This was a really interesting assignment and one I wish we could have tested in real life! My partner for this assignment was Myrna Pokiak. Her blog can be found here.
Introduction
Integration of Indigenous ways of knowing in a learning context was the focus of our design thinking challenge. We used the process described by the d.School Design Thinking Process, part of the course materials for LRNT 524. We challenged ourselves to radically reimagine the design of digital learning environments (DLEs) for Indigenous learners and realize the potential of critical instructional design in practice by closing the education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Closing the education gap has been shown to have benefits for improved earnings potentials as well as reduced cultural dissonance (Howe, 2011). Our solutions, which we have termed revolution instead, includes three main points that we propose to test: access, story mining and preservation, and acceptance of oral traditions in academia.
Revolution One: Access
Access and reliable high speed internet is crucial for Indigenous learners to benefit from DLEs. Without reliable access, there will continue to be a lack of Indigenous users for a DLE. As Anthony & Keating highlighted, Australia has seen some progress and has shown how urban versus rural access is not simply a matter of physical access, “what is a positive force for non-Indigenous urban communities must also be good for remote Indigenous communities” (2013, p. 5, para 3). The cultural differences between people who live in urban versus rural settings must be taken into account when attempting to design DLEs.
In comparing internet access across Canada, it is valuable to view the Indigenous populations, with the highest percentage of Indigenous versus non-Indigenous (Figure 1), and compare with internet access across the same geographic regions (Figure 2). This comparison shows a true visual of limitations for regions with the highest Indigenous populations per capita across Canada and the inequality that continues to exist.
Figure 1
Percentage of the Indigenous population by Province/Territory
Note. The data are from Indigenous Services Canada, Government of Canada. (2020).
Figure 2
Internet Service inCanada
Note. The data are from Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Government of Canada (2019).
Radical ways to meet user’s needs for Access
- Tie regulatory approvals to funding for broadband. Resource exploration companies need not be internet network builders, but must be viewed as necessary partners in the development of remote communities for development of DLEs if they intend to continue to exploit these remote areas for resources such as oil and gas, diamonds, or uranium.
- The Government of Canada must honor the 94 Calls to Action (TRC, 2015) and hold itself accountable, considering the mass deconstruction of Indigenous society through stolen unceded land (McIntosh, 2020), water, and resources. One example to achieve the sixth to 12th Calls to Action, would be the investment in internet access throughout Canada and implement swiftly to bridge the gap that currently limits users, particularly in rural Indigenous regions as illustrated in Figure 2.
Revolution Two: Mining the Elder Populations for their Stories
Judy Iseke and Sylvia Moore have worked to develop Métis storytelling as pedagogy and research practice (Iseke & Moore, 2013). Elders need not have access to technology themselves. This can be provided for them so that their learnings can be captured and used later, as Iseke and Moore did in their Presenting ourselves to/in the Museum project (Iseke & Moore, 2011).
Radical ways to meet user’s needs for Mining the Elder Populations for their Stories
- Implementation of a technology space in Indigenous elders’ facilities to connect with learners throughout the world, would provide access to wisdom and elders knowledge. This would improve mental health strengths for elders and provide access for learners to connect with elders’ and knowledge through DLEs. Imagining access that is attained through oral history and connecting with elders who are natural storytellers, the technology space would encourage dialogue and offer opportunities for interviews, documentation, preservation, and teaching. A respected Inuvialuit elder, Randall Pokiak described the role of elders best in his last documented film about the current pandemic, “the elders’ responsibility is, we’ll protect you, we’ll teach you how.” (Code, 2020, 11:40 to 13:23). Elders crave to share their knowledge. In DLEs and underutilized elders facilities, the link between sharing elders’ wisdom with learners becomes possible.
Revolution Three: Working on Acceptance and Academy for Oral Traditions
Euro-centric educational models are not the only acceptable means of teaching. Oral traditions and their associated cultures of learning are valid alternatives (Iseke, 2013). Indigenous teaching traditions being studied by the Gabriel Dumont Institute and the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) (SUNTEP, 2013) are involving elders in education and focusing on supporting elders “to build relations and to create ethical space where learning and sharing can occur.” (Goulet et. al., 2009, p. 2).
We agree with Morris when he says that instructional design should “give platforms for those voices most usually suppressed or oppressed” (2018, para.7). Part of this work involves repatriating indigenous artifacts from their various colonial holdings around the world (NBC, 2021). Elders can develop rich DLEs to teach the artifacts’ history in context, as is being done in the Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait (Inuvialuit Living History) project (CBC, 2020). Combined with Indigenous Digital Storytelling as described by Iseke & Moore “to teach youth their cultural traditions and the Western skills that will enable them to work in the wider world” (2011, p. 21), an alternative to the currently practiced Eurocentric model of written word and culturally appropriated teaching can be developed that is authentic, decolonized, and comes directly from the people who own it, rather than filtered through a western academic lens.
Radical ways to meet user’s needs to work on Acceptance and Academy for Oral Traditions
- Development of Indigenous resource websites, based on regions and representing all Indigneous groups, similarly to the Inuvialuit Digital Library (2014), collaboration between the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre and the University of Alberta. The creation of a National Indigenous website with links to each Indigenous region, would allow direct digital access to documented stories, visuals, and information from Indigenous perspectives, essentially taking the Native Land (2021) website one step further so when an Indigenous group is visited, links to websites like the Inuvialuit Digital Library become available.
- Repatriate artifacts such as the MacFarlane Collection that is currently housed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC (CBC, 2020) and provide resources to develop culturally appropriate learning resources.
Conclusion
This design thinking challenge was a good opportunity to stretch our thoughts on possibilities to close the education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners and how that can happen. We were able to use the process to dig deep into what learners need to successfully participate in DLEs and build solutions to close the gap. We feel that reliable access, story mining and preservation, and radical acceptance of oral traditions are possible solutions for Indigenous learners who are survivors and as Wilson-Fontain put it, “thrivers” (Monkman, 2019).
References
Anthony, S. G., & Keating, M. S. (2013). The difficulties of online learning for Indigenous Australian students living in remote communities–it’s an issue of access. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 16(2).
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Stuff The British Stole. (n.d.). [Collection]. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (2020, August 10). “All his wisdom will be missed”: Lifelong Inuvialuit advocate dies at 71. CBC News. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/randal-boogie-pokiak-inuvialuit-obituary-1.5680097
Code, Allan. (2020). Pandemic – at the end of the world. [National Film Board of Canada]. https://www.nfb.ca/film/pandemic-at-the-end-of-the-world/
Goulet, L., Pelletier, J., Pete, S., Racette, C., Longman, S. Goodwill, K., & Fayant, R. (2009). Asokan (The Bridge) Teachers’ Work with Elders. Saskatoon: Dr. Stirling MacDowell Foundation for Research Into Teaching Inc., Project #188.
Hotte, N., Nelson, H., Hawkins, T., Wyatt, S., & Kozak, R. (2018). Maintaining accountability between levels of governance in Indigenous economic development: Examples from British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Public Administration, 61(4), 523–549. https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12287
Howe, E. C. (2011). Mishchet aen kishkayhtamihk nawut ki wiichiihtonaan: Bridging the aboriginal education gap in Saskatchewan. Gabriel Dumont Institute.
Indigenous Services Canada, Government of Canada. (2020). Annual Report to Parliament 2020. https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1602010609492/1602010631711
Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Government of Canada (2019). High Speed Internet Access for All: Canada’s Connectivity Strategy. https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/139.nsf/eng/h_00002.html
Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Center and University of Alberta. (2014). Inuvialuit Digital Library. https://inuvialuitdigitallibrary.ca/collections
Iseke, J., & Moore, S. (2011). Community-based Indigenous Digital Storytelling with Elders and Youth. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 35(4), 19–38.
McIntosh, Emma (2020). What it means when we say Indigenous land is ‘unceded’. Jan 24, 2020 Podcast. Canada’s National Observer. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/24/analysis/what-we-mean-when-we-say-indigenous-land-unceded
Monkman, Leonard. (2019). From survivors to ‘thrivers’: former residential school students connect with culture and each other. CBC News. Retrieved January 1, 2022 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/residential-school-survivors-thrivers-1.5296107
Morris, S. M. (2018). Critical Instructional Design. In An Urgency of Teachers. Pressbooks.
Europe returns looted African treasures as it reckons with colonial past. (n.d.). NBC News. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/europe-returns-looted-benin-bronzes-africa-reckons-legacy-empire-rcna3986
Native Land. (2020). Native Land Digital. WordPress. https://native-land.ca/
SUNTEP (Saskatoon, Sask.), & Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research (Eds.). (2013). “Be bold! Move forward!”: Measuring success. Gabriel Dumont Institute.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015). Truth and Reconciliation of Canada: Calls to Action. https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
