Contemplating First People’s Knowledge Systems in a Teacher Education STEAM Course

• In Event: Navigating Race and Place Beyond Black-White Binaries

Abstract

As the world awakens to the issues of injustices perpetuated on First Peoples, teacher education programs in Canada are tasked with teaching teacher candidates about the histories and perspectives of First Peoples through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action (TRC, 2015). One way our program incorporates these teachings is to hold days highlighted on First Peoples worldview, pedagogies, and knowledge systems. This paper focuses on understanding how 124 teacher candidates perceive and grapple with the knowledge shared on a day that focused on Two-Eyed Seeing (Michie et al, 2012) and total Indigenization in a STEAM learning environment. Students completed a reflective task afterwards, which showed that they were appreciative of the opportunity and were keen to continue learning.

Authors

• Wendy Klassen, University of British Columbia - Okanagan

• Desiree Marshall-Peer, Langara College