I. General Information
School Name: Fraser Wood
School District: SD#36 Surrey
Inquiry Team Members: Azita Sauder: sauder_a@surreyschools.ca, Anne McNamee: mcnamee@surreyschools.ca, Cheryl Chung: chung_c@surreyschools.ca, Sean Chambers: chambers_s@surreyschools.ca, Tammi Oullette: oullette_t@surreyschools.ca (our student teacher at the time)
We also had Emma Harradine: harradine_e@surreyschools.ca (our SOGI lead) and Margrit Daipour: daipour_m@surreyschools.ca (our Racial Equity lead), attend a few meetings as well and help plan events.
Inquiry Team Contact Email: miller_e@surreyschools.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing, Physical & Health Education, Science, Social Studies
Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous pedagogy, Inquiry-based learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, STEM / STEAM
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We wanted to gain a deep understanding of the history of Indigenous People, to have a deeper understanding of their culture.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We have three students that identify as Indigenous. They all seem very well-adjusted and cared for at school. As a team, we wanted to celebrate their culture, so they could continue to learn and be proud of their culture.
Focus: We did a summer Pro-D with an Indigenous theme last summer. We did the Takaya Tours canoeing in the morning. In the afternoon, I presented another workshop on Place-Based Learning. Then, a few months later, the Indigenous department lent us the science book: “Hands-On Science: An Inquiry Approach: Land, Water, and Sky for Grades 3-5.” We loved this book so much that we were inspired to teach more lessons from it, so we organically decided that our focus should be place-based learning this year. By scanning our 3 Indigenous students, we felt that they would enjoy learning about their culture through learning more about ecological and historical education.
Hunch: Our hunch at the school is that even though we have really tried to teach Indigenous Education as a staff, there is still so much to learn. As Indigenous Lead teacher – even though I knew that our focus needed to be on the students – I felt like we really had to focus on the teachers, by helping them get over their fear of cultural appropriation, before we could make more progress. This came out when we had our Week In Residence with the Indigenous presenters. In the instructions on how to prepare for that week, they asked for some Coast Salish art. All the teachers panicked about authenticity, and I realized that unlike me who has gone to so many workshops on Indigenous culture, cultural appropriation doesn’t rank as high on my list of concerns as it does for many of the staff. It was another staff member who said to say that the art is in “the style of…the artist.” For the rest of the year, I continued to receive questions about cultural appropriation. It’s a genuine fear. For me personally, it’s something that I have very mixed feelings about. Of course you don’t want someone else misrepresenting your culture and doing something offensive, but somehow the message that has been sent out to the general community has been spun into not trying to teach anything or you will make a mistake and therefore offend the entire Indigenous community. I feel like that messaging has to change. It has to be a combination of educating yourself more, of course, but also that Indigenous people accept that you’ll make mistakes and they aren’t going to be angry with you. They will appreciate your effort. They aren’t walking into schools and judging all the teachers. They are thankful for all the work teachers have put into teaching Indigenous content.
New Professional Learning: We learned about cultural appropriation not being such a big issue and to still try to experiment with art projects in the style of an Indigenous artist (as I mentioned above). Apart from that learning, we did a lot to promote Indigenous learning but more in a holistic way. I did the Pro-D teaching Indigenous outdoor education, so the school was able to “get outdoors” and try more place-based learning. We also had that science book passed around to some of the Intermediate grades. We participated in two cost shares for an Indigenous play mat of the Katzie land where our school is located, and we bought another big load of books to add to our library collection. We have quite an impressive collection of books (and a section of the library that prominently displays them) and other items in our school library, and a whole outdoor education bin as well. We also try to do Show and Shares for all our items. The admin did the last professional development day showing us how to effectively write our own land acknowledgement and to use the health medicine wheel to create more of a balance in our lives.
Taking Action: As mentioned above, it was a lot of discussions and educating the staff during professional development days, staff meetings and lunch and learns. What I had not mentioned above is how I asked an Indigenous student in Grade 6 (one of the three from our case study), who I knew was a great artist, to create a painting for the school and present it to the school for our Week In Residence. We learned all about her Metis culture and how she was influenced by her childhood living in an Indigenous community in the Northwest Territories before she moved to BC. The painting was beautiful. It is now displayed in the school. It will be her legacy. In my own classroom, I took them on a lot of field trips. We went to the Surrey Museum twice…once for the Metis cultural presentations and once for the Heritage Fair to present their projects on the European Explorers (and some of the discussion points were about their relationship with Indigenous communities), and of course the quintessential Grade 4 field trip of Fort Langley where we talked about the fur trade. I also attended the NOIIE symposium this year for the first time. I loved the conference and I have already done an I Am poem with my class. We also ordered Leona Prince’s new book. I loved her quote about looking through the eyes of the eagle and mouse. I also connected with the group from Sweden and hope to possibly join their penpal network in the fall.
Picture Description: The photos above cover our class field trips to the Surrey museum, one picture of our Week in Residence Assembly, as well as our Takaya Tours paddling Professional Development Day in North Vancouver.
Checking: Every year we do a little more. I believe we achieved a lot at the school this year, and we are dedicated to learning more about Indigenous culture and teaching it. I felt like the cultural appropriation piece really surprised me. I believe my job next year is to find a way to educate the staff about that topic, to help them overcome their fear and take more risks when teaching Indigenous Education, especially when teaching Art.
Reflections/Advice: I learned that all the professional development workshops, materials purchased and field trips that happened this year really helped the teachers and students learn more about Indigenous Education. There is always more work to be done as you can see with the cultural appropriation piece. I think that needs to be our focus for next year.