Teaching & Learning

Ashleigh stresses the importance of building individual connections for students so that history becomes meaningful.

“Part of my own identity as a Canadian is to be open-minded,” Ashleigh shared. She recognizes that she might not have answers to all of her curious young students’ questions, and that knowledge comes from and is shared by the students themselves.

“Every child has their own experience, so we have to take what they bring with them in the classroom, and then let it guide our teaching,” she explained. “We really need to bring in students’ background knowledge to better understand their historical or differing perspectives in order to become more accepting and understanding,” Ashleigh emphasized.

Ashleigh also incorporates her own experiences into her practice, including her experiences as a student in a French Immersion program, “where everything was play-based and hands-on and interactive and engaging.” These interactive educational experiences from her childhood have strongly influenced Ashleigh’s teaching approach. As she shared, “part of my identity as a teacher is to let students explore and let them discover and learn from their own experiences.”

Indigenous Knowledges

Having a strong support system of Indigenous liaisons and Indigenous elders is crucial for Asheigh’s work in a school district with a large population of Indigenous students.

Ashleigh makes extra effort to rise to the challenge of teaching in Treaty 8 territory, including by emphasizing Indigenous connections to the land. She explained that “not being Indigenous myself can make it difficult to build those connections, and reaching out to elders or community members can be difficult, especially as a new teacher.”

Ashleigh is greatly appreciative of the support of Indigenous liaisons in her division who also have connections to community elders. To Ashleigh, the Indigenous liaisons are crucial, as “they’re always a great help when we meet areas of the curriculum that we can connect to Indigenous culture.”

In addition to supporting her classroom teaching, the Indigenous liaisons help Ashleigh and her students understand the local history of the area in excursions outside of school. One of Ashleigh’s favourite activities with her students has been to visit the local Fort McMurray Heritage Village; however, she often noticed Indigenous stories and perspectives were lacking at the site. Despite this, she shared, “we could always rely on our liaisons at our school to support us or to build that bridge if it wasn’t available.”

Ashleigh’s focus on incorporating the varied experiences of her students has also helped her incorporate Indigenous Knowledges into her classroom. She has promoted experiences in her classroom that “engage the knowledge of our Indigenous students” to create an environment where, “there is always collaboration and group work and oral sharing and respectful listening. All of those practices stem from an Indigenous perspective.”

Co-created by Ashleigh Patey and Kevin Lopuck