U of C introduces new program to address need for indigenous dialogue

A new graduate program aims to show teachers the other side of Canada’s history with indigenous peoples.

The University of Calgary is acting on recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, with a new Masters of Education program focused on history told from outside the colonial perspective.

“We encounter students in our First Nations, Metis [and] Inuit class who become very angry at the mere fact that they have not been taught the whole of history,” Yvonne Poitras Pratt, a professor at the university, said. “So many of these students are hearing about residential schools for the first time.”

She says through the Werklund School of Education, educators will be taught how to use literature, multimedia, visual arts and other platforms to introduce that whole history into classrooms.

“We have to consider that there’s a history that’s been deliberately silenced and ignored. So that’s what we bring into that program offering,” Poitras Pratt said.

The schools says people of different professions such as social workers or psychologists, can be accepted into the program as it also benefits their professional needs.