The Medicine Wheel
The learning of the history, culture and issues that affect First Nation, Métis and Inuit peoples in Canada has become an integral part of the education of young people in our country today. Many approaches used in the teaching of Indigenous youth and teaching about Indigenous people are unique and require a significant degree of sensitivity. Teachers need to be creative, dynamic and sensitive when developing teaching approaches and programs for Indigenous learners and Native Studies.
Medicine Wheels have been, and continue to be used, by many Indigenous groups to address complex issues. Medicine Wheels are a cultural construct that can be used as a pedagogical tool for teaching, learning, contemplating and understanding our human journeys at individual, band/community, nation, global and even cosmic levels. Medicine Wheels have thus emerged as a framework for educational development as the wheel reflects foundational characteristics of many Indigenous cultures, including the interconnectedness of all entities and has assumed a broad appeal in the process of cultural revitalization.
Within Medicine Wheels there are many, many ‘rings’ of teachings that exist with significant meaning independently, but are all the more powerful when understood as a collective of interdependent knowledge teachings and practices. Presented in the figure below are some of the ‘rings’ of teachings that relate directly to the content of this course. The teachings represented are: 1) the four gifts of the directions; 2) the process of actualizing those four gifts; 3) the four aspects of one’s personal being; 4) the components of cultural/community development; 5) the learning process; 6) the areas with which we foster relationships; and 7) the life stages. These circles of teachings reflect the key themes of learning in the course and are thus used as Indigenous epistemological and pedagogical understandings of the course content.
At the centre is where the learner stands. While this typically refers to the child, the framework is equally applicable to the adult, in this case the course participant. The individual at the centre stands and looks out at everything that surrounds them. Surrounding them are the different spheres of influence that affect the learner. These spheres of influence include the family and the local and surrounding First Nation communities. Finally, the outer sphere of influence would involve the resources, policies and allies from other First Nations across Canada and the greater Canadian society.
Another important theoretical foundation is the concept of partnership and communication in education between the main sphere of influence of the student: the Indigenous nation, the community, the home and the school. As a teacher, it is important to foster these partnerships and to understand their role in the education system. Partnership requires ongoing reciprocal communication. Learning by students becomes more meaningful and engaging when it is supported and informed by partnerships between the home, the school community, and the larger community as a whole. In this way, the student is surrounded by valuable community resources and has opportunities to learn first-hand from the knowledge and skills of the people in the community. The use of the Medicine Wheel as an organizing structure for this conceptual framework signifies the importance of a non-linear and cyclical process of instruction and pedagogy in First Nations learning.
As you work your way through this course, reflect on the structure of the Medicine Wheel and how it relates holistically to the Indigenous ways of teaching, learning and knowing.
Here is a great resource if you are looking for more information on the Medicine Wheel:
Best Start/Meilleur Depart, Health Nexus Sante. (2011). A Child Becomes Strong - Journeying Through Each Stage of the Life Cycle. Toronto, ON: Best Start Resource Centre - A Child Become Strong Article
Why is it important to learn about First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people?
1. Review the following documents:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission website - www.trc.ca
Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action - Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf (trc.ca) (Education calls #6-
12 on pages 1-2, Education for Reconciliation calls #62-65 on pages 7-8)
Statistics Canada. (2016). http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/171025/dq171025a-eng.htm
2. After reviewing the above documents, respond to the following questions:
Why is it important to learn about Indigenous peoples?
What does this mean for students (Indigenous and non-Indigenous)?
3. Post your response to the Task Board and review your classmates' posts.
As per discussion,
"Why not learning about another culture, language or peoples? Really? I mean, without saying that its quite the same as when a teacher takes it upon themselves to become a member of a Catholic School Community or non-native french speaker integrates themselves into a French Immersion School Community. On some level I feel there is a moment where education needs ensure that teachers have the training they need to meet the needs of their students.
To be frank, I thought it was a mandatory course through my concurrent education year. I must say that it was extremely helpful with experiences after during teacher's college.
Students in public schools and Catholic schools of ON are living in a bubble when it comes to the foundations and history of Canada. The Social Studies curriculum begins preparing them for what is to come in the high school history education but by that time the students have already developed a conception that Canada is and always was a culture mosaic. To extent “Canada” itself has always been, but it was what came before that which is important.
The curriculum that is offered now begins to tie up the loose ends of the past educational curriculum but needs to offer more than a bit of knowledge to help students truly understand where Canada came from. The native people lived by a simple philosophy in life and once the Europeans arrived, things became complicated. A modern world mingling with a world that didn’t want to remove itself from what had always been. Not unlike today, there are many traditions that these cultures (we call the First Nations) have many beliefs that offer more than animism and theism in general. Their teachings offer a fundamental respect for all living things and that is what kept their cultures alive for the amount of time it has.
This fundamental belief of respect for one another (including the earth itself) is a crucial teaching that applies further than simple religion and language but also into the basic science elementary school students learn. Biodiversity, food chains, etc.
The reading of culture and tradition is poetry in itself. The Ojicree practice chanting that offers teachings and stories in many different respects. The students we teach in our schools are indeed learning English but why can’t they also be observing another language’s translated chants or scripts of dialogue, etc. This allows students to view a text from a different viewpoint. The teachings of cultures are applicable to language arts on most levels. Yes, they would most likely need to be translated but its not as if they are not already.
Overall, the idea of learning about indigenous studies is a matter of developing understanding of the world around us, and respect for not just fellow Canadians, but other humans. This is not just an English world, or a French World, is multi-cultural and just as we show willingness to work closely with one culture, we certainly should for all."
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