Intergenerational Education

EDCI 780 Inquiry

For my inquiry project as a pre- service teacher at Victoria High School I researched benefits and strategies for integrating inter-generational learning into high school classrooms and culture. Intergenerational learning is learning with and from our elders.  My inquiry topic is inspired by programs such as Igen (Intergenerational Classroom) in Saskatoon which pairs grade 6 learners with elders in the community full time for a year. I want to strategize how learning with elders in schools might ground students in their community and ground them in relationships and culture. 

I am driven to investigate intergenerational learning from my own experience. I lived with my grandparents as an adolescent and learned under their tutelage. I also went to a high school where Indigenous elders were often present in the classroom or at school events. The presence of these older adults in my personal and academic community gave my high school experience perspective and taught me a respect for different life experiences.

I was also guided towards this inquiry because of it’s relevance in my teaching areas of  social studies and gender studies, combined with the calls for intergenerational awareness in the new BC Curriculum. During my time at Vic High, I focused my inquiry project on the social studies classroom and faculty, and ask teachers and administrators how they connect students to elders in the community, or what the barriers might be that prevent them from doing so. From here, I want to ask students at Vic High and peers at Uvic what their experience of elders are, and wether they can think of any connections between those experiences and the topics they are teaching or learning about. Finally, I grounded my project in case studies on inter-generational learning such as the Igen program in Saskatoon, and connect the results to potential applications under the BC Curriculum’s Core Competencies and the FNESC First Peoples Principles of Knowledge. The final result of my project were displayed in the poster pictured below and presented at the Vic High and the Uvic Education Programs end of year gala. 

Intergenerational Learning poster by me

 

Some of the benefits of Intergenerational Learning I found were:

• Strengthens community inside and beyond the school and classroom
• Teaches strong communication skills
• Builds respect for different world views and experiences
• Connects learning to culture and history
• Grounds learning in relationships
• Builds empathy and self awareness
• Can improve mental health

Strategies for integrating Intergenerational learning into the classroom were listed from starting points to increasing levels of involvement:

• Service education (volunteering)
• Guest speakers
• Connect with learners and their communities
• Use primary documents and material culture from other time periods to promote empathy in lessons
• Connect with elders through technology
• Work with administration to build an ongoing school – elder partnership
• Immersion programes

Perhaps the most important finding of my inquiry was that building meaningful intergenerational learning partnerships means facilitating ongoing reciprocal relationships between students and elders. This means that students and elders meet regularly and get to know and trust one another, perhaps working together on a project. Through my time at Vic High I connected with the gender studies teacher who does just this. Her class has worked with elders to create a play about sexual identity and health, a project that has matured through the year.

This inquiry is far from finished. It will continue to grow as I move into my role as a teacher. I plan on starting my teaching with an awareness of the importance of the generations that inform each students identity. I hope that by grounding my pedagogy in my experience with my own elders I can foster a classroom dynamic where students feel comfortable speaking to their own relationships with elders. This will be the first step toward connecting my students to an intergenerational consciousness.

 

Secwepemc Language Game

This week I looked at the resources compiled by Chief Atahm School in Salmon Arm. The school is an immersive language school and has programmes in Secwepemc from Kindergarden to professional development. I learned about this school from a colleagues from the area, who passed on an article in the Salmon Arm Observer linked here.

As well as providing classes in Secwepemc, Cheif Atahm school creates curriculum resources for Secwepemc teaching. You can visit their excellent website here .  It is heartening to see such a commitment to language learning and teaching both online and in person.

Image from the schools home page linked here

Some of the tools Chief Atahm school has on their website include the following: A Secewpemc language game, books in the language, and curriculum packs for purchase from k-12. The game was one of the only free resources, so thats what I gravitated to.

The brief interaction I had with the games was positive. It is simple match and guess technology with audio and visual aids. I think this tool is excellent when paired with in person instruction, so that children have immersion that can put vocabulary into context. Though I do not live in this territory, It is important to know where I can access examples of lessons that integrate indigenous languages as a future teacher. These lessons could hopefully be altered to the specific territory I end up working in, with the consultation of administration and the community.

Ye’ yumnuts project: Beginnings

After visiting Ye’yumnuts the first time ideas were swirling. Teachers administrators and community members all had ideas for how to connect students toYe’yumnuts. Since that visit the dust has settled, and some direction has begun to emerge. Myself and my colleagues have decided we would like to  create something tangible, a physical resource that could be used to facilitate lessons both at and about Ye’yumnuts. Cowichan had articulated a desire for a kit of artifact replicas from the site, and so we focused on that goal.

In the weeks that have passed the artifact kit project has matured. I started by visualizing a kit of direct replicas found on site. Creating this kit would require skills in manufacturing and archeology that are beyond me, so I started a partnership with UVic Archeology professor Quentin Mackie. Dr Mackie is a hero of northwest coast archeology, and has worked extensively with the Haida Nation to help prove their claim to Haida Gwaii since time immemorial (link to his excellent blog here). He is also a family friend I have known since childhood.

Myself and my colleagues met with Dr. Mackie last week. He suggested several strategies for directly re-producing objects found at Ye’yumnuts including 3D printing, silicone casting and flint knapping. While speaking with Dr. Mackie, the question of involvement became central to our discussion. How would students become invested in artifact replicas as working objects connected to a cultural context? Are static objects the most dynamic option for highschool students? Dr. Mackie suggested students might have a more wholistic experience of artifacts by creating their own artifact replica, specifically a flake point made from slate. Dr. Mackie explained that this is an approachable and safe activity that can be done in an hour.  We are currently working on connecting to one of Dr. Mackie’s colleagues who is an expert on making flake point tools, with the hope of developing an instructional video that accompanies the artifact kit. In the meantime here is a link to a great instructional post on making a basic flaked point.

Photo by Kaibab National Forest / CC BY

Yesterday, our group of education students met with Dr Thom to discuss our progress. We were connected with an anthropology student who also wants to create an artifact kit, and has considerable expertise in the production of one. We have also added two new education students to the project, both of whom bring new expertise in math and GIS mapping.

Our meeting was focused on uses for the archeology kit in the classroom. We are planning to each create a set of suggestions or prompts specific to the competencies of our respective subjects. In addition, we discussed the importance of connecting the kit to present day Cowichan culture. We discussed displaying the flake point in connection to modern practices of spear fishing vital to Cowichan life today peoples today, and that the lessons also connect to contemporary Cowichan claims to the land and resources (See a SD79 schoolteacher integrating spearfishing into her classroom here).

Our next step in this project is to pause, and present our ideas to the Cowichan representatives at SD 79. This will take me and my colleagues back up island this Friday, where we will workshop with our partners on how best to move forward. I look forward to attending this meeting with my new colleagues, and hearing what our Cowichan partners have to say about our ideas.

 

Tech Inquiry: First Voices

I have cast a wide net in my search for Indigenous language learning tools. My search has lead me to several resources, some that are language specific and others that have much broader mandates. Today I will share one resource and my ideas for it’s potential application in the classroom.

1. First Voices 

Screenshot from First Voices homepage here

First Voices is a centralized database of Indigenous Language learning tech tools. Languages are listed alphabetically in an interactive grid (pictured above). Each language has a dedicated home page and branching pages titled: learning the language, photographs, games and kids portal. Learning the Language provides the user with interactive links to words, phrases, stories, songs and the specific alphabet used in each context. These categories are populated with written, phonetic and spoken components and occasionally have images to accompany vocabulary. There are also links to specific keyboards for each language, which can be downloaded for android and IOS devices.

First Voices Keyboard for iPhone

Perhaps most excitingly, many of the languages have learning apps that use a flashcard method much like the popular app Duolingo. The most local language app to the Victoria area is SENĆOŦEN, the language of the W̱SÁNEĆ  (Saanich) people. I downloaded the app and spent some time with it. Immediately I was struck by the ease of the format, a choice between random flash cards spoken and written in SENĆOŦEN or an English to SENĆOŦEN search engine. The app functioned much like a digital dictionary, with the addition of a spoken aid and a graphic for each word.

First Voices app for SENĆOŦEN. Screenshots from my phone.

I think this would be a very practical tool for students to have at their disposal in the classroom. The pronunciation element of the app is vital, as it allows students to immediately speak the word in mimicry. As useful as this app is it is a basic tool, it does not move the learner beyond vocabulary building. It is important that Indigenous languages are integrated holistically into schools, where students learn about Indigenous languages as the soul of Indigenous culture, and connect the language to the land. This app provides an excellent supplementary tool to a more robust language lesson in SENĆOŦEN, and has many applications for practice and memorization.

 

Ye’yumnuts Project: First Visit

Last Friday, September 21st Ryon, Spencer and myself made our first trip to Cowichan territory to visit Ye’yumnuts. Ye’yumnuts is a sacred site to the Cowichan peoples, a place where people have lived since time immemorial and a burial ground where the Cowichan have laid ancestors to rest. Ye’yumnuts also has a more recent archeological history. Over the past 25 years teams of researchers including UVic’s Dr Brian Thom have worked under the guidance of the Cowichan Nation to excavate and catalogue the site. Thanks to the efforts of the Cowichan peoples and their partners,  Ye’yumnuts is protected as a historical site under the Heritage Conservation Act today.

Signage informs visitors of the importance of Ye’yumnuts and it’s protection under the Heritage Conservation Act. Image shows archeological dig.

The purpose of our visit on Friday was to begin a dialogue between archeologists, educators, school board administrators and Cowichan leadership about Ye’yumnuts as a place for education. This was sparked by Dr. Thom, who saw a need for engagement with local Indigenous history in his own children’s lesson plans . What better place than Ye’yumnuts, a major cultural and scientific site in the back yard of School District 79, steps away from the district headquarter building and in the heart of the Cowichan Valley.

The conversation we had  before visiting Ye’yumnuts was inspiring. The superintendent of SD 79 spoke at length to the value of BC’s curriculum and highlighted it’s ability to facilitate place based learning. Ye’yumnuts was discussed as a place where cross curricular inquiry could flourish between the arts, sciences, social sciences, trades and indeed all subjects. An experienced outdoor education teacher spoke to the power of being on the land to teach emergent curriculum, and the importance of multi age groupings for facilitating peer learning. Perhaps most importantly we discussed the importance of an Indigenous pedagogy, described beautifully by an Aboriginal Education Consultant in the following diagram:

Diagram describing indigenous pedagogy as radiating out from the middle, with each ring in connection.

At the end of our discussion we came up with some principles to guide the work we were embarking on. We did this through a process not dissimilar to the EdCamp model: discussing with a small group to workshop our personal guiding principles. The answers were then shared and up-voted, providing  a final set of philosophies behind our work at Ye’yumnuts. These philosophies included:

• Explicitly teaching the First Peoples Principles of knowledge and modelling Indigenous pedagogy as described by the above diagram.
• Grounding learning in place by physically visiting and interacting with Ye’yumnuts
• Knowing your learners: building time for all resources to build community and access the prior knowledge of students.
• Working in with and for community: regarding our consultation and partnerships with the Cowichan as a living agreement.

Colleagues documenting our EdCamp style brainstorm for guiding principles behind our work at Ye yumnuts.

Following our conversation, Dr Thom and Cowichan leaders guided us on a walk through Ye’yumnuts. We were accompanied by over 60 teachers from SD 79 who are interested in incorporating the site into their lessons. Together we were shown the places where houses had been, touched fire cracked rocks from the hearths of Cowichan homes, and learned protocol for respecting the dead who rest at Ye’yumnuts.

depression where a hearth would have been. Dr Thom speaking to SD 79 teachers

After our walk we discussed the next steps in our engagement with Ye’yumnuts. There is so much work to be done. Our primary goal at this stage is to begin sketching out resources that enrich place based lessons at Ye’yumnuts. Some ideas I was particularly interested in include:

• An artifact replica kit. Corresponding lesson plan that combines Art, Social Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Archeology, Geology, Political Science and Economics (trade of materials to build Obsidian tools).
• Augmented reality at Ye’yumnuts: QR codes that connect learners to images of what would have been there through time. Used as a virtual field trip through time.

I see both of these ideas as having huge potential for creative engagement with Ye’yumnuts that could be brought from site to  classroom. As an artist and an Art teacher, I want students to have opportunities to react to their learning multi-modally and from a place of emotional authenticity. It is my goal to work on connecting cross curricular Art and Social Studies lesson plans on these ideas.

More visits are scheduled to Cowichan to continue developing resources for teaching at Ye’yumnuts. The ball is rolling and I have meetings this week with the Archeology department to discuss strategy for artifact re-production (see interesting links below). The First Peoples Principles of Knowledge tell us that learning should take patience and time. I can see that this will be the case with this project, and that the learning will be deep and meaningful.

3D Rendering of Artifacts: https://arck-project.org/project/nesikep-point-of-the-secwepemc-museum/

 

 

Tech Inquiry: First Steps

In this inquiry project I want to investigate identify and familiarize myself with tech tools that can bring indigenous languages into the classroom. I am interested in how indigenous language learning can connect students to place, build community in the class, and be applied to all subjects. I am also interested in how learning elements of the indigenous language can help teach the First Peoples Principles of Learning in the classroom. My goals with these project are these:

1. Identify and collect as many tech tools as I can find for the Lekwungen language.
2. Use these tools and provide reviews and potential uses in learning and teaching.
3. Expand my search to a selection of other indigenous languages according to where I might like to work.
4. Learn a selection of Lekwungen words and share them with my community.
5. Expand into adjacent tech and non tech tools such as video / film resources in indigenous languages, video conferencing with other language speakers or learners, and visual aids for indigenous language learning for the classroom.