Category: Reflections

Hi everyone,

In short, I believe that there will be a greater need for open education resources within my own teaching as I have personally experienced the great costs incurred from purchasing textbooks throughout my undergraduate career (Moist, 2017).

What I would be primarily interested in adapting would be a psychology textbook which focuses on the fundamentals of depth psychology. Since I have many of my own psychological interests, I would be interested in adapting a piece of psychological curriculum which is associated towards my own interests in Jungian psychology (Moist, 2017).

While I have been exposed to many different open education textbooks which covered the fundaments of psychology, I would be interested in further adapting them towards a depth psychology leaning. The fact that open educational resources can also be updated all the time is a tremendous advantage for an educator since the content never has the opportunity to go out of date (Blink Tower, 2012).

As a consequence, I would like to contribute to open education resources through the creation of my own audio/visual presentations which discuss theoretical concepts of psychology rather than having to depend on exclusively ‘word-based’ documents and resources. I am growing towards a greater appreciation of audio/visual learning resources and this appreciation has spurned a new creative interest in me towards the creation of learning resources which are interesting and relevant to both my own and my students interests.

Best,

Carson 🙂

References

Blink Tower. (2012). Why open education matters [Video file]. Vimeo. https://barabus.tru.ca/eddl5131/whyeducationmatters.html

Moist, S. (2017). Faculty OER toolkit. BCcampus. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/facultyoertoolkit/

Hi everyone,

Creating opportunities for educators to share the personal experiences of their Indigenous students will assist them in gaining tremendous cultural perspective. It is in noting our differences which allows us to better elucidate where we require a greater emphasis of understanding and perspective taking for cultures which differ from our own (Antoine et al, 2018, Diverse Sources of Indigenous Knowledge, para. 4).

The inclusion of indigenous ways of knowing and cultures within a classroom setting needs to avoid cultural appropriation through the building of connections to Indigenous communities and elders. Adhering to the honor systems of Indigenous cultures is of utmost importance throughout this process (Appropriate Use of Indigenous Knowledge, para. 7). It is my belief that the more that a piece of curriculum contains Indigenous ways of knowing such as the concept of “all my relations”, the more that Indigenous students will feel connected to their course content since it will begin to share the cultural capital of their own home communities.

My course design will also be best served through the introduction of First Nations concepts and languages. For example, Antoine et al (2018) states that curriculum developers should implement the conceptual themes of Indigenous languages into curriculum. (Incorporating Local Land, Knowledge, and Language, para. 5). One of the most profound calls to actions on the part of Thompson Rivers University is for all Canadian universities to create college and university programs in Aboriginal languages (Thompson Rivers University, 2012, p. 12). Consequently, the incorporation of Indigenous content requires inviting Indigenous leaders, elders, and writers into the creation process where new forms of Indigenous Curriculum are made.

Without listening to the knowledge holders of Indigenous culture, the integrity and honor of their ways of knowing will be lost and dishonored. It is in the process of honoring and sharing one another’s knowledge where old biases are lost and new relationships are born. It is this process of viewing all people groups as my relations which allows me to better listen and respect my own culture as well as those who are different from me.

The creation of a piece of Indigenous curriculum therefore requires that I source Indigenous knowledge from the narratives, stories, and oral histories of Cree people groups that I belong to in Northern Alberta rather than seeking to create my own curriculum without honoring where those stories and pieces of knowledge came from.

Best,

Carson 😊

References

Antoine, Mason, Mason, Palahicky, and Rodriguez de France (2018). Pulling Together: A Guide for Curriculum Developers. https://opentextbc.ca/indigenizationcurriculumdevelopers/

Thompson Rivers University (2012). Response to the Recommendation to Universities by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. https://www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/TRU_TRC_Response_201543978.pdf