Land based learning can have a significant impact on a teachers instructional strategies as well as provide students with a connection to both their "place" as well as to the topics within the curriculum.
Impact on the Teacher
Operating a land based program or incorporating it into a class structure can be very beneficial not only to the students but to the Teacher as well. It can aid in classroom teaching, help strengthen grow of a teacher's understanding of indigenous knowledge practices and provide an avenue of incorporating them into their teaching.
- Culturally relevant teaching: For a teacher to be able to operate a land based program the teacher must first know how to develop culturally relevant material. This means that the educator needs to understand the culture that is around them. Melissa Oskineegish put it best with this in mind "Developing a culturally relevant teaching practice is the same as culturally responsive schooling, as it requires educators to be willing to actively engage and learn from both the students they are teaching, and the community that they are teaching in" (pg.7, 2015)
- Environmental Teaching Component: Once the above has been complete, curriculum can be applied. Roberta Bondar wrote a great document on how to provide students with an environmentally responsive education called Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future (which is used by the The Ontario Ministry of Education) and this pairs very well with the The Ontario Ministry of Educations: Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework. The framework makes specific reference to what it gives teachers: "All teachers will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively model and teach environmental education, individually and in collaborative practice. Teachers will have access to the professional development required to build their competence and confidence in delivering environmental education." (Ontario Ministry of Education, p5, 2007).
- Facilitator rather then Educator: With land based learning there is a heavy reliance on local knowledge coming from elders and knowledge holders. These individuals are able to present the material in a more meaningful way then the educator could. The role of the educator instead is to help facilitate this learning and later scaffold it with the educational subject matter (science, math, literacy, etc.)
Impact on the Students
The impact this type of programming can have on students is astounding. It can provide a gate way for student's to not only connect with their culture and identity but can can also to make learning connections.
- Learning Theories: there are generally four major learning theories; behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism and connectivism. Where the behaviourism and cognitive sides are, is learning as an external process with external factors having an affect on how we learn (Santrock et al., 2004, p. 223) and that these are the foundational theories of learning. With the constructivist theory, we see learners trying to create meaning, rather than be filled with knowledge. Which then makes them more independent learners. (Siemens, 2005). Lastly we have connectivism where learning occurs by forming connections.
- These are self evident in Land Based programs where the child's foundational knowledge of the land being put to use in a variety of different activities and lessons (animal skinning, tradition story telling, wild medicines/edibles, etc). From here we see that students then are able to gain meaning (both cultural and educational) through these activities.They, lastly, they form connections, whether it's a deeper connection to the land and environment around them or to education topics covered previously in class.
- Learning from the Community: One of the major aspects of land based education with indigenous learners is that it is not always lead by the educator themselves. Much of the time it is lead by community elders or knowledge holders. This allows the learners to form deeper connections with the subject matter being presented.
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