Community Engaged Learning (CEL): Creating Relationships and Maintaining Connections with the local Indigenous Community

A part of 8.3 Inquiry on Teaching and Learning Poster + Talk

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Sherry Fukuzawa, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Anthropology
Dr. Nicole Laliberte, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Geography, Geomatics, and Environment
Erica de Souza, Research Assistant, University of Toronto
Isabella Bustos, Research Assistant, University of Toronto
Councillor Veronica King-Jamieson, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation
Tienne Johnson, University of Toronto
Juwyriyah Ahmed, University of Toronto

ANT241H, Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island is a Community-engaged learning (CEL) course at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) which sits upon the Territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN). The course is designed and run by the Indigenous Action Group (IAG), a collective of Indigenous Scholars including members of the MCFN and non-Indigenous Professors at UTM. Through this course, students are introduced to Anishinaabe ontologies and epistemologies such as land-based learning and Etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing), a concept coined by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall (Bartlett et al. 2012) which teaches respectful relations between knowledge systems. This course is based on a Community-engaged learning model in which the priorities of the local Indigenous community are prioritized through respectful relations and placemaking (Judge, et al. 2021; Fukuzawa, et al. 2020; de Souza & Watson, 2020)

This poster presents analyses of quantitative and qualitative data from a three-year longitudinal study exploring student integration of learning from ANT241H. Data are drawn from course reflections, assignments and post-course interviews. The poster features direct quotes from students who have completed interviews across all three years of the study, to demonstrate how students integrated Indigenous ways of knowing into their lives up to two years after completing the course. This data is complimented by broader course surveys which explore how teaching strategies impacted student learning and wellness, as well as student feelings toward this model of Indigenous community-engaged learning.8.3.2 (ITL8): Building student creativity, adaptability, and community by incorporating design thinking and collaboration into the curriculum (Michelle French Physiology Professor, TS)