Diversity Journey

      In an early blog I briefly discussed the employment gap that exists between First Nations, Metis and Inuit people and those who identify as non-aboriginal. One way that this can be addressed is through careers in science and technology. According to the Canadian Council on Learning (2007), "Choosing careers in science and technology will benefit Aboriginal students directly through employment, but more importantly they can make a tremendous contribution to Canada from the unique perspectives to science and technology based on the values implicit in Aboriginal knowledge and ways of knowing" (pg. 2).       However to encourage First Nations, Metis and Inuit students to pursue a career in the science and technology field, I as a teacher must bridge the values of the dominant culture in science classes with the values of the First Nations, Metis and Inuit cultures. Instead of forcing assimilation into the Westernized science class I must bring other...

      With my primary teachable coming out of Teachers College being physical education, it is important to me to find ways to represent and educate my students on various diversity topics including First Nations, Metis and Inuit. One way for me to do this is through simple discussions with my classes revolving around different cultures and how these cultures impact the way people play sports as well as the value they place on them. Instead of competition, other cultures focus on things such as community and cooperation, however because these don't relate to the dominant North American ideals we often do not experience them in our "traditional" competitive games. When discussing these ideas with students it is important to be respectful of others and for everyone to be positive and open minded. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RtPcMD15OGs/maxresdefault.jpg       Along with discussing sports, getting students to play traditional First Nations, Metis and Inuit ga...

      To delve further into this topic of First Nations, Metis and Inuit within the educational system in Ontario we decided to research it for our group presentation. For this presentation we looked at the vast gap in funding and educational success between secondary schools outside of and on First Nation reserves.              When we look at the table above it shows the vast difference in educational standards between provincial schools in Ontario and those on reserves in Ontario. This table exemplifies how the Canadian government and educational system devalue education that is not achieved in the traditional setting where the "dominant" ideals and knowledge can be transmitted to the students. This further demonstrates the issues raised by Fingarsen, where the dominant culture forces it's values on all students from various backgrounds. This shows that although students are not required to attend provincial schools and learn mandat...

      To further my understanding of First Nations, Metis and Inuit culture in comparison to the dominant white culture I chose an artifact that would allow me to investigate deeper the contrasts between the two in a setting that I am very familiar with, physical activity and sport. For the artifact I decided that I would chose a hockey stick as it was long played by the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people before rule alterations were made and it became a mainstream sport.       When delving into the sport of hockey it becomes clearly evident that First Nations, Metis and Inuit players are highly underrepresented in the highest levels of the sport as a majority of the professional players are white North Americans or from Northern European countries. When looking into hockey meaning within First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities it is shown that hockey is a sport where they can insert their own meaning into it along with their interests and as a resu...

       Throughout the first three weeks of our diversity class, we had already begun to unpack our learned ignorance's and that there are many more equitable lenses to view diversity issues through than what we had previously thought. This particular class was focusing on the topic of First Nations, Metis and Inuit and began to enlighten me right from the very beginning of class. To start the class, we began with an acknowledgement to the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe  people who shared this territory long before we were there. This once again opened my eyes to just how ignorant I was to this subject as I had no idea that these people shared the territory that we were currently learning and studying on. Along with this beginning acknowledgement, another section of the class that really stuck with me was the fact that using the acronym FNMI is not appropriate and that to use it instead of saying First Nations, Metis and Inuit does not save any time so there is no ...