Module 7

Module 7 Reflection

The readings and videos in this module helped me see how truth-telling, justice, and Two-Eyed Seeing are deeply connected, and how education needs to shift if we are going to move forward in a good way. One thing that really stood out was how Two-Eyed Seeing gives us a framework to understand the world through both Indigenous and Western perspectives, without trying to collapse one into the other. Learning from Albert Marshall’s words reminded me that this isn't about blending or simplifying, but about holding space for complexity. It made me reflect on how much of the curriculum still centers Western views as the default. Two-Eyed Seeing offers a path to truly value Indigenous ways of knowing as equal and essential within academia. 

From this module, I’m taking away several actionable steps for my classroom: 

1. Begin land-based learning projects grounded in Indigenous knowledge: I plan to expand our science and social studies units to include teachings from local Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, especially when exploring ecosystems or natural resources. I want students to understand that the land is not just a setting for learning, it is a teacher.

2. Use storytelling and oral history to explore justice and reconciliation

3. Rather than only using written texts, I will incorporate videos, interviews, and visits (when possible) from Indigenous community members to help students connect emotionally and intellectually with lived experiences. This supports both Indigenous pedagogies and multiple learning styles.

4. Co-create classroom agreements rooted in respect and relationship

5. Inspired by the First Peoples Principles of Learning, I will guide students in building shared commitments that reflect values like humility, community responsibility, and care for self, others, and the land. This supports both personal reflection and collective responsibility.

Overall, Module 7 helped me move from awareness to intention. I feel more confident naming my responsibilities as a non-Indigenous educator and also more open to continuing this journey with humility. I want my students to see that reconciliation is not just history: it is action, choice, and relationship in the present.

Artifact #1: Pathways Forward

Watching Brad Baker speak about courage, role models, and agents of change in decolonizing education has me thinking hard: who are the people shaping my path, overtly and quietly, in doing this work. Mentors are people who guide, support, challenge, and sometimes correct me in this work. Some are official, some informal. These are groups of people, but without names because this is a public site, whose example inspires me in how they’ve worked for inclusion, justice, truth, and meaningful change:

• Past teachers and mentors who have been brave in drawing attention to inequities, who showed kindness and humility, who listened. People who didn’t shy away from letting students feel seen (or marginalized), and who tried to learn along with students. Their example reminds me that small acts of respect and inclusion matter.

• Indigenous authors, artists, scholars those whose work I read: those who write about land, identity, colonialism, resilience. They provide thought leadership, frameworks, and lived perspectives that I try to bring into my classroom.

• Local Indigenous Education Staff / Aboriginal Ed Dept in my school district. Staff whose job involves supporting teachers to do this work well: helping find authentic resources, facilitating connections with Nations/Elders, guiding protocol, offering PD. Their knowledge of the local context is invaluable.

• Elders & Knowledge Keepers who are willing to partner with schools—those who I’ve had contact with or hope to build relationships with. They show me what it means to speak with authority from lived experience, from culture, from history beyond textbooks.

• Colleagues & Peer Educators who are doing this work in classrooms: teachers who try things, reflect, share; especially those who are not perfect but are open. People who ask tough questions; who when they mess up, own it; who are willing to shift and change.

• Scholars & Researchers (Indigenous scholars especially) whose work provides frameworks, critique, and knowledge: people who write about decolonization, assessment, Indigenous pedagogies, identity. Their writing gives both wisdom and tools.

Thinking through who my role models and mentors are, and who I want them to be, helps me see where I’m growing and where I still need scaffolding.

• I see that courage is necessary. not just performing reconciliation or inclusion, but pushing for systemic change, being open to discomfort, being willing to be wrong sometimes. Role models who do this help me learn how to do it well.

• I also see the importance of local, relational, community‑grounded mentors: people in my own region, with whom I can build trust, continuity, accountability. Not just external experts, but people who are part of the places, histories, and communities of my students.

• I need to keep seeking out those relationships, and keep inviting feedback. I need to let mentorship come both formally (PD, school leadership, Indigenous Ed staff) and informally (Elders, colleagues, community members).

What reconciliACTION Means to Me

To me, reconciliACTION (as Roberta Jamieson puts it: reconciliation as a verb, not just a noun or event) means:

• Ongoing effort, not a one‑time thing: It’s not enough to have a land acknowledgment, or one story about residential schools. Real reconciliation means doing the hard work repeatedly: listening, learning, changing practices, fixing systems, giving up power, and staying committed even when it’s uncomfortable.

• Action rooted in truth and justice: It means truth‑telling (of histories, of harms), and then acting in ways that address those harms. For example, recognizing inequities, changing policies, following Indigenous leadership, restoring what was lost (language, land, knowledge), supporting Indigenous ways of being in the present and future.

• Relational responsibility: It’s about relationships — between people, between settlers and Indigenous communities, between learners and land. It means taking responsibility: being accountable, not waiting for others to lead or fix things, but contributing in ways that are respectful, humble, and grounded in the needs and wishes of Indigenous communities.

• Daily practice & mindset: It’s not something to add on; it’s something that shapes how I think, plan, teach, behave every day. It means making choices in small moments (what I teach, what resources I use, how I acknowledge land, how I listen) that align with justice, respect, inclusion.

To help students move from understanding to action and allyship, here are ways I could share the reconciliACTION mindset in the classroom:

1. Model what action looks like

   • Share with students what I am doing: books I’m reading, changes I’m making, mistakes I’ve made, where I’ve asked for feedback. Showing the journey, not just the destination.

   • Invite Elders or Indigenous community members to share what action means in their lives and their vision for the future.

2. Embed action in learning

   • Design projects that not only learn about Indigenous history or perspectives, but require students to do something with that knowledge: e.g. land‑based stewardship, service, advocacy, restoration, producing something that benefits the school or community.

   • Use inquiry questions like “What can we do in our local community to better honour Indigenous perspectives?” rather than just “What happened historically?”

3. Create safe spaces for conversation and reflection

   • Let students reflect on what they’ve learned, what surprises them, what discomforts them. Encourage questions.

   • Normalize making mistakes, asking hard questions, unlearning biases.

   • Have classroom norms that respect stories, different identities, lived realities.

4. Cultivate allyship skills

   • Teach what allyship looks like: listening, amplifying Indigenous voices, speaking out against inequity, sharing responsibility.

   • Give students vocabulary and tools: e.g. how to ask respectful questions, how to research Indigenous perspectives, how to recognize privilege, how to take guidance from community.

   • Encourage students to commit to small, sustained actions like reading an Indigenous author each term; using correct place‑names; participating in community/land‑based events; speaking up when something is unfair.

5. Make institutional/structural change visible and participatory

   • Involve students in school decisions (assemblies, displays, curriculum choices) especially where Indigenous content is involved.

   • Advocate (with students) for things like Indigenous authors in texts, inclusion of Indigenous languages/place names, more support, more equitable assessment practices.

   • Celebrate not just symbolic events, but report and reflect on progress: e.g. actions taken, what changed, what remains.

6. Celebrate successes & resilience

   • Highlight stories of Indigenous strengths, leadership, resilience, creativity.

   • Acknowledge when students or classrooms take action (however small), giving affirmation for effort, not just result. This helps maintain momentum and sense of possibility.

Baker, B. [Brad Baker]. (2019, June 29). Courage: Going forward in Aboriginal education – Brad Baker | TEDxWestVancouverED [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5Wk48muy4oM

Universities Canada. (2020, November 17). Canada’s future is through education and reconciliation: Roberta Jamieson [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzWawerJgTo