Carol Bob, a member of the Wilps Luus in the Gitxsan territory of the Pacific Northwest, has a powerful message for teachers – that teaching math, or any subject, is all about building relationships with students and community. Carol, whose hereditary name is Sta’osta’on (helping hand) is a non-enrolling teacher on the Lax Yip of her Gitxsan Nation at Hazelton Secondary School. There Carol also teaches Workplace Mathematics 11 where she embraces the challenge of teaching students who question the need and purpose for learning mathematics.
Drawing upon Indigenous pedagogies that focus on experiential approaches to learning and oral ways of sharing teaching and learning, Carol brings math, community and culture together. She takes her students outdoors, not only to develop awareness of mathematics in all kinds of places, but also so that they can build trusting relationships with each other – so that they can learn from each other.
Being outdoors and walking provides opportunities for learning more about what her students know and what sparks their curiosity. “I ask them what kinds of plants they know, or what do they see, what did they observe. And then eventually, they start talking and actually listening and noticing” to each other and this place. It’s a way for students to learn “to stand up for themselves and think critically when needed” says Carol, and to “communicate what they want or need, to use their voice.”
“communicate what they want or need, to use their voice.”
This approach honours Indigenous pedagogies of oral teaching and learning. For Carol there are “different ways the kids can show that they know. They can either do it or write on paper. Or I can observe and take note and then discuss it with them. Or I can have one-to-one verbal conferences with students.” All this builds students’ confidence and prepares them to challenge themselves. But it also requires that teachers have high expectations for their students. As Carol describes, this strategy is “adapted to make sure that students succeed. And I try to push them to do a little bit more, because they usually can do a little bit more than what they think they can.”
In what other way could a teacher develop a math lesson around Canada’s horrific and tragic Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls? A topic for investigation that was actually suggested by Carol’s students. Without a strong relationship with community and her students this would be a challenging topic to respectfully and responsibly bring to the classroom.
Yet this is what Carol and her students did. Students deepened their knowledge of the topic by reading the formal report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman and Girls. Then Carol brilliantly engaged students in questioning the data reported as they discussed “whose perspective is presented, whose bias is presented, whose perspective is missing?” Students prepared scale drawings to create their own beaded red dresses, earring size. As they beaded, Carol and her students discussed the reasons behind the report and how math could be used to understand and critique the report. All this culminated in a gathering with Chiefs, students, and community members. Students were the speakers. It was very powerful and where students were encouraged, states Carol “to stand up, be proud, and recognize ‘we’re in this together’”.
“to stand up, be proud, and recognize “we’re in this together”.
What’s next for Carol? Working to continue building community relationships. “The loss of our culture and language in the last few years just because of the loss of community Elders” has had a devasting impact. So, for Carol, “connecting with math, inviting the community in, and taking kids out more into the community to learn the culture” are high priorities. “That’s what I need to be thinking of while the Elders are still the knowledge holders and are still with us.”
More details on Carol’s project can be found here.