Ways of Knowing

Research and scholarship

1. Pursue Indigenous Research Chairs, post-doctoral positions and graduate student opportunities for the University of Calgary.
2. Strategically identify, recruit, hire and support emerging Indigenous scholars at the University of Calgary.
3. Develop and implement additional professional learning opportunities, training and mentorship in Indigenous Ways of Knowing, including methodologies and pedagogies, ceremony and cultural protocols.
4. Develop policies and procedures that incorporate guidance from Traditional Knowledge Keepers and Indigenous ethics organizations for research ethics approval involving Indigenous communities to ensure appropriate application of protocols.
5. Review and update criteria for merit and promotion for researchers involved in community-driven research to better support Indigenous ways of sharing and transferring knowledge, recognizing the time and trust it takes to engage in community-based research, and the effect that this has on annual performance reviews.

Teaching and learning

1. Create a Centre for Oral Traditions and Languages as a platform for research and learning, and to ensure that all students have opportunities to preserve traditional Indigenous languages.
2. For relevant professional schools (i.e., Werklund School of Education; Haskayne School of Business; Social Work; Cumming School of  Medicine; Nursing; Architecture; Schulich School of Engineering and Law), complete specific responses to the Calls to Action articulated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
3. For graduate degrees, broaden thesis procedures and guidelines to better incorporate Indigenous languages, oral traditions, pedagogies, and research methodologies and methods. Resource opportunities to routinely include Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Keepers in the university’s learning processes.
4. Ensure that appropriate cultural protocols are understood and practised during these teaching processes.
5. Expand educational opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students through innovative programming such as Indigenous exchange programs within Canada and land-based learning.