Could you commit 2 hours a week, from your own couch, to advancing reconciliation?

UBC’s Faculty of Education is offering Reconciliation through Indigenous Education, a free 6 week massive open online course (MOOC) running January 24 – March 7.

It starts today, but the course is self-directed, with new modules dropping each week. It’s free. You can still register.

The course is a response to the idea that reconciliation will actually mean changing institutional structures, practices and policies, as well as personal and professional ideologies.

Given that teachers are charged with being the frontline of this systemic change, the course has originated out of UBC’s education faculty, but it has been designed to have greater relevance, with particular sections really focussing on the greater public.

Local teachers and support workers who have experienced the program recommend it highly as a great step towards healing.

Each module should take between 1 and 4 hours of your time.

The program covers 6 topics –
· Indigenous Education through the lens of Reconciliation;
· History of Indigenous Education;
· Learning from Indigenous Worldviews;
· Learning from Story;
· Learning from the Land;
· Engaging in Respectful Relations –
through lectures, conversations with elders and knowledge keepers, and activities.

The online platform is pretty intuitive to navigate, features video with transcripts, and is very interactive.

The course description explains that, apart from educators, the course is:

“For those who want to build their own competence and the capacity of those around them to engage in relationships with Indigenous peoples based on intercultural understanding, empathy, and respect.”

If that sounds like you, you can still register at: http://pdce.educ.ubc.ca/MOOC/

Anyone keen to enrol and interested in joining a casual discussion group in Pemberton during Thursday lunch hours can email thewellnessalmanac@gmail.com to express interest.