanging.
The concepts embedded in this project relate undoubtedly to Aboriginal perspectives: connection to community, connection to the land, relationships and teamwork, the cyclical patterns of life and death, symbolism, interconnectedness, the fluidity of time. They are all very obvious and present in the course project, and I originally felt as though there was no need to emphasize specific connection within the lesson plan since Aboriginal perspectives are not mentioned in the Program of Studies for this course.
After bringing my lesson plan to the others working closely on this project, it was suggested that I needed to include more Aboriginal perspectives in the project. Although it did represent a lot of ideologies, the students would likely not see it as including Aboriginal perspectives. But do they need to have explicit instructions telling them what was Aboriginal knowledge and what wasn’t?
We all seemed to struggle with what should be done. We had the option of leaving it, as the perspectives were naturally infused in the project itself. But what if most students didn’t realize all the perspectives, whether Aboriginal or otherwise, as they were represented in their work? We could include a portion of the project explanation and/or presentation requirements that would open up a discussion of the Aboriginal perspectives involved, but that may take up valuable class time for something not in the Program of Studies. Or we could leave that decision up to the teacher leading the project. But again, what if the teacher had no knowledge of Aboriginal perspectives and had no idea where they came into play in the project? Struggle.
As I have not yet worked in a real classroom where I have attempted to integrate Aboriginal perspectives, nor do I feel very knowledgeable in this area, I feel a bit unsure of what to do. I found some explanations in a file about how to teach Aboriginal students in the classroom, and it seemed to help, but I’m still not sure what is best for most teachers. I have heard that most classrooms don’t include Indigenous perspectives even when they are included in the Program of Studies, simply due to time constraints and the pressures of learning so much material. So then how should it work in the CTS classroom, where it isn’t mentioned or suggested in the PoS?
I am beginning to feel like it is based on each teacher, and each class that they have. Both of these factors will affect how it should/can be integrated, and even the same teacher may choose to do it differently (or not do it at all!) based on the different groups of students in different classes.
So, as we worked through our discussion on what might be best to do for the lesson plan to be posted, I liked the idea of giving the teachers options. They have the option of full, explicit integration through prompting questions and discussion questions in the project. They also have the option of simply promoting the implied perspectives in the students’ work, without labelling them as “Aboriginal”. But regardless of what they choose, a Teacher’s Guide to infusing the Aboriginal perspectives in the project is included. This will hopefully be helpful for all teachers; experienced teachers without much knowledge about infusion, new teachers without knowledge of Aboriginal perspectives, and any other teacher simply looking for a different way to include them in the classroom. It also helped me out to write the guide, as it enlightened me on so many things that have not been explicitly covered in my Education courses at the U of A.
To date, my experience with the gardens has only helped me gain knowledge on Aboriginal perspectives and practices. It isn’t perfect or complete yet, but it is getting better! I think it will be a huge help for me once I am out and working. But for now, I still need to work with what I have as well as what I hope to gain by the end of this experience with the gardens.