Day: 2 December 2021

            The Core French curriculum starts in grade five and mentions culture in every grade. This is because when you learn French, you need to teach culture to the class as well. Within the Core French curriculum, they stress that communities help develop cultural awareness and want students to understand French communities in Canada. This could relate to Social Studies by having students look at the French and English interacting when they first came to Canada, or by looking at the current political climate and how Francophone communities feel within Canada today. The Core French curriculum also mentions cultural appropriation and plagiarism. When learning a language, the line between cultural appropriation and appreciation might become blurred. However, after looking at the clip from Glee, I am aware that it still happens. To avoid cultural appropriation, ensure that the information being shared is accurate and promotes respect to the language and the people. By doing this, we can avoid stereotyping and appropriating French culture.

Within the art curriculum, culture is mentioned each year. Culture needs to be incorporated in the primary grades by using local artworks as examples and artistic traditions from other cultures. To avoid cultural appropriation, ensure the history behind the piece is understood and see if there is any way to bring in pieces that help decolonize the assignment. Also, within primary grades, students start to notice the relationship between culture, community, and time. This can be incorporated with the Social Studies curriculum since students start going through different time periods and how Canada and different cultures have interacted throughout history.

As we move into the intermediate and middle grades, cultural appropriation and appreciation are mentioned in the curriculum, and students should understand the difference between the two. When looking and creating different art pieces, students need to know how to create work that is not appropriating or plagiarising from another culture and whether it is ethical to create certain pieces. This will strengthen students’ critical thinking skills since they will learn how to make these choices for themselves as they create pieces that appreciate and respect different cultures.

            Within the Social Studies curriculum, culture is mentioned an assortment of times throughout the Big Ideas, Curricular Competencies, and Content. In primary grades, students learn about what makes a community and the different perspectives within a community. The curriculum also wants teachers to bring in First Peoples’ culture into the classroom. When students are learning this, it is important to bring in the conversation of cultural appropriation. Since students are younger, cultural appropriation can be brought in through a storybook or a Social-Emotional lesson on respect. By ignoring appropriation in the classroom, we are actively contributing to the problem (Gorski, 2008). Students are capable of learning about appropriation and where it is seen in everyday life.

            In the intermediate curriculum, students learn about culture through immigration and perspective. When students learn, it is important to recognize Canada’s history with the culture and why many cultures may feel unwelcome or discriminated within Canada. By pointing out these norms, we call out the oppressive way things have always been done and educate the new generation to be more welcoming. When teaching about different cultures in history, ensure that it is done respectfully and with understanding to ensure it is done properly.

Gorski, P. C. (2008). Good intentions are not enough: A decolonizing intercultural education. Intercultural Education, 19(6), 515–525. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675980802568319

            In grade three, we did a novel study on the book Yuit by Yvette Edmonds. In the book, an Inuit girl finds an Albino seal and names it Yuit. When the girl refuses to get rid of the seal pup, she is banished from their community and lives with her cousin and attends school.

            When deciding whether this is cultural appropriation, I was conflicted. As far as I am aware (since I do not remember a lot of details), the book itself is a good depiction of Inuit life and culture. The author, Yvette Edmonds, is not Inuit herself, but she has visited the community multiple times and has learned Inuit culture. I would say that the novel choice is not cultural appropriation since the author lived with Inuit people and consulted them to write the book. It would be a good way to bring Inuit culture into a classroom. Along with this novel study, we created a booklet with different worksheets on Inuit life. I am still not sure whether this would be considered cultural appropriation. The worksheets in the workbook are about Inuit tools and practices, but they do not relate to the present day and how they are currently doing things. These worksheets put Inuit people into a box they cannot break out of, which I would consider cultural appropriation since the oppressors still dominate their culture and narrative.

            To make this project more appreciative, I would have students learning about Inuit in the past and present. Some of the worksheets could include what tools and resources the Inuit used back then, but there could be more on how they have evolved and grown. Other topics that could be covered are current events, such as how Inuit people need to pay insane prices for their groceries.

            To shift consciousness using one of Gorski (2008)’s steps, I would use “shift no. 3: rejecting deficit theory” (Gorski, 2008). Although the book does not directly deal with deficit theory, the worksheets I was provided always made me feel sorry for Indigenous peoples since I thought they were missing out on the tools and privileges I was experiencing as a child. I know now that this is untrue, and I would ensure students understand the current crises within Inuit communities and what they look like today.

Gorski, P. C. (2008). Good intentions are not enough: A decolonizing intercultural education. Intercultural Education, 19(6), 515–525. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675980802568319