"Being" in Post-Secondary Education

When I accepted my position in the Taylor Institute at the University of Calgary in January of this year, it was the completion of a full circle that began three decades ago. I earned my BEd here in 1996, a feat that changed the trajectory of my life in ways that I could not have imagined or dreamt at the time. Little did I know that my curriculum vitae – the course of my life – had only just begun.

One of the greatest lessons that I have learned is the difference in my understanding of being in school.

My educational journey, which includes dropping out of high school, apprenticing in a trade, entering university as a mature, non-matriculated student on probation, and moving onto graduate studies, helped me understand that being does not have to mean surviving. In fact, being in an educational program should mean thriving as a human being in optimal conditions.

In order to thrive as human beings, we need to attend to one of our most basic needs: to belong. I have come to understand that, without feeling like you belong in a place, a program, or a society, being means surviving an experience that was not designed for your success. As Canadian post-secondary institutions embark on journeys to reconciliation, a sense of belonging is paramount to changing the opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for Indigenous people. By including Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, being, and connecting in curriculum, pedagogy/andragogy, evaluation, and design, institutions like the University of Calgary are revaluing Indigeneity as something that belongs here. 

This is the essence of decolonizing teaching and learning. Hearing my language, seeing my material culture, engaging in my peoples’ ways as part of the curriculum, and operating within my values system all signal my belonging here, which in turn allows me to thrive as a human being. Returning to the University of Calgary as an Educational Development Consultant, with a PhD that centres on being Cree and helping reshape post-secondary experiences for others from surviving to thriving, is a complete circle with an upward trajectory – part of the spiral of learning to be human. 

In Michael Marker's article "Indigenous knowledge, indigenous scholars, and narrating scientific selves: "to produce a human being," he quotes the late Yupi’k educator, Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley: 

“For our people, there was only one goal for all education; to produce a human being.”

I learned this decades ago and through the course of my life, have come to understand it as truth. 

ekosi