Student Expectations
“It is more difficult to obtain a good grade than some upper-year courses, which does not really make sense for a first-year course.”
Students come into the course with the expectation that it will be an easy course: a “bird course” or a “rocks for jocks” course in the local student vernacular. Or they come expecting an Indigenous cultural course or a spiritual experience. Most students come to the course with limited knowledge of Indigenous peoples’ histories, cultures, and traditions. Some resent taking the course as it requires them to revise their study plans and ask what this has to do with their lives and careers. Students who take this course during their first term are taking a university-level course for the first time and require guidance to make the transition from high school studies to university studies. As a result, our teaching approach has addressed transition issues and course content. We start where the students are, not where we want them to be.
“A weakness would be the weekly workload, which was overwhelming at times!!!!!”
Students continually report that INDG 1001H requires too much reading and viewing and has too many assignments. They were right; we had an average of 11 assessed activities and 30 pages of reading per week, considerably more than other first–year courses. We realized that the course material was mostly reading and that the assignments were mostly written, although students had flexibility in presentation format and, in some cases, choice of topic. Thus, our course material and assignments did not reflect the UDL principle of multiplicity. As a result of our UDL analysis, we have significantly revised the course, ensuring that it consists of course material that balances reading and watching. Our assignments now enable students to represent their knowledge in multiple fashions and engage students in all four quadrants of the Medicine Circle. Our engagement with students is not just through the course material but also through the learning environment that we work to create.
As our course is taken mostly by students who are fulfilling the ICR requirement, they express a desire for a curriculum that is less rigorous and mostly content recall. Our revised course is significantly different from other first-year courses. We have limited content recall assignments and worked to create a different learning space. In keeping with Indigenous practice, we start each lecture with a traditional opening and close each class similarly. We want our students to experience what happens in contemporary Indigenous organizations and to learn how to navigate and thrive in this space.
“I am already planning on loaning my copy of’ 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act’ to my mother and others.”
Taking an Indigenous Knowledge approach to the courses requires a multi-faceted pedagogy of engagement, including elements of content recall and analytic and personal reflection on the course material. In this process, finding a balance between content recall materials and materials that create spaces for concept synthesis and critical analysis will continue to be challenging. Overall, we tell a story that the students will take with them and that they can use in the future. Colleagues who teach students in the third and fourth years tell us that students discuss and frame Indigenous history and actions through the lens of “The Long Assault” and “The Great Healing” in their classes, illustrating the power of a good story.
