IN/Relation/Blog/Development-Process

Students, faculty and support staff were approaching Indigenous Initiatives at CTLT with questions about learning opportunities for International students to learn more about unceded Musqueam lands where our learning takes place. We decided to begin with a needs assessment. In 2017, a FNIS 400 practicum student (Victoria Cooke) developed and conducted two surveys for - (1) international students, including English as an Additional Language learners and degree seeking students (2) faculty and staff who work with international students. About 60 people responded to these surveys.

Some of the questions that Victoria's survey asked were:

(For Students) Have you heard acknowledgements that UBC is located on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional lands of the Musqueam peoples? In what ways have you noticed Indigenous presence on campus? Have you taken courses focused on Indigenous topics? How relevant to you is learning about Indigenous histories and contemporary relations in Canada? (For Faculty/Staff) What topics or resources would you like to see developed to help International and English as Additional Language students learn more about Indigenous histories and contemporary relations in Canada and at UBC? What support or help do you need to deliver these materials to the students you work with?

Even with a modest amount of responses to last year’s online survey, we found out that international students at UBC have a variety of learning interests when it comes to histories and contemporary relationships with Canada’s First Nations and Indigenous peoples. The international students who responded to the survey not only showed interest in these topics, but also had very thoughtful comments about their relationship to First Nations people and lands while studying at UBC, as well as to their own contexts at home: For example, one of the responses that came from a student from Trinidad and Tobago was as follows: “It makes me think about the ongoing histories of colonization, here on Turtle Island, but also in my home region of the Caribbean and elsewhere - thinking about the current occupation of Indigenous nations, people and land and how this is deprioritized in our daily lives, on individual levels - but also, and especially, on the institutional level: thinking about the way UBC acknowledges the land, in passing. It is also a reminder of the work I need to do as a displaced person in honoring Musqueam, and working to prioritize their decisions/call to actions/ways of engaging with the land.”

This student clearly illustrates the nature of the need to create learning resources for international students on campus. Given a channel to learn about Indigenous histories can also open up reflection on their own countries of origin, as well as see themselves in a new angle as a UBC student on Musqueam land. We started a second phase of research: to conduct interviews and focus groups following up on the results from Victoria’s surveys. This information/data collected will provide us with data on the nature/form of the learning resources for international students, what content to include, and what support materials are needed for those leading these learning opportunities and activities.

The goals of this project are to:

- Identify topics and themes for learning resources

- Create online modules with suggestions for interacting with learning content

- Facilitation Support: Create resources to help structure learning activities (Eg.- blending online content with experiential activities e.g. place-based learning ) and creating support materials to help those facilitating discussions.

- Grassroots implementation of the learning - i.e. working to build the skills from within the group to customize the learning experience for specific groups of students; the materials can be brought in to a course by an instructor or TA, or used by a staff member with a group of students they are working with, or can be entirely student facilitated.

What is driving our actions now?

We are looking to build on ways to disseminate and support implementing articles, videos that have already been created, to bring these to a wider audience, to support more conversations and learning that is grounded in place/relationships. There are four main pillars upon which this project is based.

1. Research.

This encompasses the surveys (2016/17) from Victoria Cooke’s research; literature review (in process); focus groups and interviews (Fall 2018/Winter 2019)

Focus Groups -learning resources informed by users’ needs (a consultative approach, taking into consideration also consultations with and feedback from MUSQUEAM) -those who have come to us with an interest in initiating learning have mentioned the barriers to doing so (I’m not an expert, what if it blows up?, what about resistance? I don’t want to offend someone etc.); acknowledging that misinformation about Indigenous peoples and histories has been an ongoing barrier in the past, so accurate information and support to engage RESPONSIBLY

2. Participatory learning design.

Student consultations at Indigenous student lunch, FNIS 100, and FNIS 220 - to brainstorm for learning module on cultural politics and representation

At each stage of development, we have been guests at several events on campus to present to students learning about this subject specifically at the Longhouse at the Indigenous student lunch, and in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies classrooms of Indigenous Foundations and Representation and Indigenous Cultural Politics. As

3. Blended/flexible.

Online content with in-person activities and discussion; customizable to context.

Although the project has been designed with international students as the initial audience, the content is flexible so that an instructor of any course or faculty can bring them into their classroom. Activities have options for whether you intend to spend 20, 30, or 60 minutes of class time.

4. Facilitation support.

Co-learning principle; information to develop confidence and competence for Grassroots facilitation.

A draft of the Facilitator’s Guide will soon be available. Thanks to the knowledge gleaned from the focus groups, we are incorporating specific requests for information and support into this guide.