Land-based pedagogies: a path to decolonizing environmental education in British Columbia

Abstract

The purpose of this portfolio is to provide evidence of my graduate learning and to employ this new knowledge in a manner that contributes to the rich and varied decolonization efforts that are being made by Indigenous communities and educators across BC. I have created a resource for teachers and designed a planning resource to facilitate planning that is inclusive of Indigenous knowledge (IK). My literature review explores issues in Indigenous education in BC, the (ongoing) effects of colonialism in schools, and the current efforts being made to change pedagogy and schools to be more inclusive of Indigenous knowledge and First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) students. It also explores the challenges that face non-Indigenous/White educators set with the task of teaching Indigenous-focused content as recommended in the new BC curriculum. Land and language as the basis for an Indigenized pedagogy is a central theme in much current scholarship (Tuck, McKenzie & McCoy, 2014; Calderon, 2014; Styres, Haig-Brown & Blimkie, 2013) and is increasingly promoted as a way forward together in education to begin to heal the rifts and injuries of a long history of continuous colonization. I have two portfolio tasks, a planning guide and an assessment model, that work to support each other. The first task is a planning guide for eco/environmental and Land-based lessons for teachers who are planning their own Land-based eco/environmental units. This task employs the work of Sutherland & Swayze (2012), Joseph (2016), and Korteweg (2016) to create a practical planning guide that educators and curriculum designers can use to co-design Land-based environmental education curriculum with Indigenous communities and organizations. The assessment model for consultation and co-planning of Land-based curriculum is designed for teachers and curriculum writers working with Indigenous communities. It was developed by adapting the assessment model from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC, 2015) web page on planning for work with communities. My adapted assessment model for BC educators will be flexible so that it can be used in a variety of settings, helping to support the planning process and to provide a framework for working with Indigenous communities to gain their input, guidance and knowledge or to make content responsive to the local community.