The power of educators
Frameworks for Indigenization
Mamàhtawisiwin: the wonder we are born with – tools for reflection, planning, and reporting
Although not developed for post-secondary education institutions, Mamàhtawisiwin: the wonder we are born with – tools for reflection, planning, and reporting is a very comprehensive resource that explores “four mutually supportive strategies to incorporate Indigenous languages, cultures, and identities into teaching and practices:
The last two strategies are especially relevant to this module (pages 10 and 11 in the report). A curated list of specific actions that could be applied to post-secondary education follows:
Understanding of world views, values, identities, traditions, and contemporary lifestyles.
- Resources are allocated for professional learning for all educators regarding the true history of Indigenous Peoples and the impact of intergenerational trauma on families and children.
- Not only do educators understand their own origin stories and take ownership of their own biases, but they also model this through their words and actions.
- Resources are available to educators so that Indigenous languages can be present in post-secondary education institutions.
- Elders and Knowledge Keepers share their teachings in programs and courses.
Inclusive and culturally safe learning environment.
- Resources are allocated to provide professional learning for all educators about the world views, values, and traditions of the Indigenous Peoples in their communities.
- Educators prioritize and continue to learn, in a variety of ways, about the world views, values, and traditions of the Indigenous in their schools’ communities, understanding and valuing their diversity.
- The physical environment of the post-secondary education institutions reflects the diversity of communities, and Indigenous traditions are featured.
Content adapted from MAMÀHTAWISIWIN The Wonder We Are Born With.
Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing: Action Toward Truth and Reconciliation is a faculty development resource developed by the Centre for Learning & Program Excellence (CLPE) at Red River College Polytechnic. This resource is based on the Mamàhtawisiwin framework but adapted for post-secondary education and may provide you with some initial ideas to implement in your classrooms.
Weaving Ways: Indigenous ways of knowing in classrooms and schools
This is an Introductory guide created by the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (ARPDC) Education for Reconciliation team.
Weaving Ways is structured with four interrelated quadrants:
Aligned with the Two-Eyed Seeing framework, these four interrelated quadrants support educators in “Designing meaningful teaching and learning opportunities that weave together Indigenous ways of knowing with Western pedagogical practices for the benefit of all students and our collective journey towards reconciliation. The four quadrants are interconnected and encourage teachers to consider how Indigenous knowledge systems can support a rich experience for students in their classrooms. Effective education that includes Indigenous knowledge systems does not exclude or discredit other cultures but instead ensures that both non-Indigenous students and Indigenous students alike are given the opportunity to see Indigenous perspectives, and the strengths and gifts of the First Peoples reflected in the schools they attend.”
Weaving Ways provides a series of inquiry questions to guide the work of educators:
| Quadrant | Guiding questions |
|---|---|
| Cultures of Belonging |
|
| Instructional Design |
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| Pedagogy |
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| Sharing through Story |
|
For more ideas, you can also review the resource “Weaving Ways: Indigenous ways of knowing in classrooms and schools “. This content adapted from this resource.
Other frameworks
The following resource What are Indigenous and Western Ways of Knowing? provides 19 different frameworks that can be used as the foundation for teaching activities when interweaving Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in different learning environments.
A curated list of some frameworks that could be applied to post-secondary education follows:
- Constellations model
- A constellations model sees knowledge systems as continually evolving and forever in flux, containing shared, similar, or different elements between them. This model proposes moving away from seeing knowledge systems as “containers with boundaries, and particularly away from binaries… [and towards] conversations about how to bring together multiple knowledge” systems.
- Source: Indigenous Knowledge and the Cultural Interface: underlying issues at the intersection of knowledge and information systems.
- Three Sisters Framework
- The Three Sisters is a Haudenosaune creation story employed in this framework as a metaphor for bringing together multiple ways of knowing that might support and complement each other. This approach rejects the idea of a single, universal truth. “The Three Sisters [corn, beans, and squash] offer us a new metaphor for an emerging relationship between Indigenous knowledge and Western science. I think of the corn as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the physical and spiritual framework that can guide the curious bean of science, which twines like a double helix. The squash creates an ethical habitat for coexistence and mutual flourishing. I envision a time when the intellectual monoculture of science will be replaced with a polyculture of complementary knowledges. And so all may be fed.”
- Source: Enabling hybrid space: epistemological diversity in socio-ecological problem-solving.
- Etuapmunk, or Two-eyed seeing
- Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall has developed this metaphor for negotiating between two cultures. It requires “learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing, and to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all.” Common ground is pursued between the “different scientific knowledges” of Indigenous and Western science within a co-learning, active and inclusive environment.
- Source: Enabling hybrid space: epistemological diversity in socio-ecological problem-solving.
- Guswentah, or Two-row wampum
- This is a metaphor that emphasizes the value of space for each system to enhance the other. The Two-Row Wampum was a friendship treaty between the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) with “rows of beads on the belt [representing] Dutch vessels and Iroquois canoes, traveling side by side down ‘the river of life’” without interfering in each other’s well-being.
- Source: Weaving Indigenous and sustainability sciences to diversify our methods.
- Living on the ground
- This methodology is rooted in both feminist and Indigenous knowledges. It requires learning through the senses and letting go of previous notions of learning through intellect, a move that requires the use of the whole body “as a vehicle for my learning — my physical, intellectual and spiritual body. I learnt to dream and to feel and believe in the Tjukurrpa [Dreaming]. Living on the ground with the women Elders enabled me to experience the women’s world: not in place of them, but with them.”
- Source: Being Nature’s Mind: Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Planetary Consciousness.
Content adapted from What are Indigenous and Western Ways of Knowing?
Teaching and learning application
Select one of the previous frameworks for Indigenization, consider one of the courses you currently teach, and map out three initial ways that you could apply some of the framework strategies in your classroom, in person, or online. Some ideas:
- You can choose some activities from the resource table developed by Red River College Polytechnic based on the Mamàhtawisiwin framework.
- You can respond to some of the guiding questions for the Weaving Ways framework.
Sources:
Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia. Weaving Ways: Indigenous ways of knowing in classrooms and schools. Available at: https://ctlr.vcc.ca/media/vcc-library/content-assets/ctlr-documents/teachinglearning/Weaving-Ways.pdf (Accessed: 1 November 2024).
Indigenous excellence (no date) Mamàhtawisiwin: The Wonder We Are Born With. Available at: https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/iid/mamahtawisiwin.html (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
Stinson, J. (2021) Learning across knowledge systems 2: What are indigenous and western ways of knowing? Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women. Available at: https://www.criaw-icref.ca/publications/learning-across-knowledge-systems-what-are-indigenous-and-western-ways-of-knowing/ (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
