Indigenous learners view education from a wholistic perspective. Indigenous teachings  encompasses many facets including: language, land-based teachings, storytelling, community-based learning, herbology, song and dance, hunting, cosmology, ethnobotany and Ceremony.

 

Indigenous ways of knowing support the notion that life is sacred and all things living are interconnected. The wholistic teaching methods of Cree pedagogy encourage mutual respect with all living things. Indigenous education is based on respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility (Kirkness and Barnhardt, 2001). Critical thinking and developing metacognitive skills are central elements of Cree teachings. Traditional Cree pedagogy focuses on the learners' needs, abilities, and interests, and the student helps in deciding what he or she wishes to learn (Alberta Education, 2006).

 

The Indigenous community views the classroom as an extension of the community and education involves “observation, listening, modeling, demonstration – with multi-sensory and hands-on experiences” (Alberta Education 2006, p. 6). Cree epistemology honours the following aspects:

    - the interconnectedness of all things

    - connection to the land and community

    - the dynamic and changing nature of the world

    - strength that develops in power not power over (Alberta Education, 2006)

 

The current and Eurocentric programming from Kindergarten to Post-secondary does not include Indigenous Pedagogy as a standard teaching practice, and rarely is Indigenous history and knowledge incorporated into the curriculums and programming; this leaves a mismatch between the Indigenous learners' home education and education that the public schools provide.

 

The Western school systems and the colonial approach to education has failed Indigenous students and forced assimilation has left a gap in interpretations of Indigenous knowledge (Hansen, 2018).