Concordia University has begun its five-year plan to decolonize and indigenize its curriculum and teaching methods. .“If you want to make six figures on a Canadian campus without anyone bothering you about what you do all day, just start a five-year plan to ‘decolonize and indigenize’ the curriculum,” tweeted Quillette associate editor Jonathan Kay on Tuesday. .Kay linked to a press release from Concordia, which started off with it saying it has made a commitment to recognize and integrate indigenous ways of knowing in its curriculum and teaching methods. .“This strategic plan provides a series of concrete actions that will change the ways in which we teach at Concordia,” said Concordia Provost and Vice President, Academic Anne Whitelaw. .“The launch reaffirms our responsibility to carry on with this work and makes us accountable for what comes next.”.Whitelaw said the plan challenges people “to go beyond our comfort zones and reconceptualize our curriculum in respectful and meaningful ways.”.The plan draws upon the principles embodied in the Two Row Wampum Belt. The Two Row Wampum Belt is an ethical framework for how colonial-settler governments are to conduct themselves while living in the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy. .Concordia Director of Decolonizing Curriculum and Pedagogy Donna Kaherakwas Goodleaf said impressing the principles of it into the plan creates a path where everyone is equal and no worldview is superior. .“It calls for faculty to actively engage in evaluating their curriculum and pedagogical practices by challenging and decentering Eurocentric canons of thought in their curriculum,” said Goodleaf..“It calls upon faculty to embrace opportunities to work in collaboration with indigenous peoples and communities in ways that value indigenous epistemologies, histories and ways of doing in respectful and meaningful ways.” .The plan outlines four strategic principles to examine and challenge Eurocentric ways of thinking by recentering indigenous voices, histories and ways of doing across the curriculum. .These include cultivating a collective understanding among faculty on what decolonization and indigenization means in relation to decolonizing the curriculum and teaching methods; providing staff training and support that focuses on indigenous practices and intervention strategies; developing and co-designing new programs in collaboration with indigenous people; and expanding and supporting collaborative learning communities. .Goodleaf concluded by saying this plan will “put Concordia on the map.” It is telling the world this is what it is doing and how it is doing it. .“It’s an exciting opportunity,” she said. .The University of Alberta began to offer an online course through the Faculty of Native Studies called Countering Stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples in 2022, which asks people to question their beliefs about them. .READ MORE: U of A launches course about dismantling indigenous stereotypes.“We talked about what the course could look like and all agreed we needed to spend some time just making sure students understood what a stereotype is, how they work and function, and then give some foundational knowledge to understand the space in which colonial stereotypes came to be, and how they are perpetuated,” said U of A native studies professor and course creator Tasha Hubbard. .Hubbard said Countering Stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples opens by exploring the foundations of colonialism, which led to stereotypes about indigenous people in Canada. She designed the lessons with PhD student and podcaster Molly Swain and former U of A professors Savage Bear and Sara Howdle.
