How do I respectfully and authentically incorporate Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWK) into my teaching when I don’t know a lot about it?

Authentically incorporating IWK into teaching is a process that takes time. Indigenous students shared that, in doing this work, it is important that you prioritize creating a space where other ways of knowing are not only accepted but appreciated and valued. As you take this step, it’s important to educate yourself, to locate examples, stories, and resources created or co-authored by Indigenous Peoples, and to share this knowledge with students in a respectful way. Collaborating and talking with colleagues is a great way to find, vet, and weave diverse knowledge and practices into your teaching.

Incorporating IWK includes speaking to and modeling Indigenous values, such as respect, relationality, and care. We encourage you to review the work of Kirkness and Barnhardt (2001) about “The Four R’s – Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility” and how these principles can help transform higher education for Indigenous Peoples. This seminal framework has been built upon and expanded over time, in particular, by Restoule (2008, 2019) who proposed the addition of a fifth R – Relationships. See the work of Tessaro et al. (2018) and Lake and Atkins (2021) for additional insight into how these 5 R’s can be foundational in (online) education.

Focus on drawing upon and modeling Indigenous pedagogies.

  • While the course content may not seem as natural a fit or connection, you can use Indigenous pedagogies to model relationship building, reciprocity, and care in the classroom setting and within your curriculum.

Be intentional in only including material where relevant.

  • Take the time to find relevant, meaningful examples and stories and make sure to incorporate/share them in a respectful and relevant way.
  • Incorporating IWK doesn’t mean randomly inserting facts about Indigenous culture or history into course material without context, as this can feel performative or awkward.

Explore the discrepancies of Western science as a way of knowing.

  • Reflect on how dismissing other ways of knowing may actually limit our understanding and bring these issues to light in class. It’s also important to explore the discrepancies and limitations of Western science as a way of knowing and how Indigenous ways of knowing, values, and processes can enrich STEM environments.
  • You might also think about why we don’t know enough or talk about particular knowledge systems in STEM disciplines (e.g. why don’t we know enough about traditional plant use?) and discuss these issues with students.

Consider the issue of knowledge extraction and hierarchies within Western science.

  • Research and consider the groups of people, beings, and the land who aren’t credited, despite contributing to or providing the foundation for scientific discoveries, and explore the reasons behind this. While literature usually attributes scientific advancements to a single scientist or group of scientists, it is important to acknowledge the many other people and beings that are involved, but who are discounted or discredited because they don’t hold certain privileges. For example, the contributions and discoveries of women in STEM have historically been discounted and even stolen. Similarly, the relationship that humans have with other beings and the land is frequently overlooked in Western scientific contexts.
  • You could also discuss how particular course concepts relate to society or societal issues.

References

Kirkness, V. J. and R. Barnhardt (2001). First Nations and Higher Education: The Four R’s – Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility. Knowledge Across Cultures: A Contribution to Dialogue Among Civilizations. R. Hayoe and J. Pan. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong. http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/IEW/winhec/FourRs2ndEd.html

Lake, J. & Atkins, H. (2021). Facilitating online learning with the 5R’s. Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/the5rsonline/

Restoule J. P. (2008, November 26). The five R’s of indigenous research: Relationship, respect, relevance, responsibility, and reciprocity [Conference session]. Invited workshop leader, Wise Practices II: Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network Research and Capacity Building Conference, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Restoule J. P. (2019). Where Indigenous knowledge lives: Bringing Indigenous perspectives to online learning environments. In McKinley E., Smith L. (Eds.), Handbook of Indigenous education (pp. 1295–1317). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1839-8_62-1

Tessaro, D., Restoule, J.-P., Gaviria, P., Flessa, J., Lindeman, C., & Scully-Stewart, C. (2018). The five R’s for indigenizing online learning: A case study of the first nations schools’ principals course. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 40(1), 125–143.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

How Do I Get Started? Creating Safer Learning Environments for Indigenous Students in STEM at UBC Copyright © by Frances Butterfield and Ashley Welsh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book