The Calgary Catholic School District and the Calgary Board of Education pledged to empower Indigenous youth in their schools ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Monday.

The CBE promises to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action around education. This includes calls for schools to make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, treaties and Indigenous peoples’ historical and cultural contributions to Canada mandatory for Kindergarten to Grade 12 students. It also includes calls for schools to integrate Indigenous culture, knowledge and teaching methods into primary, secondary and post-secondary classrooms.

The CBE also has an Indigenous Education Holistic Lifelong Framework, highlighting how the school district plans to include Indigenous ways of being, belonging and doing in their classrooms. The document was made in consultation with Elders and Knowledge Keepers from the Tsuut’ina First Nation, Piikani Nation, Metis Nation, Stoney Nakoda First Nation, Kahkewistahaw Nation, Muskoday Nation and Siksika Nation.

One of the key outcomes highlighted in the document is that students who self-identify as Indigenous are supported throughout their schooling at the CBE and experience improved well-being. This includes gathering holistic data to monitor the achievements and well-being of Indigenous students, as well as building relationships with Indigenous families, caregivers, Elders and Knowledge Keepers to develop policies to support Indigenous youth.

“That framework provides a foundation on which schools, service units, our district, our staff, can deepen our individual and collective knowledge, decisions and actions on how to meet the holistic needs of students, and for students to be able to see their choice decisions, opportunities to exist within that framework as a lifelong learner,” said Jennifer Turner, superintendent for school improvement with the CBE.

Turner said teachers at the CBE are also encouraged to integrate Indigenous cultures, knowledge and teaching methods in their classrooms. This includes land-based learning, exploring readings written by Indigenous authors and delving into Indigenous languages and history. Teachers are also required to attend yearly professional learning days in November where they learn about and engage with Indigenous practices.

The Indigenous Education Holistic Lifelong Framework is also explored and updated yearly by working with the CBE’s Elders and Knowledge Keepers Advisory Council.

“In the last number of years – the last 13 years, actually – there has been a formal Elders and Knowledge Keeper Advisory Council. Senior leadership and different areas of the Calgary Board of Education have worked with this council to seek understanding, advice and wisdom from the community around the directions that this document references,” Turner said.

“The Calgary Board of Education has an Indigenous Education Team and these members are available to support schools. A number of schools have dedicated Indigenous support staff, and so there’s a variety of roles, all from specialists who have specialist knowledge around supporting Indigenous education.”

What is the CCSD doing?

According to its website, the CCSD promises to support Indigenous students in balancing their cultural roots with “learning the skills necessary to live successfully in today’s society.” It also says it works with Indigenous communities and families to support Indigenous students attending catholic schools.

Robert Ranger is Métis and a supervisor of the Indigenous Education Team for the CCSD. The team has four teacher consultants who are Indigenous and five cultural liaisons from different cultural backgrounds including Dene, Cherokee, Stoney Nakoda, Piikani and Cree.

Range said the team wants to support Indigenous students and families in finding success, whatever that may look like for them. The team also wants to support CCSD teachers and families in professional growth and development.

The Indigenous Education Team also established an Elders Circle to guide the team’s direction and goals. Currently, 19 Elders are part of the Elders Circle.

“I’ve always been drawn to help our Indigenous students find success in whatever path that might be,” Ranger told LiveWire Calgary.

“In mainstream society, we seem to have this idea of success where a student has to go to post-secondary to be successful. For a lot of our Indigenous kids, I see shared success in helping them to know who they are, where they come from, and be proud of it. By doing that, we open doors for them.”

The Indigenous Education Team is developing mentorship programs for Indigenous students who may not have opportunities to connect with Indigenous role models. The five cultural liaisons will work with the students to understand the barriers and help them feel connected to the school and their cultures.

The Indigenous Education Team will also participate in monthly professional growth sessions with teachers, which provides a space for teachers and educators to learn about Indigenous people’s lived experiences. In-person sessions will be held in every city quadrant, and online professional growth sessions will be offered through Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Ranger said he wants members of the Elders Circle to be part of the in-person professional growth sessions and tell their stories, especially Elders from the Treaty 7 nations.

“I’ve been really impressed with the group of teachers that I’ve been working with so far that do the Indigenous Studies in our high schools, and they are just so honest and vulnerable in wanting to learn, and one piece that has been helpful is bringing in some of our Elders and bringing in some of our cultural liaisons on a weekly basis to be teaching in those classes and to have the teachers learning alongside the students in a really safe and respectful way,” Ranger added.

But Ranger said the CCSD has a “long ways to go” in its journey toward reconciliation, even though it is seeing improvement in high school graduation rates and other metrics. He hopes to include a lot more land-based learning across the CCSD curriculum.

“I don’t equate success just to that outcome of achieving a diploma or a certificate of completion, right? Because we’ve had lots of people, lots of Indigenous people in the past that have finished high school but they can’t speak their language. They have no connection to their sacred medicines or the land, and so they still feel lost in this world that doesn’t always accept them for who they are,” he said.

“I would love for us to get to the point in Alberta where any Indigenous kid can take any language class regardless of where they’re at … It’s still a bit of a challenge for us when it comes to some of the courses, and even in in in how we are still really stuck to how we teach and what we teach.”

Representation in education empowers Indigenous youth: educators

Ranger said Indigenous students who feel represented in their school communities have an increased level of identity, confidence and pride.

“Just being able to provide that space and those opportunities for them in our schools … There are no words to describe the feeling that you have when you see those kids seeing themselves in a different way for the first time,” he said.

“We have 1,500 self-identified Indigenous students [in the CCSD], so my goal is not only having the team know who those 1,500 students are and who their families are, but that the schools know who they are and that the kids know who they are.”

Linda Isaac is a citizen of Alderville First Nation and national director for reconciliation, equity and inclusion at Nelson, an online education content provider.

Isaac, a former school principal, said in an interview with LiveWire Calgary that Indigenous education it is important for Indigenous students to feel respected and to know that they are valuable members of their communities.

“Reconciliation is hope and we’re building hope in those live lessons and with the Indigenous content that we are putting out there so that, so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people better understand [Indigenous cultures] and we can fulfill one of those calls to action to build capacity for better understanding and mutual respect,” Isaac said.

Liz Halina is a member of Sagkeeng Anishinaabe Nation and an educator with Edwin, a digital learning library developed by Nelson. Also, a former teacher, Halina said she tries to include personal perspectives and activities in her lessons to keep students engaged.

“The real powerful part is that storytelling, and that goes back to our own culture. It’s a storytelling-based culture,” she told LiveWire Calgary.

Halina added that it’s important for students to have difficult conversations about Canada’s colonial history in meaningful ways and how reconciliation will have a positive impact on society in the future, rather than just focusing on the past.

“We know about the past, so what are we doing about it right now? What can you do in the future? How can you, even as a Grade 6 student, have an impact?” she said.

“We’re going to challenge students to find small, everyday ways to have an impact and better this relationship … Those kids go home, and they go home from those lessons, and they talk to their parents about what they learned at school today, and that makes the reach even further, and that makes me proud”