Learning Opportunities

Advancing Reconciliation in Education

Presented By

Lead Facilitator and additional local First Nations Facilitators

Series Sessions

Date Time
Tuesday, May 29, 2018 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Wednesday, May 30, 2018 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Location

In Person Lethbridge - TBD -, Lethbridge, AB

John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights
The Advancing Reconciliation in Education Professional Development Series workshops provide the opportunity to work through the toolkit and learn how you can apply it to introducing and working through Canada’s complex and challenging history in the classroom while inspiring action and understanding in schools and the broader community.

"Education, or what passed for it, got us into this situation, and education is what will lead us out. Schools seem to us to be one of the best vehicles to create and sustain a change in the attitude of all Canadians to the nature of the relationship that must exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in this country."
Murray Sinclair

Session One: Starting the Conversation
The first full day workshop will provide a starting point to open conversations about our shared history and provide a framework for introducing Truth and Reconciliation in the classroom. The session will create a safe and supportive space for teachers to work through some important questions about teaching reconciliation in an age appropriate way. We will introduce the toolkit and provide a grounding in some foundational principles for reconciliation: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and local Treaties. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from a local Elder / Knowledge Keeper who will lead us in ceremony, share teachings and help work some of the questions and barriers that may arise. We will engage in cross cultural dialogue
about reconciliation in schools, share best practices and work through the sessions of the toolkit.

Session Two: Truth Before Reconciliation
The second full day workshop will provide participants the opportunity to delve deeper into activities and topics of the toolkit. Participants will engage in collaborative, participatory learning sessions about Treaty, UNDRIP and Reclaiming Indigenous Language and Worldview in education and explore alternative pedagogies for the classroom. We will model age appropriate ways to bring these concepts into the classroom and engage with a local Indigenous knowledge keeper to explore the local context of these topics.

Session Three: Turning Knowledge into Action
This workshop will explore how teachers can hold space for difficult topics and use student participation and art-making to help process our colonial history, express their feelings about Canada’s past and recognize their own agency through art and activism. The Calls to Action process is an important way for students to recognize that their voices are valued, that they can be agents of change, and contribute to meaningful conversations and actions in their school and community. In this workshop, we will model process, present concrete examples of students’ work, and provide teachers with practical tools and examples to implement the process in their classroom. Teachers will also walk away with a clear idea and strategy of how they can connect to local community resources to support the journey.

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