Indigenizing the academy was the focus of a conference that took place at the University of Saskatchewan May 1-2.
The Teaching and Learning Conference included about 180 educators from across Canada.
U of S Vice-Provost Patti McDougall says the conference provides an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas.
“We are sharing practices, and whenever you get that chance to come together and share practices, you go back to your own office, or position, or institution with new ideas and a chance to think about doing things differently,” she said.
U of S Vice-President of Indigenous Engagement Jacqueline Ottmann adds that educators can also discuss what works and what doesn’t in terms of best practices.
“Really diving deep into some of these emerging areas like open access, pedagogy and the implications of that on campus,” she said.
The two U of S officials say in previous years the Teaching and Learning Conference has had more of a technology focus, but this year has been broadened to include other educational disciplines.
Currently about 14 per cent of the university’s undergraduate students identify as Indigenous and seven per cent of graduate students.
(PHOTO: Jacqueline Ottman (left) and Patti McDougall (right). Photo by Fraser Needham.)