Learning requires the exploration of one’s identity

The idea that learning requires the exploration of one’s identity can be a difficult concept to incorporate into our programs when we are funded to develop foundational literacy skills. Alberta’s Community Adult Learning Program funds foundational learning opportunities in these areas:

• Adult Literacy
• Numeracy
• Foundational Life Skills
• Basic Digital Skills
• English Language Learning

However, in most Indigenous learning research, the exploration of one’s identity is key to the development of good self-esteem. The exploration of the individuals and communities history, culture, and sense of place in the community and society as a whole is necessary. This concept came to me when I asked the question of how Non-Indigenous teachers can help Indigenous learners explore their identity.

The loss of identity is one of the biggest challenges Indigenous communities identify. The role of colonization and residential schools cannot be overstated. The experience of residential schools is common to many Indigenous people in our communities; the impact on the generations that followed is more subtle but profoundly important to understand.

During the development of this project, we participated in a seminar on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on ‘Indian Residential Schools’. This is a concept that has profoundly coloured the sense of safety and sense of self within the concept of education. The Residential School era is a cultural event that has coloured how many Indigenous people see their role in the broader society. It is a profoundly traumatic event. Knowledge of that event and all its atrocities is largely glazed over in the history books, and a surprising number of Canadians are still unaware. One of the first things we can do as teachers is educate ourselves on the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, including the history and legacy of ‘Indian Residential Schools’.

However, in the Truth and Reconciliation process one of the key themes is the idea of resiliency and survival of Indigenous peoples. They have survived and continued within the broader Canadian context.

We also recommend all CALP practitioners participate in a ‘Blanket Exercise’. Written and designed by Elders, it retells the history of Canada, colonialization and residential schools, from an Indigenous perspective. It allows us to understand the trauma and survival that has also become a part of Indigenous peoples’ culture.

One of the simplest ways we can help students explore their identity is through the use of resources that reflect their history, culture, and way of life.

However, it should be noted that the exploration of ‘Identity’ is a largely individual exercise supported by cultural and historical knowledge. We have found that we are able to give cultural and historical context from a perspective that is more culturally consistent through programs like the Blanket Exercise and using culturally relevant resources to encourage students to reflect on how they experience understanding their own identities.

If an Elder introduces a cultural or historical teaching, ask students to reflect on it. Ask them what this has taught them about their own identity or if it has raised questions they would like to explore.

In our community there are widely disparate views on how traditional and European perspectives have been incorporated into any individual’s’ exploration of identity.

Exploration of identity is the exploration of the history, culture and teachings of Indigenous peoples and how they survive and prosper within Canada. To provide a context where a student’s strengths, resilience and fortitude are emphasized is one of the greatest gifts you can give any student.

  Reflections Worksheet: Identity and Learning

Strategies to use the Exploration of Identity to Build Confidence and Skills

• Invite an Elder to discuss their path in learning and have students journal about it.
• Do a family tree for the purpose of getting their Métis card using basic digital skills, basic writing and research skills.
• Take students to a powwow and ask them to do a journal assignment before and after the event to explore what they learned.
• Host a bush skills course and have them teach some of the things they know. Invite an expert and exchange ideas of what new things they can teach each other. Have each student do a report on what they learned.
• Find culturally appropriate resources.
• Do a Blanket Exercise. It provides a profoundly moving way of presenting the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada from an Indigenous perspective.

In each of these ideas we are engaging students part of the teaching process. We are encouraging them to teach what they know, build and use communication skills, build writing skills, use computers. As a facilitator, you are building a connection between who they are and what they know and the community. You are teaching them skills that they can pass on. They become Knowledge Keepers in their own small groups. They learn a sense of self and place within the framework of their own identity in their own small groups. They are also building skills that allow them to better navigate the broader community, workplace, and society.