Two Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) instructors are changing the way students learn in a new land-based learning course.
The three main pillars of INDG/BIOL 1492: Indigenous Perspectives in Biology are storytelling, learning from the land and learning from Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, elders and community members.
“We want the students to learn and experience the land. The biggest teacher ends up being these spaces, the land that we visit. Very little time is spent in the classroom,” says Anthony Fernandes, who co-taught the first offering of this course with Dr. Lee Beavington.
Fernandes, who is from ʔéʔɬx̣ʷaʔ Nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əm (Lower Elwha Klallam) in Washington state, stresses the importance of learning from people who have been on the land the longest.
“Indigenous people and elders have been in this space. They know a lot about the various plants,” says Fernandes.
According to Beavington, a KPU Learning Strategist and interdisciplinary instructor, traditional biology courses offer very different ways of learning compared to one that reimagines academic spaces.
“Biology taught through the Western scientific lens is often reductionistic and detached from local ecosystems, whereas Indigenous approaches are embedded in place, identify, and community,” says Beavington. “In a holistic Indigenous approach, you engage with reciprocity, and the natural world becomes an active participant in the learning process. Nature is a co-teacher.”
KPU campuses are situated on the traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Kwikwetlem, Qay’qayt and Musqueam First Nations, something that both Fernandes and Beavington want students to gain a deeper understanding of.
“The space KPU is on is something to be considered, especially in the era where people talk about reconciliation and land acknowledgements.
These students are going to think about what the land is saying and how they can learn from this land,” says Fernandes. “KPU is taking steps towards reconciliation, and this course is significant to that.”
