Truth and Reconciliation

As a direct response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 10th Call to Action which includes “developing culturally appropriate curricula” (TRC, 2015, p. 2) and their “63rd Call to Action [which] includes building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect” (p. 7, as cited in Aikenhead et al., 2019, p.8), it is the responsibility of all Canadian educators to put the work into decolonizing and Indigenizing their teaching practices.

We endeavor to offer a reciprocal gift to Indigenous learners, as we would not be here doing this powerful work, if not for them. As an act towards Reconciliation, we are aiming to contribute to the collective knowledge base and best practice that is going to empower our Indigenous learners in a way that is authentic to them, and supports them in being and becoming a NWT capable person. 

What is Inquiry Inspired? 

This website has been created as part of a Master's capstone project. It is designed to be a supporting resource for Indigenizing Inquiry-based learning in the Beaufort Delta Region, in the North West Territories of Canada. This website has a series of rich cross-curricular tasks that begin with place and land as provocation, followed by opportunities for students to learn in and from their community, from elders and from one another. It has many supporting documents such as place-conscious thinking routines, connections to the NWT Indigenous curriculums, NWT key competencies and the local cultural calendar. These tasks are have been designed using the "Indigenizing Education: Planning with Place First" (Driscoll, 2023) framework, along with the "Inquiry Cycle" (BDDEC, 2023) teaching model.  Additionally, the research behind this resource is grounded in the "Balancing Western and Indigenous Principles Framework" and the Mathematics Teaching Framework (NCTM, 2014). 

“We cannot know what kind of world we are preparing students for. Skills in great demand now may not be in demand 20 years from now or even 6 months from now” (Burleton et al., 2013). What we choose to do then is support our students in becoming” (Borden & Wiseman, 2016, p.150).

"NWT Key Competencies clarify and establish guidelines for the developmental stages of being and becoming an NWT capable person. NWT Key Competencies emphasize the connectedness of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values. Key Competencies are broad capabilities that individuals have and develop across a lifetime and in a variety of environments" (ILE, 2021, p.6).