This six-part editorial series is informed by interviews conducted with faculty, student, and staff participants for What I Learned in Class Today: Educational Experiences and Institutional Responses to Indigenous Engagement in Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Classroom Climate at UBC. The prompts expand upon topics of Indigenous engagement and classroom climate explored in the two-part Faculty Perspectives film. During the storyboarding process for this film, the What I Learned in Class Today renewed project team narrowed down six key themes that have since been developed into the following article topics: positionality, Indigenous student support, tending to the affective side of the classroom, knowledge gaps and Indigenous tokenization, classroom interventions, and broad accountability in continuing this work.
Keirra Webb, the WILICT Student Project Assistant and author of the article series, contextualized key quotes from faculty interviews with discussion topics from the original What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom project (2007) in order to provide a retrospective glance at the shifting conversations around classroom climate. She also included recommendations for further resources and prompt questions for individual self-reflection that can be altered to better suit group discussions. A more in-depth positionality statement and reflection on Keirra’s writing process can be found on the Indigenous Initiatives website where the first article, “The ‘I’ in Relation,” originally debuted.
It is our intention that our audience will be broad and that students, staff, faculty, and community members alike will walk away from this series holding some of the precious teachings shared with us during the interview process. Whether you are joining us to fill your knowledge gaps, to access educational resources, or to stay updated on the What I Learned in Class Today: Educational Experiences and Institutional Responses project, we welcome you and look forward to engaging with you as this project continues to develop.
