(De)Colonized Science: Hopes, Complexities, Tensions, and Frustrations in Seeking to Indigenize Undergraduate Science Education

Nikita Kahpeaysewat; Collette Lemieux; Joshua Hill

doi:10.29173/isotl688

Authors

Nikita Kahpeaysewat Mount Royal University
Collette Lemieux Mount Royal Univerity https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3209-5329
Joshua Hill Mount Royal University https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1163-5885

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/isotl688

Keywords:

Indigenization, Indigenous Science, Decolonization

Abstract

This article is an exploration of our efforts to develop an Indigenous Science Course at Mount Royal University (MRU) located in Mohkinstsis within the Ancestral Lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy the Territory of the Treaty 7 signatories Kainai, Piikani, Siksika, Tsuut’ina, Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley Nations and the Metis Nation Region III. The authors are an Indigenous environmental scientist and recent MRU graduate (Nikita), a settler assistant professor (Collette), and an Indigenous assistant professor (Joshua). We engage here as an enactment of research as ceremony (Wilson, 2008). We draw on Metissage storywork to spark meaning making of our experiences in seeking to contribute to the Indigenization of our University (Archibald, 2008). We believe that the stories we share have the potential to open up interpretive possibilities for those interested in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as Reconciliation (Hill, 2022) and decolonization and Indigenization of post secondary education more broadly (Battiste, 2013). Through storytelling we endeavor to push for change in sharing the hopes, complexities, tensions, and frustrations we encountered.

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Author Biographies

Nikita Kahpeaysewat, Mount Royal University

is an Environmental Policy Analyst at the Assembly of First Nations and an environmental science graduate from Mount Royal University. Nikita passionately advocates that Indigenous ways of knowing and Western science are equally valid knowledge sources, and both ways can be used to protect and preserve the environment.

Collette Lemieux, Mount Royal Univerity

is an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Analytics at Bissett School of Business. Dr. Lemieux is a passionate instructor who designs mathematics and statistics courses to be interactive, collaborative, and relevant. Dr. Lemieux’s research focuses on mathematics education within the context of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Joshua Hill, Mount Royal University

is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Mount Royal University. Through his teaching, service, and scholarship Dr. Hill seeks to create the conditions to (re)story education as a journey towards agency, wonder, and expansive awareness of oneself-in-the-world.

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