Carolyn Roberts is an Indigenous faculty lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Here, she talks to us about her work in decolonization and Indigenous pedagogies.
How do you support teachers interested in connecting math, community and culture?
“Math is a colonial construct and when we think of math we usually are only able to see it through a colonial lens. So when we try to put an Indigenous view point to it, it is difficult. Our ancestors used math all the time; they used it in their carving, their canoe making, their weaving, their creation of items used to create things. In order to be able to incorporate math in an Indigenous way you need to move away from the colonial constructs of math and rethink how we teach our students about the world around us. We need to get out on the land and see how the interconnectedness happens in nature, naturally. You need to get the children using their hands and minds together with weaving, carving, and drawing. Look at how the skills we learn in math are used in these different ways.”
“Math is a colonial construct. We need to rethink how we teach our students about the world around us.”
What do you feel teachers (and teacher candidates) can work on (read, discuss, do) that can support their learning about teaching in ways which connect with community and Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies?
“This is a good question and I feel it is harder to answer because what I worry about is students going into community looking for ways to connect and learn without knowing the protocol involved with asking this. It is more important to learn about how to approach our communities in a good way by asking first what can we do to support your community, rather than asking for them to share their knowledge and information. The reciprocity piece is what we need to teach about. How do we do this work in a good way. More so in this moment in time, we need to make sure that we all know the Truth about our history. I don’t think teachers can even start to weave Indigenous knowledges into their practice without knowing and understanding our Indigenous history here in Canada.”
What are you currently working on in your school and what will you be working on next (in the future)?
“I am currently a Faculty Lecturer at SFU; my work is grounded in decolonization, Indigenous pedagogies and teaching Indigenous history within Canada. I work with undergrad programs and the Professional Development Department for new teachers. As this work evolves, it is my hope that I have more students that know the true shared history of Canada before they walk into my classroom. I bring a different way of teaching into the academy. I bring it in from an Indigenous lens in hopes to share how we can do education differently, how we can view education from another world view other than the colonial view point that we have been taught. It is my goal to create space for Indigenous voices to be heard within our education system in order for more Indigenous academics, educators, and people to move into spaces that we were never allowed to be in before. With this we can all co-create what Indigenous education looks likes and feels like within academia.”