Recognizing First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada
On June 19th, 2019, a new professional standard came into effect for K-12 public school teachers in British Columbia. This change may have been off the radar for many, but it impacts 72,000 teachers and hundreds of thousands of students across the province. I learned about it two weeks ago at orientation for teacher education. Here it is:
Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of the ways of knowing and being, histories, and culture of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.
This new, ninth, standard goes on to require that:
Educators critically examine their own biases, attitudes, beliefs, values and practices to facilitate change. Educators value and respect the languages, heritages, cultures, and ways of knowing and being of First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Educators understand the power of focusing on connectedness and relationships to oneself, family, community and the natural world. Educators integrate First Nations, Inuit and Métis worldview and perspectives into learning environments.
This is the first time that Indigenous people are even mentioned in the professional standards. It seems like a big change.
What will the change mean for teachers?
I am incredibly grateful to be coming into the teaching profession with this as a professional standard, because it means that there is a mandate to do things differently than they’ve been done throughout Canada’s colonial history. For many teachers, this official change affirms the good work that they are already doing in classrooms. For other teachers, this standard will mean grappling – productive, essential grappling – with biases and expectations of classroom education.
To provide an example, in a recent class with other future teachers, someone mentioned the phenomenon of the northern lights. For the average science teacher, there is one explanation of this phenomenon. It is a “scientific” explanation. For some Indigenous students, or students with exposure and appreciation of Indigenous world views, the northern lights are ancestors.
How might a science teacher “value and respect” this way of understanding? It clearly reflects “connectedness and relationships to oneself, family, community and the natural world,” to use the language of the new professional standard. What would a science teacher need in order to effectively respect that view in front of the class?
Many of us will want professional development around Indigenous world views and strategies for integrating them into our teaching. I wonder where that support will come from. Beginning this year, one non-instructional day will be “designated to focus on Indigenous student achievement,” but that seems to have a different focus. I look forward to seeing how my own teacher education program addresses this new standard.
References:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2019EDUC0053-001275
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/standards-for-educators
