Documentation:CTLT programs/Indigenous Initiatives/Classroom Climate Series/Context

Context

Poster drawing made during the session Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Indigenous Foundations, October 16, 2012

The development of academic and professional programming in the area of classroom climate is relatively new and unexplored. Indigenous Initiatives at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology responded by creating an innovative professional development series called Indigenous Initiatives: Classroom Climate.

During the initial development of this series, Amy Perreault, Strategist for Indigenous Initiatives, combined her research expertise with her direct experience creating projects such as What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom.

The development of this series mirrored a process often taken on by faculty who teach about Indigenous and other socially contentious issues in their classes. In some ways the inevitable challenges faculty face in this endeavor were present here too; creating an approach that would allow for a diverse group of people, all coming with different levels of understanding and experiences, to come together and create a community.