The New Indigenous-Focused Grad Requirement, One Semester In

Photo Credit: Avi Bharti

In 2022, the BC Ministry of Education announced a new Indigenous-focused graduation requirement for all high school students. The new requirement, which has been put into effect this school year, requires all students to take an Indigenous-focused secondary school course such as BC First Peoples 12, Contemporary Indigenous Studies 12, English First Peoples 10, or English First Peoples 12. Students are given the option to take any of these courses in-person at their school or online via platforms such as the Vancouver Learning Network.

The new requirement comes as a response to the 94 Calls to Action created in 2015 by the federal government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). “It’s a call to make all K–12 students be mindful and aware of this part of our collective story as Canadians that has historically been left out of the textbooks,” Ms. S. McEachern (Social Studies), who teaches BC First Peoples 12 and is Hamber’s Indigenous teacher lead, explained.

BC First Peoples 12 has existed at Hamber for over ten years. It began as an alternative course for Social Studies 11 with a provincial exam attached to it. After the abolition of provincial exams, it became one of many senior social studies courses offered at our school.

Although the BC First Peoples curriculum has not changed very much over the years, the way in which the course is taught has evolved. Ms. McEachern shared that the semester system has greatly impacted how she teaches. “This work needs processing time, not just for understanding, but for the emotional labour that it necessitates,” she said. 

With the new graduation requirement, Ms. McEachern noticed a change in her students’ level of engagement with the course. “Dynamics are always going to change, and how I teach is never the same any year,” she said. “But at the same time...not everyone’s choosing to be here, so there is some apprehension or resistance, but I try to break that down very early and say, ‘I understand and I hear you’.”

“Especially for [the Class of 2024], it’s difficult because your course planning has had to change,” she continued. “But I think over time that resistance will lessen...when people just become aware that it is a part of the requirement and it is necessary to learn.”

Along with BC First Peoples 12, Hamber offers two Indigenous-focused English courses — English First Peoples 10 and English First Peoples 12. Taught by Ms. E. McKeen (English) and Mr. M. Vatta (English), these courses centre around the analysis of Indigenous literature, guided by the Aboriginal Ways of Knowing and Being.

This school year marks the first year that Hamber is offering these Indigenous-focused English courses. “Myself and Ms. McKeen...are learning just as much as the students are, as we are learning what and how to teach it,” Mr. Vatta said. “But I think it’s a very important part of our education.”

Although teaching the new courses has been exciting, Mr. Vatta — much like Ms. McEachern — has found some challenges regarding students’ apprehension.

“It takes the buy-in,” he said. “It’s mostly in-class. It’s creating a community and a culture where we are working together as a little family within our classroom. It does require both bringing things to the table and receiving things, so that’s hard for some students to get around to.”

Mr. Vatta said that some students who struggle with the unique class structure have withdrawn from the course, opting for the online version instead. He expressed that while this is an option, it’s not one that he encourages. “From my perspective, English First Peoples is not a course to be taken online. It is about community, bringing things together, and sharing, and you can’t do that as a single person just learning online.”

In fact, he found that many students who completed the course last semester expressed a positive experience. “I had many students go, ‘wow, I really did get things out of this class that I didn’t expect’,” he said.

Ms. McEachern agrees that Indigenous-focused courses should not be taken online, as she finds that online versions negate the authenticity of their in-person counterparts. “[The online courses are] just a checkbox, and I don’t want this tokenized. The tokenism of ‘just getting it done’ is hugely problematic,” she said.

Ms. McEachern hopes that with the new graduation requirement, students will become more aware of Indigenous cultures and practices. She is hopeful that her passion for these topics translates into students “see[ing] things a little bit differently” after taking the course, whether that be in terms of their connection to the land or their role in educating others on Indigenous realities. “Hopefully students leave understanding why it’s important — that’s my ultimate measure of whether I did a good job.”