When we prioritize our learners in the non-profit program outlined in our Pecha Kucha presentation, it is beneficial to determine the design principles that address our learners’ demands amongst the program’s intricacies. Our learners are young parents aged 16–24 who have challenges related to addiction and may also have concurrent mental health conditions. The design dilemma might be stated as follows: “How can we guarantee that genuine learner perspectives are incorporated into every aspect of the program while also ensuring that the formal content aligns with the program’s objectives?”

It is crucial to incorporate indigenous pedagogy and UDL principles to enhance and prioritize the learners’ connection and inclusion with the content of this project. Indigenous pedagogy is an educational method incorporating indigenous stories and traditions to facilitate knowledge acquisition (Antione et al., 2018). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles encompass various engagement, representation, action, and expression methods. UDL fosters the development of highly skilled learners by enabling teachers to consider the individuals facing obstacles and strategize how to produce a curriculum that accommodates the needs of as many students as feasible. In addition, proactive planning promotes the anticipation of learner variability and the collection of feedback for the purpose of redesign. Enabling access involves examining how learners interact with the classroom environment, engage with the representation of knowledge, and express their learning. Furthermore, providing flexibility underscores the need to allow programming choices and adaptability to achieve learning outcomes through various approaches. This approach clearly addresses the activities that make implicit understanding apparent, ensuring that expectations are transparent, specific, and achievable for all learners. Lastly, the instructional approach integrates regular and diverse assessments to offer frequent, diverse, and low-risk evaluations for active participation and consistent feedback (Takacs et al., 2022).

When considering Indigenous pedagogy and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the principles that I would follow for this necessary endeavor are:

  1. Design for everyone—everyone is equal, valued, and heard. This also encompasses providing multiple means of access to learning based on the learner’s situation.
  • Start with empathy in our design—remove all bias and empathize with the learners and their multiple challenges.
  • Provide a safe learning environment- ensure the learning is inclusive, safe, and conducive to the success of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. It revolves around the following principles: respect, responsibility, relevance, and reciprocity. (University of Calgary, 2023)
  • Create holistic learning –which allows students to reflect highly on their experiences within a learning setting and fits the lives and complexities they must navigate.
  • Provide an opportunity for experiential learning –This embraces learning by doing. In traditional Indigenous societies, young people learn to participate as adult community members by engaging in activities and honing the abilities necessary for their future roles as grown-ups. This fits our learners well.
  • Provide an opportunity for place-based learning- Within an Indigenous context, students engage in observable and natural learning with a connection to the location and in groups that are related to experience. An example would be actively learning at an Indigenous centre (Antoine et al., 2018).

References

Antione, A., Mason, R., Mason, R., Palahicky, S., & Rodriguez de France, C. (2018). Pulling together: A guide for curriculum developers. BCcampus. https://opentextbc.ca/indigenizationcurriculumdevelopers/chapter/topic-indigenous-epistemologies-and-pedagogies/

University of Calgary. (2023, February 16). Indigenous ways of knowing course design. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/resources/indigenous-ways-of-knowing-course-design

Takacs, Dr. S., Zhang, J., Lee, H., Truong, L., & Smulders, D. (2022, February 10). A comprehensive guide to applying Universal Design for Learning. A Comprehensive Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/jibcudl/