Tag Archives: indigenous education

UVic Author Celebration Feature: Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education

The annual UVic Author Celebration is coming up as part of Ideafest. Join us as we celebrate books written by UVic authors, including an engaging panel discussion on issues facing First Nations communities.

When: March 8, 2018
Where: University Bookstore
Time: 3:00-4:30pm

The author panel includes: John Borrows (Law), Michele Tanaka (Education), Paul Whitinui (Education), and Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams (Education). Rebecca Johnson (Indigenous Law Research Unit) will moderate.

This week, we will highlight the books written by members of the author panel.

Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education edited by Paul Whitinui, Maria del Carmen Rodriguez de France, and Onowa McIvor is a recent release from Springer.

About the Book

This book provides a comprehensive overview of navigating the on-going systemic challenges, hardships, and problems facing many indigenous teacher education programs today, helping to foster a commitment to developing quality indigenous teacher education programs that are sustainable, distinctive and excellent. However, despite a growing cadre of indigenous peoples working in teacher education, there is still a noticeable gap between the uptake of what is being taught in conventional teacher education programs, and how this translates to what we see student teachers doing in the classroom. The often tricky and complex nature of indigenous teacher education programming also means that there are multiple realities, approaches and pathways that require greater communication, collaboration, and cooperation. The very nature of this complexity, the book suggests, requires a strength-based and future-focused approach built on trust, integrity, courage and respect for indigeneity, as well as an understanding of what it means to be indigenous. The examples and experiences presented identify a number of promising practices that work well in current indigenous teacher education programs and beyond. By promoting a greater appreciation for the inclusion of culturally relevant practices in teacher education, the book aims to breathe new life into the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of indigenous teacher education programs moving forward.

About the Editors

L-R: Rodriguez de France, McIvor, and Whitinui. Credit: Julie Rémy, UVic

Dr. Paul Whitinui is an indigenous Māori scholar from Aotearoa New Zealand and an assistant professor at the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education (EPHE) based at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Education in BC, Canada. His research is interdisciplinary by nature and broadly linked by relationships between indigenous education, Indigenous sociology, Indigenous community health, Indigenous wellbeing, and indigenous autoethnography. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Whitinui has published and presented extensively on culturally responsive teaching and learning, indigenous educational leadership in higher education, treaty-relational health, the benefits of indigenous performing arts (i.e., kapa haka) in public high schools, and the application of indigenous autoethnography in teaching and learning, and health. Presently, he is the co-chair of the World Indigenous Research Alliance under the auspices of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC), as well as a reviewer for the online WINHEC journal.

Dr Maria del Carmen Rodriguez de France is an assistant professor in the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Education. She facilitates graduate and undergraduate courses on indigenous knowledge, pedagogy, and education. The focus of her research is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, weaving together fields of education that influence her work in preparing students to work within a diverse society. Dr. Rodriguez de France has published books and journal articles nationally and internationally, and contributes to the field of indigenous education as member of national and international journal editorial boards.

Dr. Onowa McIvor is an assistant professor and the director of Indigenous Education at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Education. Her research interests center on indigenous language revitalization and indigenous teacher education. Dr. McIvor has been a contributing author to several edited book projects and has provided peer-review editing for several international academic journals such as AlterNative, Educational Research, the Canadian Journal of Education, and Curriculum Inquiry.

For More Information

See the UVic news item for a Q&A with the editors on Indigenizing education.

UVic Author Celebration Feature: Learning and Teaching Together

The annual UVic Author Celebration is coming up as part of Ideafest. Join us as we celebrate books written by UVic authors, including an engaging panel discussion on issues facing First Nations communities.

When: March 8, 2018
Where: University Bookstore
Time: 3:00-4:30pm

The author panel includes: John Borrows (Law), Michele Tanaka (Education), Paul Whitinui (Education), and Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams (Education). Rebecca Johnson (Indigenous Law Research Unit) will moderate.

This week, we will highlight the books written by members of the author panel.

Learning and Teaching Together: Weaving Indigenous Ways of Knowing into Education by Michele Tanaka was released by UBC Press in 2016.

About the Book

Far more than a how-to book, Learning and Teaching Together introduces teachers of all levels to an indigenist approach to education. Tanaka recounts how pre-service teachers enrolled in a cross-cultural course in British Columbia immersed themselves in indigenous ways of learning and teaching by working alongside indigenous wisdom keepers. Together, they transformed cedar bark, buckskin, and wool into a mural that tells stories about the land upon which the course took place. In the process, they discovered new ways of learning that support not only intellectual but also tactile, emotional, and spiritual forms of knowledge. The teachers-in-training then carried their new-found knowledge into their practicums, where they faced challenges and opportunities as they worked to apply the indigenist values they had learned within a system structured around Western values, beliefs, and attitudes.

About the Author Michele T.D. Tanaka is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. Her research and teaching interests have been shaped by 20 years in the classroom, in a variety of educational settings including early childhood, kindergarten, Grade 5 reading, and adult education.

Dr. Tanaka teaches courses in Transformative Inquiry, Community & Culture, EL TELNIWT & Aboriginal Education, and Elementary Field Experiences. She currently serves on the Indigenous Education Advisory Board, the Diversity, Belonging & Equity Committee, and the Faculty of Education Social Committee.

Praise for the Book

“Teachers in British Columbia and throughout Canada who struggle with how to enact curriculum changes that incorporate Indigenous knowledge, history, and identity will find this book illuminating … in spite of the seemingly overwhelming challenges in making a space for Indigenous thought and experience, it can and must be done. The transformation has been happening and is continuing.” – Michael Marker, BC Studies, no. 196, Winter 2017/18

“Too often, in educational contexts, we get caught up in theorizing and intellectualizing rather than expressing other ways of knowing and understanding. As Michele Tanaka shows, there is much powerful holistic learning that can emerge when we make and do things together in accordance with the guidance of sacred ecology wisdom. This provocative and engaging book provides excellent examples of holistic engagement processes and inspires us to reimagine the purposes and processes of public education today. Learning and Teaching Together provides valuable guidance to educators, teacher-educators, and policy makers.” – Dwayne Donald, associate professor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta