Place-Based Learning Program

The Werklund School of Education is committed to working alongside and learning from Indigenous Elders, leaders, and communities. These opportunities connect Werklund students with the land and help them to embed this work in their teaching.

Details for this program are still being finalized, but we hope to offer this program starting in the Fall 2024 semester. 

With this program, we want to support Werklund students as they continue their journey connecting or reconnecting to the land.  Designed to take place wherever students may be, the program will offer a series of activity prompts that students can complete where they live. Participants will then submit a reflection on each experience.

This program:

  • is open to all undergraduate and graduate students in the Werklund School of Education
  • can be completed at your own pace over the course of the academic year
  • runs through Elevate so that students can access and work through the steps and activities at their own speed

 

Program Intention & Structure

To enhance learning and fostering wellness through place-based connections more widely, the activities within this program were developed to provide students with openings to independently extend their understandings with and alongside place. While inspired by Indigenous insights from Elder and Knowledge holders in Treaty 4, 6, 7, as well as nearly 20 years guiding students in outdoor programs, the activities are merely meant as prompts for students to pay attention to connections and stories along their own path. 

For several of the activities, participants will visit and engage with a place of their choosing. They are encouraged to choose a specific place that they can return to for each activity to add depth to the experience. It is also recommended that the selected place be easy and safe to visit, so observations and experiences can be ongoing. The intention is to spend time moving with, and being moved by, the living questions, stories, and guidance that the place offers.

Activity Topics

  1. Beginning with a Story
  2. Visiting and introducing Yourself to Place
  3. Understanding "Land Back"
  4. Sit Spot
  5. Expanding Language to Build Place Meanings
  6. Found Treaty Poetry
  7. Mapping and Counter-Mapping
  8. Bringing It Together

For each activity within this program, you will be provided with some background information, a place-based process for engagement, and a reflection question or exercise that you will share and submit on Elevate.

Writing on Stone

Program registration is now open!

Please log on to Elevate, go to My Werklund Experiences, Courses & Programs, and 'enroll' in the Place-Based Learning program.

Register on Elevate!