Indigenous Learning Outcomes

Residential school survivor and recipient of the Order of Canada, Elder Garnet Angeconeb reminds us that the meaning of the word respect, when broken down into its two parts, “re-” and “-spect”, means “to look again” – as in, to look at something or someone again while also being aware of the lenses through which we view, understand and experience the world.

OCAD University’s Indigenous Learning Outcomes require us to do just that as we come to know Turtle Island’s diverse First Nations, Métis and Inuit knowledges, compelling each of us to build a relationship with that knowledge by also knowing our selves, our positions and our ways of being.

The Indigenous Learning Outcomes will guide the learning that we all, as a community of students, faculty and staff, will undertake to make space for First Nations, Métis and Inuit ways of knowing, histories, cultures and art and design practices.

Recognizing the importance of art and design to all aspects of Indigenous life, and the historical role of legislation and educational institutions in particular in systematically suppressing the languages, traditions, practices and cultures of Indigenous peoples, the Indigenous Learning Outcomes will help the University to meet its responsibilities to reconciliation and engage in the healing process through art and design.

The Indigenous Learning Outcomes were developed through a process that began in a circle with Elder and Medicine Man James Carpenter in December 2018. Participants from across the University community were asked to share in this visioning session facilitated by Nadia McLaren, educational developer, Indigenous learning, which set the spirit of the learning outcomes into motion. The work of the visioning session was then put into the hearts, spirits and hands of an Indigenous faculty working group (Melanie Hope, Gerald McMaster, Peter Morin and Ryan Rice) who put the learning journey into words.

Four organizing principles - respect, relationship, reciprocity, responsibility - emerged from the knowledge of the working group. This knowledge is grounded in culture, tradition and communities. The value of these principles is also widely recognized in Indigenous education and Indigenous research (see, for example, the work of Verna J. Kirkness, Ray Barnhardt, La Donna Harris, Jacqueline Wasilewski and Shawn Wilson). 

Elders Shirley Williams and Liz Ozawamick, as well as other Indigenous community leaders, provided guidance in the development of these learning outcomes.

The Indigenous Learning Outcomes were presented to OCAD University's Senate in April 2019 as part of the Wholistic Approach to Curriculum, which is intended to guide the development of Indigenous curriculum.

In February 2020, at a symposium on Indigenous Students Pathways held at OCAD U, Elder Ralph Johnson from Sioux Lookout, Ontario blessed and shared his vision for the Learning Outcomes, and the OCAD U community was invited to share together in a feast to celebrate them.

The Indigenous Learning Outcomes (PDF, 2019) are organized as a journey guided by the four directions of an Anishnaabe medicine wheel to facilitate a process of movement and an understanding that speaks about relationships to and with everything. This wholistic approach allows us to reconsider learning outcomes in terms of the importance of process and relationship rather than just a prescribed end result or outcome. The medicine wheel allows us to locate learning as a journey that doesn’t end, as it comes full circle and begins again.

As we move through our journey with the Indigenous Learning Outcomes, each of us is encouraged to come to know them through our varying roles and the different lenses through which we understand and experience the world. More than just knowing them, we should strive to put the ILOs into practice in all of our interactions with students and colleagues.

The Indigenous Learning Outcomes are Indigenous knowledge. We have been given the responsibility as a community to care for that knowledge and to use it respectfully when we share it with our students and colleagues.

If you would like to know more about the Indigenous Learning Outcomes, read the full document and the related learning outcomes, please find the document linked here. If you need support in reflecting on how you might ethically engage with the Indigenous Learning Outcomes and thoughtfully include them in your teaching practice, please contact Asher Ghaffar, Senior Curriculum Specialist, Decolonizing and Anti-Racist Education (aghaffar@ocadu.ca) in the Faculty & Curriculum Development Centre. For other inquiries about the Indigenous Learning Outcomes, please contact the Office of the Vice President, Academic and Provost (vpap@ocadu.ca).