Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of ways of knowing and being, histories, and cultures of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. As educators, we have a responsibility to work towards truth and reconciliation through our teaching practices. We need to be informed and understand the impact that settler colonialism has had on our Indigenous peoples and the ways in which it is still perpetuated to this day. Teaching multiple perspectives and ways of being are required to properly inform our students. Integration of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis worldviews and perspectives is also important because historically we have only taught from the Western perspective which can skew opinion and does not give these groups justice. Incorporating the First People’s Principles of Learning is also a necessity and doing so is not difficult. There are many ways to incorporate different ways of knowing and it is up to us as educators to do so. Challenging our own biases, attitudes, beliefs, values and practices to facilitate change is also at the core of Standard 9. In order to become the best teachers possible, we need to do this. Why do we believe certain things? Could our views be ignorant and harmful? These questions should be constantly asked of ourselves as we go through our teaching journeys. We need to provide our students with an understanding of Canada’s turbulent history and give them the opportunity to become empathic and compassionate towards groups that have historically been persecuted or left behind. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada provide us with so much important history and knowledge and we need to be willing to engage with it and incorporate it into our day-to-day life.
