New curriculum piloted by public school board

Page 12

Alberta Learning and Edmonton Public Schools (EPS) have joined forces to ensure that Aboriginal content and perspectives are reflected in the provincial curriculum across all core subject areas.

The school board began work developing what's being called an "infused curriculum" in the spring of 2003 after being awarded a contract by Alberta Learning. The first step in the process, said Donna Leask, an Aboriginal education consultant with EPS, was to consult with representatives of the province's Aboriginal communities.

A team of curriculum writers-both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal-was assembled, and a working committee was established made up of Aboriginal educators from Treaty 6, 7, and 8 and the Metis community.

"And the way it worked is that our team of writers would write and then periodically we would take the documents back to the committee and they would give us input-this is good, uh uh, change, remove, add to. And so we went through that process. I think we had four different rounds of consultations," she said.

The results were handed over to Learning in March 2004-a completely infused curriculum from kindergarten to Grade 12 in all core subject areas except social studies (Infused curriculum in that subject had already been developed by Alberta Learning and is scheduled to be introduced in schools later this year).

Creating an infused curriculum is an important step in the effort to ensure more Aboriginal students stay in school, Leask explained.

"All the latest research tells us that when you talk to Aboriginal kids, they say that incorporating their culture, history contributions, all of that, infusing that into core curriculum is what makes a difference for them in the schools. They have told people in research that by having just the occasional celebration, maybe a book here or there, just isn't enough. And it doesn't really show respect for all of the Aboriginal cultures and the history and all of that. And so we did our research and we found that, yes, all the research was telling us that you need to infuse the content and perspectives in core curriculum for it to be meaningful for Aboriginal kids, but also for non-Aboriginal kids. I mean, there's two big groups here that have important learning to do."

Portions of the new curriculum are being given a test drive by the City Centre Education Project (CCEP), seven schools within Edmonton's inner city where the curriculum is being piloted.

The CCEP itself is a unique initiative designed to increase the educational opportunities offered to students attending school within Edmonton's inner city. Delton, Eastwood, McCauley, John A. McDougall, Norwood, Parkdale and Spruce Avenue schools are part of the project, set up to allow the schools to pool their resources. Declining enrollment at the schools meant less money for programming, explained Leask. By banding together through the CCEP, the schools now share programming and greatly expand the options available to students.

"And so they share resources, and they've been able to put some transportation in place so that kids can go to one school for an art option, maybe to another school for an industrial arts option. And so they're really able to offer the kids a broader variety," Leask said.

"In fact, Edmonton Public is offering junior high Cree at one of the junior highs in the project and then junior high kids come from two other schools. Their own schools, individually, would not be able to afford to provide a Cree teacher, but by pooling the resources they've been able to get a Cree teacher."

Colin Inglis, co-ordinator of CCEP, said piloting the infused curriculum is just one part of what the project is doing to meet the needs of Aboriginal students. About one in three students attending CCEP schools have self-declared as Aboriginal, making a priority efforts to incorporate Aboriginal content and perspective into the curriculum. The new curriculum will not only help Aoriginal students to be successful, it will also help to increase awareness and acceptance of Aboriginal perspectives among non-Aboriginal students and teaching staff, Inglis said.

The infused curriculum is being introduced one school at a time, with a facilitator spending three months at each new school, working in the classrooms with selected teachers who will work to share what they've learned with other staff once the facilitator moves on to the next school.

The curriculum was introduced at Eastwood school in September. In January Parkdale will join the pilot, followed by Delton three months later. The remaining four schools will begin piloting the curriculum in the 2005/2006 school year.

Working to help Aboriginal students to succeed had been a priority of the project long before the member schools got involved in the curriculum pilot, Inglis said. One school has a commitment coach to work with Aboriginal junior high students, helping them to stay in school by providing them with the supports they need and showing them that they can make choices and be in control of their own lives. Another school has an Aboriginal advisory council that works to ensure the school is meeting the needs of its Aboriginal students.

"And that involves parents and members of the Aboriginal community and the school community coming together to look at the school and saying 'How do we make this a successful place for our kids,'" said Inglis.

The infused curriculum is being used in the CCEP schools, but Donna Leask knows there will be some fine-tuning needed before it can be implemented province-wide.

"We are very hopeful that through the pilot we will be able to find out what works easily and what needs more supports. And that's the purpose of a pilot; it's to find out where all the wrinkles are."