Moving From the Margins: Culturally safe teacher education in remote northwestern British Columbia

Abstract

In 2007 the University of Northern British Columbia initiated a two-year elementary teacher education program at the Northwest Campus in Terrace, British Columbia. The program was designed to meet specific community needs in the North that arise from inequities in the cultural safety of Indigenous teachers and students. The authors share three collegial inquiries into the program’s contribution toward improving cultural safety in K-12 schools and meeting social justice challenges in the region’s communities. Culturally safe allocation of space became better understood, affective learning outcomes were recognized as important determinants of cultural safety, and teacher action in classrooms towards cultural safety was scaffolded for various settings.En 2007, l’Université du Nord de la Colombie-Britannique a mis sur pied un programme de formation des enseignants à l’élémentaire d’une durée de deux ans, à son campus nord-ouest, situé à Terrace, en Colombie-Britannique. Ce programme a été conçu pour répondre aux besoins spécifiques de la communauté du nord, dont les inégalités existantes en termes de sécurité culturelle des enseignants et des élèves autochtones. Les auteurs partagent trois collaborations entre collègues issues du programme. Celles-ci ont contribué à améliorer la sécurité culturelle dans les écoles maternelle à secondaire 5 et à relever les défis de justice sociale présents dans les communautés de la région. L’attribution culturellement sécuritaire de l’espace a été mieux comprise, les conséquences affectives de l’apprentissage ont été reconnues comme des déterminants importants de la sécurité culturelle et les gestes des enseignants valorisant la sécurité culturelle dans leur classe ont été soutenus dans divers contextes

Incorporating Indigenous Content Into K-12 Curriculum: Supports for Teachers in Provincial and Territorial Policy and Post-Secondary Education Spaces

“…The findings of this study demonstrate cultural safety teacher training is a means towards MOE and PSE institutional goals of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, but it is a start of a learning journey that will assist with reconciliation and not an end to itself. Training teachers to safely teach and integrate Indigenous content is not only a matter of adjusting the scope of education to reduce settler biases and harmful stereotypes, but also helps teachers to establish new connections and relations with Indigenous peoples that are respectful and empathic to the impacts of colonization (Dion, 2008;Harrison et al, 2012;Keliipio et al, 2018;Murray-Orr & Mitton-Kukner, 2017;Vetter et al, 2014).…”

“…In Harrison et al's (2012) evaluation of the program, they found that as pre-service teachers look into the underlying ideologies, values, and worldviews of the curricula, students quickly recognize the lack of Indigenous knowledges across subject areas; a lack of diversity also known to exist in lesson plans and modes of assessment for K-12 students (Marom, 2019). Moreover, pre-service teachers are encouraged to consider the impacts this lack of diversity may have on cultural safety within education systems as well as the accessibility of the content for Indigenous students (Harrison et al, 2012). With this level of reflection, pre-service teachers will become aware of their implicit biases in the classroom, as well as see the potential of their role as future teachers to shift the focus of current curricula to incorporate Indigenous content and improve its accessibility for all students.…”

“…Nevertheless, scholarly literature points to the benefits and challenges as settler teachers come to terms with their personal biases and find comfort in the uncomfortable. These practices ultimately lead to improved preparedness of settler teachers to teach and incorporate Indigenous content into their classroom curriculum (Harrison et al, 2012;Tupper, 2011), as they learn the significance and vital importance to uplift and revitalize Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing in education systems -a CJEAP, 198 key component to the decolonization process (Antoine et al, 2018).…”

“…Scholars also describe how teachers struggle to challenge their understandings of mandatory curricula, and how the worldviews embedded in the lessons have come to be (Dion, 2007). Eurocentric epistemologies are deeply interwoven into current curriculum across Canadian provinces instilling colonial ideals, rendering some teachers to subconsciously act on racist behaviours towards Indigenous peoples (Dion, 2007;Harrison et al, 2012). This therefore further highlights the need to dismantle current curricula and push towards preparing teachers with decolonizing teaching practices.…”

Indigenous Cultural Safety Training for Applied Health, Social Work and Education Professionals: A PRISMA Scoping Review

“…Nearly half of the studies targeted students of these disciplines (48%) (26,28, 29, 32, 34, 39, 42-44, 46, 49, 52, 57, 59, 64-68, 70, 71, 73-78, 81, 83-87, 89, 91, 92, 95, 98, 99, 101-104, 106-109, 112-114, 118, 121, 123, 124, 135, 137, 139, 140, 142, 144, 150, 152, 153, 160), while a slightly smaller proportion targeted professionals and/or academics (46%)(30, 31, 35-38, 40, 41, 45, 47, 50, 51, 53-56, 58, 60-63, 69, 72, 79, 80, 82, 88, 94, 96, 97, 100, 105, 110, 111, 115-117, 120, 122, 126-133, 136, 138, 141, 143, 145-149, 154- 159). Only one in twenty articles targeted both professionals/academics and students (6%)(33,48,90,93,119,125,134,151). In terms of the content within the articles selected for this review, just over half of the articles (51%) either articulated or cited a cultural safety (or similar) concept (e.g.…”