Refocusing On Our Mandate
The Dean’s Advisory Committee on Indigenous Research Teaching and Learning (IRTL) was established in 2018 to build on the final recommendations of the Decanal Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning (ITL Report) to Truth and Reconciliation within the Faculty of Arts & Science. These commitments are further affirmed in chapter three of Arts & Science 2020–25 Academic Plan, Leveraging our Strengths.
This report summarizes the committee's efforts from 2022–23 as well as its next steps.
Stages
Over the past year and a half, from September 2022 to December 2023, the committee has clarified and acted on the terms and intent of its broad mandate in three overlapping stages:
We developed tools to clarify our purpose and track our progress towards the fulfilment of the 20 calls to action (CtAs), improving our ability to both measure our successes and identify areas requiring more focus and support. These tools include our terms of reference and the IRTL Tracker (accessible to current members only).
We continued to foster connections with key divisional offices whose administrative portfolios align with the CtAs and engaged in conversations about embedding the work of the IRTL into various vice-decanal portfolios, shifting emphasis from "the work" to "our work." This approach necessitated more regular conversations and presentations to the faculty leadership table and concomitant discussions at IRTL committee meetings with vice-deans, Arts & Science directors and executive directors and the faculty registrar.
We struck strategic working groups and supported strategic engagements with our members, supporters and Indigenous students to hone key areas of focus and gain key insights and ideas for program transformations, recruitment needs, Indigenous student experience and curricular matters. These engagements and working groups include:
- Program consultations with the Office of Experiential Learning & Outreach Support — July–December 2023
- The COVID-19 Impacts on Indigenous Students Working Group — February–December 2023
- The Indigenous Curricular Working Group — Starts in January 2024
- The Indigenous Research Ethics Webinars Working Group — Implementation from August 2023–present
- As-needed consultations on infrastructure development and research funding
Our renewed sense of clarity and connection to the work of various administrative offices is beginning to yield results. We see indications that our collaboration has increased divisional capacity to engage in matters related to Indigenous research, teaching and learning with care, awareness and competence. Though there is still much work to be done, we have gained significant momentum in pursuit of necessary institutional transformations that will continue to develop in 2024–25.
Highlights
Identity-based data is critical to measuring progress with respect to Indigenous student, staff and faculty member recruitment (CtA #8, CtA #14). With the support of the A&S faculty registrar and director, equity, diversity and inclusion, the IRTL collects, discusses and analyzes available data annually, as part of regular committee business. These data inform many areas of our work and tell a story of Indigenous presence, absence and experiences at Arts & Science. Where there are gaps in our knowledge, additional information has been sought through working groups and supplementary consultations.
Calls to action related to curriculum (#11, 12, 16, 17, & 19) require specific attention due to their breadth and complexity. With the support of faculty leadership, the IRTL established an Indigenous Curriculum Working Group that will develop a strategy to effect curricular matters, especially in relation to curricular review. This will help ensure that “course content concerning Indigenous peoples reflects best practices and contemporary scholarship” (ITL Report, 2017). The cross disciplinary working group will meet from January–December 2024.
A 2022 analysis of A&S Experiential Learning (EL) programs showed that applications related to Indigenous experiential learning were limited. With the committee’s guidance, ELOS undertook a consultation process to inform the redesign of these programs with the goal of more closely aligning them with intended program outcomes and IRTL priorities (CtA #16, 17). This process was seen as exemplary by IRTL members. The resultant program framework closely incorporates their feedback and includes increased funding, enhanced program supports and the de-coupling of “Indigenous” and “international” within the funding envelope for improved clarity and ease of communication.
In 2022, the IRTL worked with the Indigenous Language Revitalization Team (CIS & Linguistics) to identify ways to support faculty members who work in Indigenous language revitalization at Arts & Science and who continue to teach and conduct research in their own communities and nations. These faculty members are essential to enhancing institutional capacity to meaningfully support community-led Indigenous language revitalization efforts (CtA #10). As such, the Dean’s Office approved the creation of an Indigenous Languages Coordinator (FTE) who will coordinate the team’s activities, support partnership development and assist with grant writing.
Challenges
The committee has found that certain issues arise with some frequency in our discussions. These persistent challenges are barriers to achieving our strategic goals and are structural, systemic and jurisdictional in nature and are difficult for the committee to effect without additional support.
These include:
- Slow progress and infrequent communication regarding the development of dedicated Indigenous infrastructure that would be the new home for First Nations House, the Centre for Indigenous Studies and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives (CtA #2).
- A high percentage of Indigenous faculty members are teaching stream or pre-tenure as opposed to fully tenured faculty members, including all Indigenous languages faculty members (teaching stream). This has a rippling effect, as it impacts our ability to recruit and support Indigenous students, especially graduate students, attract and retain Indigenous faculty members, and build our reputation in Indigenous research.
- Indigenous student recruitment is institutionally complex. Although the Nine Communities Tuition Initiative is a welcome development, the IRTL is seeking a more comprehensive and broadly strategic approach to Indigenous student recruitment, with the widest array of diversified and equity-aligned recruitment supports as possible.
We have requested additional divisional support to address these challenges at Arts & Science and in collaboration with the university.
Future Activities & Initiatives
In the coming year, we anticipate that the work of the IRTL will include the following activities and initiatives:
Communication
In the coming year, and beginning with the distribution of this report, we plan on improving our outreach, communication and web presence. A public facing dashboard is being considered as well as more regularized points of connection with our academic community.
Supporting Experiential Learning & Outreach Support Rollout
As our members are drawn from across the division and sit at various leadership tables, the IRTL functions as a source of information related to Indigenous research, teaching and learning at Arts & Science. We have agreed to use our platform to support awareness and uptake of revised Indigenous experiential learning programs by promoting these opportunities to our community/(ies), teams and departments.
Indigenous Research Ethics
As two major IRTL initiatives have recently wrapped (COVID-19 working group, Experiential Learning & Outreach Support consultations), focus may now be given to implementing the committee’s vision for the Indigenous Research Ethics webinars. This will be a series of panel discussions that will highlight Indigenous research exemplars at Arts & Science, consider the history of research in relation to Indigenous communities and demonstrate what ethical engagement with Indigenous peoples and communities looks and feels like.
Follow-up to the COVID-19 Report
Recommendations from the Making a Softer Path: Impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Students report align with our calls to action and give additional insight into the manner in which they might be fulfilled. Of particular note, our findings indicate that Indigenous graduate students are in need of additional supports. This will likely be a key area of focus in the coming year.
Contact Us
The Indigenous Research Teaching and Learning committee welcomes your questions and feedback at irtl@utoronto.ca.