Results from a recent teacher survey have affirmed to administrators that Border Land School Division (BLSD) is on the right path when it comes to including Indigenous education in the classroom.

It has been about two years since the division embarked on developing a strategy to help guide the inclusion of that learning, and officials wanted to know if and how that it is being incorporated and what they could do to further support the effort.

About 140 out of 180 questionnaires were returned to officials and Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Toews says according to the results, Indigenous education is most commonly being taught in English/Language Arts and Social Studies within BLSD.

"We're not surprised and we're actually kind of pleased that that is the connection because in Social Studies for sure there's going to be a lot of curricular outcomes that match with Indigenous education," he said.

Another big take-away from the survey according to Toews, was teachers' request for a tool kit or a bank of resources that they could access to support their instruction.

"The tool kit could be literal kits. For example, a kit around treaty making," he explained. "The other piece to that is just an online database of links to online resources or lists of texts that you can use."

For the past two years, professional development days in BLSD have had a very intentional Indigenous education focus and Toews says the value of that learning also came through in the survey results. He said teachers indicated the sessions have helped give them the understanding to teach a subject they otherwise wouldn't have previously had the confidence for.

"Teacher confidence is still a real challenge however,...the sense that they know enough about the topic to teach it sensitively and respectfully," added Toews.

As for what's in store for the future of Indigenous Education in Border Land, Toews said officials will get to work on creating those resource tool kits for teachers. In addition, administrators and the board of trustees are in the process finalizing a Treaty Acknowledgement procedure they hope to implement in schools across the division in Fall 2019.

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