Preamble and Acknowledgements
This resource is meant to provide advice and resources for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) instructors on how to ‘get started’ when working to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing into their curriculum and practices as a means to create safer learning environments for Indigenous students. It may also be useful for people facilitating these types of conversations in STEM departments and contexts or by anyone who may be interested in the subject. The idea to create this resource emerged from a Skylight Development Grant project that aimed to curate and create resources and professional development opportunities for UBC Science faculty members around Goal 4 of the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP), Indigenizing Our Curriculum. When working on the project, we realized the need for a foundational resource that addresses the emergent and commonly asked questions that non-Indigenous STEM folks often pose in regard to their learning and engagement with Indigenous rights, histories, experiences, and ways of knowing, being, and doing.
We see this as a living, conversational resource to be updated over time as new questions, relationships, and resources form. The responses to the questions are informed by our conversations with Indigenous students, faculty, and staff in UBC Science, the CTLT Indigenous Initiatives team, and our colleagues in Skylight. We have organized the document into five main themes related to Western and Indigenous ways of knowing in STEM, one’s personal journey, language, land acknowledgements, and emotion and relationality. As much as possible, we have provided links and information from UBC, British Columbian, and Canadian-based resources to help people further enrich and expand their knowledge. We do not consider this a ‘clean’ or ‘perfect’ document, but one that shares perspectives, experiences, thoughts, and resources to help folks navigate these complex and nuanced topics. Creating curriculum and practices that elevate and acknowledge diverse ways of knowing and that are centered around respect, reciprocity, and relationality are not only important for Indigenous students’ learning and experiences, but for everyone.
When we originally began development on this resource in 2021, we naively assumed it would be 5-6 pages, but with increasing feedback and conversations, it grew into something much greater given the importance and complexity of the topics. The first version was published in July 2022 as a 16-page PDF and its methodology and content were celebrated via workshops as well as within various professional development spaces at UBC. Over the years, suggestions for us to covert the resource into a Pressbooks and/or website were mounting as colleagues were keen to capture and share particular sections and/or questions of the resource. As such, in the fall of 2023, with gracious funding from Skylight, we reviewed and updated the resource into this Pressbooks format. While once again, we thought this would be a relatively straightforward update, it turned into a more lengthy project with multiple conversations and check-ins. After close to 8 months of work, we are eager to share this resource with others while acknowledging the great responsibility in ensuring our words and the words of others are received with humility and care from readers.
The creation of this resource would not have been possible without conversations with and contributions from Indigenous students, faculty, and staff in UBC Science, Zakir Suleman, Amber Schroeder, Erin Fields, Will Engle, and our colleagues in Skylight, the Skylight ISP Working Group, and CTLT Indigenous Initiatives. We sincerely thank them for their constructive feedback and support. We would also like to acknowledge that the development of this work took place in-person and virtually on several Indigenous lands and territories including that of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Selí̓lwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Syilx Okanagan, Anishinaabe, Néhinaw (Cree), Dakȟóta (Dakota), and Métis Peoples.
With thanks and care,
Frances & Ashley
