Teaching Literacy Through an Indigenous Lens

 

Trudy Cardinal, member of SILR’s Steering committee and an elementary education professor at University of Alberta who is Métis-Cree, designed a course on teaching literacy by honouring Indigenous experiences, part an Indigenous education certificate program.

 Cardinal recently held a summer training course for teachers that focused on teaching literacy through an Indigenous lens. Cardinal designed a course that “bring[s] life” into literacy teaching after realizing that literacy classes she was teaching at UAlberta lacked the “joy” found in elementary school classrooms. The class gives Indigenous and non-Indigenous K-12 teachers practical tools and ideas for their classrooms as they gain a broader perspective on literacy education. Teachers practiced taking what they were learning and putting it into action by reimagining a past lesson or project. “There’s an embodied way of knowing, being and doing that you feel when you’re sitting together at a table discussing something, when you’re sharing markers and crayons with somebody, when you’re helping each other learn the beading technique, when you’re sitting outside on that very land that you’re talking about, sharing stories of who you are and what you hope for the next generations,” said Cardinal.