By battlefordsNOW

Local teachers learning about cultural awareness

May 31, 2017 | 12:34 PM

Teachers at John Paul II Collegiate in North Battleford will be getting a lesson in cultural awareness in the year ahead.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Light of Christ Catholic School Division announced it was approved for $64,000 in funding for John Paul II to participate in the program Following Their Voices – an initiative to promote awareness of First Nations and Métis cultures in teaching methodology.

The division will use part of the funding to cover the cost of a part-time instructional coach who will work with teachers at the school. Funding will also be used for other expenses related to the program.

Only a limited number of schools are approved for the provincial funding for the program each year.

“We are really fortunate we were selected,” superintendent Kelvin Colliar said.  

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“It’s instilling and supporting culturally-responsive best practices in classrooms.

”It would be looking at instructional strategies that would be respectful of First Nations content, ways of knowing, and making sure those are at the centre of instruction,” he said. 

Colliar said the program will help make the learning environment more inclusive for Indigenous students.

The program is touted as a way to keep students engaged and is said to also result in better attendance and better graduation rates.

“At the end of this, you will be able to quantify and qualify the growth in student learning and in instructional practices for teachers,” Colliar said.

Teachers will work with the school’s facilitator to look at their instructional practices and find ways to make improvements to be more inclusive of Indigenous cultures.

“Within a three-year window, all teachers [at JPII] will have gone through the culturally-responsive instructional and assessment practice,” Colliar said of the program. “What engages a First Nation student will engage other students as well. It’s a really good program. We’re lucky we were selected.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW