Best Practices

I came across this wonderful resource by Theresa Wilson that broke down the best practises in teaching Aboriginal students.  Seeking out ways to turn classrooms into spaces of belonging: those ways may include paying close attention to:  Instructional approach, subject matter, critical questioning, collaborative evaluative practices, and modeling respect. 

Combining high expectations, particularly of critical awareness and research skills, with a belief in the importance of relationships in establishing trust and respect. I closely examined this literature and found a lot of useful information that I deemed worthy of sharing.  I will definitely be putting some of these into my own professional and personal practise.

As you read through her suggestions I'd like you to keep in mind the best practises you currently implement, one new thing you've learned or a concept you hadn't considered before that got you thinking.


Identity:  Knowing who you are and where you come from

 The importance of relationships in forming connections with Aboriginal students is foundational for Aboriginal educators.  Understanding the relationships with human beings and with all living and non-living things.  Knowing who you are in the Aboriginal culture means knowing your community, and knowing where you come from is based on your connection with the earth.  Best practices with Aboriginal learners are grounded first in relationships.  Important for Aboriginal learners to find a sense of place and belonging within schools.  Space can also be created in the ways that a teacher approaches subject matter in the class.  Re-naming can create spaces of belonging within the curriculum: sharing conversations, versus public speaking, leadership versus at-risk student program.  Values central to Aboriginal Education: trust, autonomy, confidence, encouragement and acceptance.

Political Consciousness:

 Aboriginal Education should not be seen as a single activity, or a token preservation of folkways.  Aboriginal Education is more than Beads to Bannock, Aboriginal education must be woven throughout the curriculum.  Teachers must be sensitive and aware to the loss and grieving that is historically and politically a significant part of the Aboriginal student’s lives.  Teaching resides in the distance travelled between the head and the heart.  Develop political consciousness in the very young students.  Combine critical challenge with issue of importance to Aboriginal students and their communities.  A critical investigative attitude deploys skills such as inference, direct observation, or identifying bias and angles of vision.  Critical challenges help non-Aboriginal learners develop a new appreciation for indigenous sources of knowledge and to discern how the truth is portrayed to the media.  The ability to relocate: this involves being able to question one’s own cultural background.  Seeing the act of teaching as a journey toward learning in itself.  Becoming aware of the privilege that participation in a dominant literacy confers.  The journey involves creating a new home for the self to dwell in. 

Teacher-Student Interactions:

 Acknowledging the existence of a community beyond the classroom to which the teacher is responsible.  Participate and initiate activities outside the classroom, many involving the local Aboriginal community.  Rely on high, yet attainable expectations.  Effective teachers demonstrate an openness to other ways of knowing and other ways of valuing how they teach and handle the materials they use in the classroom.  


 Broaden teacher-student relations outside the classroom to embrace the community.  Effective teachers were involved in student’s lives.  Emphasized the importance of forming relationships, making connections and generally being there.  Involved students in thinking and valuing what they learned. 

Observing the Importance of Relationships:

 Acknowledging the relationships that exist in young people’s lives (family, friends and community).  Acknowledge the need of students to find a place of belonging within school and community.  Recognizing the student’s desires to connect with the curriculum, or how it is being taught.  Providing students with opportunities to participate in culture.  Honoring the many Aboriginal ways of knowing and learning.  Being there for students: acknowledge them as individuals.  Having faith and confidence in them as learners.  Building on their strengths.  Participating in extracurricular activities.  Being a teacher who is easy to get along with.  Creating a relationship with the local Aboriginal communities.

Wilson, Theresa. (2001). Best practices in teaching Aboriginal children: From an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Perspective (Adaptation from Master’s Thesis). University of Victoria. Retrieved from: https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/deepeningknowledge/UserFiles/File/UploadedAmina_/Best_Practices_for_Teaching_Aboriginal_Students.pdf