After my research and reflection on using oral tradition to increase engagement in my First People's English class, I realized that the issue was much broader than I had anticipated.  I brought what I had found to my students and a few key colleagues, and facilitated a conversation about the nature of First Nations teaching practices.  We looked at the challenges of incorporating pedagogy that is so far removed from colonial teaching practices in a system that honours the colonial methodology.  At first we decided that it wasn't possible in our system as it stands.  The need to assess and count minutes in our current system makes it impossible to follow the more holistic and personal nature inherent in First Nations practice.  Then, one of my students asked me to pull up the new curriculum, and we found hope!

In order to incorporate Indigenous teachings in an authentic way, teachers and administrators need to embrace multimodal ways for students to work with material (introduce/explore/reflect) and to use alternate assessment practices.  Our new curriculum allows more opportunity for these practices to be included in our classrooms.  Yet, the biggest thing that needs to change is our mindset about Indigenous teachings.

I have taken the information from my research and the suggestions from our group discussion and created two infographics that I will use in my school.  I am also happy to have others use them in understanding this complex issue.

Information is from the following academic sources:

Behizadeh, N. (2014). Mitigating the dangers of a single story: creating large-scale writing        
                 assessments aligned with sociocultural theory. Educational researcher, 43(3), 125-136.

Ilutsik, E.A. (2002). Oral traditional knowledge: does it belong in the classroom? Sharing our
                pathways, 7, 1-4

Pearce, G., & Lee, G. (2009). Viva voce (pral examination) as an assessment method: Insights
                from marketing students. Journal of marketing education, 31(2), 120-130.

Piquemal, N. (2003). From native North American oral traditions to Western literacy: storytelling
                in education. Alberta journal of educational research, 49(2), 113

Comparing Indigenous and Colonial Pedagogy

3 Ways to Include Indigenous Teaching Methodology