INDIGENOUS EDUCATION

The article Teaching by the Medicine Wheel: An Anishinaabe framework for Indigenous education, plublished on June 9, 2014 in EdCan Network, provides a very useful introduction to Indigenous Education, which is focused on the whole individual.

Indigenous education focuses on developing individuals holistically, that is spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally.

The Medicine Wheel diagram on the right, informed by Cree Eder Michael Thrasher, depicts how learning is actualized in each of the directions, starting from east, going south, then west and finishing in the north. The circle, like learning, is cyclical and perpetual.

How we Benefit from First Nations, Métis and Inuit knowledge, perspectives & teaching practices in schools

Many "best practices" in teachings have been borrowed or adapted from FNMI cultures. For instance:

Holistic teaching and learning - focus on whole child, including well-being
Safe and inclusive spaces
Reflection - of self and world around us
Interdisciplinary teaching and learning
Modeling
Experiential learning
Land-based learning
Democratic exercises
Social Action
Practice of appreciation and gratitude
And many others…..

A starting point for education for reconciliation is to give credit to those cultures from which we have borrowed ways of knowing, practices, ideas, concepts and inventions!

Not only is it our ethical and moral duty to commit to education for reconciliation, as outlined by the Ontario College of Teachers' (OCT's) Ethical Standards, but it's easier than one might thinks! So many inclusive, holistic Indigenous Pedagogies are already in use in schools across Ontario. Many teachers are not aware because, unfortunately, Indigenous peoples, and more specifically, First Nations, Métis and Inuit are not given credit for these transformative pedagogies.