Education: A Dene Perspective

Teacher Resource Manual

D. How is Dene Kede Taught?

Return to Part 1: Orientation to Dene Kede

1. Dene Way of Teaching

Traditionally, children learned by experiencing life in a spiralling fashion. Children would be repeatedly exposed to similar kinds of experience over a period of time, but each time they would learn at a more complex or advanced level. Children learned by:

• being observant while experiencing.
• making an individual decision as to when to try to do something on their own.
• taking responsibility for what to learn and when.

A methodology is suggested for Dene Kede programs which recreates learning situations that enable Dene students to develop these learning styles. It is a methodology based on the use of Key Cultural Experiences.

2. Examples of Key Experiences

Camping, hunting caribou, feasting, picking berries, hearing a story from an elder, attending a drum dance, sewing slippers, skinning and cutting up a rabbit, sharing food with an elder, watching ravens, making a drum and making dry fish are all good examples of Key Cultural Experiences.

3. What are the Features of Key Experiences?

• Key experiences are cultural experiences. They are culturally authentic, realistic or natural to the Dene.
• They are whole experiences rather than parts of an experience.
• They are usually hands-on or activity oriented.
• These activities are experienced over and over in their life times, enabling people to become more skilled or knowledgeable in a spiralling fashion.
• The Dene child becomes increasingly more skilled or knowledgeable at his or her own pace.
• A key experience may be composed of several sub-experiences or component experiences. Together, they represent a balanced Dene perspective. They include experiences dealing with a person's Spiritual relationships, relationships with the Land, relationships with other People and relationships with the Self.

Experiences such as hunting or camping should consist of a balance of all four of these relationships. A camping experience which does not pay attention to the spiritual relationships or the relationships between people does not come from a Dene perspective.

4. Key Experiences and Spiralling Learning

Throughout the year, students are exposed to various cultural key experiences. Most experiences, because of their holistic nature, can be experienced in similar form many times over several years. Each time, students will learn what they are ready for, learning more complex skills and gaining more understanding as time goes on. This is spiralling learning (see figure 3).

5. Stages of Learning and Evaluation

There are three stages which are repeated over and over throughout the process of spiralling learning throughout the lifetime of a Dene: the input stage, the reflective stage and the output stage. Teachers should plan and organize their key experiences with these in mind.

Each stage represents growth. In each stage there is a form of evaluation which drives the process on (see figure 4).

Fig. 3 Spiralling Learning

6. Support Information for Using Key Experiences

As a part of the curriculum, approximately fifty thematic units are included, each with suggested key experiences related to the theme.

Most key experiences in the Dene Kede programs will be based on activities involving elders, community resource people, storytelling, researching, and development of cultural self-awareness through the use of journals, conferencing and sharing circles. Each of these topics is developed for the reference of teachers in the Appendix to this Manual.

7. Subject Integration

In times past, students learned math, science, religion, language arts, etc. as separate subjects. However well the students learned these subjects, they did not often recognize their value or relationship to their real world. In the Dene Kede program, skills and knowledge learned in these subject areas are tied to the Key Experiences. The Key Experiences give a sense of purpose and place to the subjects.

All of the usual academic subjects can be integrated into the Dene Kede program. The diagram on the next page shows where each of the subject areas tends to fit into the framework of the Dene Kede curriculum.

The proportion of time spent in key experiences, as compared to the integration of subject areas will vary from school to school. Some schools which have the full support of the community, and which have the resources, can have their students spend considerable time learning cultural skills or being on the land. All are key experiences. This is most consistent with the traditional learning and teaching situation.

Other schools may spend little time with key experiences and spend more time with integration of subject activity. These schools will be ones that feel they do not have the resources to spend on the land or that have parents who do not support as much time spent away from the academic subjects. In the latter case, it is important to tie at least some key experiences to the classroom and to pay attention to all four components of the experience, tying the academic subjects into these components in order to provide at least the Dene perspective to the students.

Fig. 6 Subject Integration

8. Whole Language Learning

Language skills, whether first or second language, English or a Dene language can be taught using Dene Kede as the context in which to teach "whole language". The skills may differ but their development through use in communication is encouraged.

Dene as a First Language

Students who speak a Dene language as a first language can use key experiences as a basis for developing and extending their language skills. As an addendum to the Dene Kede curriculum, an outline of Dene first language skills is provided to guide the teacher. All skills are meant to be developed for use within the cultural experiences. It is the key experience which defines what language should be learned and taught. These expectations are not to be taught in the sequence presented in the curriculum.

The richer the language used in the context of the experiences, the more the students will be challenged with the language. It is important that the students speak the Dene language while engaged in experiences.

Dene as a Second Language

For students who have the Dene language as their second language, the language can be taught as a subject and then integrated with the key experience so that they are learning to use the language in the context of real experiences. When second languages are learned in isolation from real experiences, students are not usually able to use the language outside the classroom to any extent.

Some elders have noted that it is possible to speak a Dene language and not be Dene in the way one thinks and feels. The Dene Kede curriculum is primarily concerned with teaching this Dene perspective to students. If the students learn language for the purpose of engaging in cultural experiences, they benefit in two ways: They have the opportunity to use the language, not just learn it, and they get exposure to the Dene perspectives that make the language rich.

Cultural concepts such as those listed in the thematic units should be presented initially in the first language of the students to ensure understanding. The key experience itself, if it is activity-based, can be presented in the second language of the student. if the key experience is one which is based on language use (such as an elder telling a story), the language should be in the first language of the student, followed with second language lessons which use the same content but in a more controlled fashion. These guidelines should be followed whether the students have a Dene language, or English, as their first or second language.

9. Dene Kede School-Wide

Figure 7 shows how the Dene teacher and Subject Teacher can work together using Key Experiences as their common point of reference.

The Dene Kede teacher is responsible for:

• cultural concept and skill development,
• development of student cultural and self-awareness and
• Dene language development using a whole language approach (for both Dene as a first language and Dene as a second language)

The subject teacher is responsible for teaching the academic subjects and relating them to the key experiences in a meaningful way, while developing language skills in English through whole language (with English as first or second language).

Where the Dene teacher is a certified teacher responsible for subject teaching as well as Dene Kede, the Dene Kede program can be confined to a classroom and a single teacher but it would be a better use of the resources if the whole school benefited from the key experiences planned and prepared by the Dene Kede teacher.

Fig. 7 Dene Kede School-Wide.

Key experiences are difficult to fit into a half hour or 40 minute period. They require extended periods of time, depending upon the experience. Camping may require students to be away from the school for many days. Working on a hide may be possible in several 3 hour sessions.

Time tabling of key experiences requires cooperation and flexibility on the part of all teachers and administrators. Figure 8 shows two possible ways in which to schedule key experiences into a 5 day week.

Fig. 8 Time Tabling for Dene Kede

In the model on the left, a class or several classes participate in a key experience which lasts the whole day. On subsequent days, the classes are given their usual subject lessons, including lessons on Dene culture and language which all relate to the key experience.

In the model on the right, an activity-centered approach is taken. Here, on a given day, while some students are at the centre which is the key experience, other students are at centres working at lessons which integrate subject skills and understandings to the key experience. One of the centres is a Dene language and culture centre which relates its activities to the key experience as well. The activity centered approach is ideal when the key experience can be brought to the class and where small numbers of students are preferred to large numbers.