Terms of Reference & Calls to Action

Terms of Reference

Background

In the summer of 2016, in response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and student requests, Dean David Cameron established a working group of faculty members, students and staff, advised by two Elders, to discuss the Faculty of Arts & Science plan for supporting Indigenous teaching and learning.

Specifically, the working group was tasked with drafting a public report for the dean with recommendations on Indigenous Teaching and Learning to include:

  1. Actions to be taken by A&S;
  2. Ways to build or strengthen partnerships across the university with respect to curriculum, student research opportunities and co-curricular opportunities taught from an Indigenous perspective or that incorporate Indigenous content;
  3. Recommendations for the faculty’s submission to the institutional TRC committee.

In November 2017, the Decanal Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning, co-chaired by Heidi Bohaker and Audrey Rochette, with guidance from Elders Lee Maracle and Alex McKay, submitted its report to the dean, outlining 20 Calls to Action under seven key themes:

  1. An Indigenous college for A&S
  2. Supporting the Centre for Indigenous Studies
  3. Divisional leadership
  4. Enhancing support and services for Indigenous students
  5. Curricular changes
  6. Training for faculty and staff members
  7. Responding to this report

In 2018, as part of the decanal response to the working group’s recommendations and to the university’s response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Dean Cameron established the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Indigenous Teaching and Learning.

In 2020, Dean Melanie Woodin expanded the mandate of the committee to include Indigenous-related research and the renamed the committee accordingly.

The mandate of the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Indigenous Research, Teaching and Learning (IRTL) is to build on the final recommendations of the Decanal Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning (ITL) and to serve as a coordinating body for ongoing engagement within the faculty by:

  1. Annually making recommendation the dean on the specifics (process changes, initiatives, etc.) of how the Faculty of Arts & Science can best fulfil the recommendations of the original ITL working group;
  2. Developing and reporting on IRTL priorities as they evolve and tracking progress to date annually;
  3. Liaising and reporting at minimum on an annual basis to the dean, vice-deans and directors leadership table to help ensure a regular flow of information;
  4. Facilitating networks of consultation and communication within and beyond Arts & Science to ensure coordination, alignment of A&S initiatives and university initiatives;
  5. Consulting with relevant with faculty members, staff and students in Arts & Science on the implementation of the recommendations of the original Decanal Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning.

The IRTL committee meets monthly from September–April.

Membership Selection & Appointment

A call for nominations for vacant positions is issued via decanal memo in the spring each year. The co-chairs review nominations together with the Elder and the Indigenous partnerships advisor, and then then make recommendations to the dean for appointment of IRTL Committee members.

Membership Terms

Student representatives are normally expected to serve for one year although a second year might be possible. Other committee members are normally expected to serve for two years with a third year of service possible. Non-student terms need to be renewable.

Record Keeping

All documentation related to committee business is filed via SharePoint, accessible to current members only.

Reporting

The IRTL Committee will provide a one- to two-page written report annually to the dean. This report will document progress made on the calls to action and will provide advice as to how the Faculty of Arts & Science can best fulfil the recommendations of the original Arts & Science Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning. A key element of this report shall be a link to the updated IRTL Tracker.

Background

In 2022, as part of a review of the progress made by the Faculty of Arts & Science in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action — the Indigenous Research, Teaching and Learning Committee (IRTL) recommended the establishment of a working group to focus on how to make meaningful progress on a cluster of items related to the transformation of curricula across Arts & Science.

As implied by this process, the CWG is advisory to the IRTL, which in turn, reports to the dean of Arts & Science. Its recommendations will be taken forward by the relevant standing offices of the Faculty of Arts & Science.

As outlined below, the mandate of this working group is informed by five particular recommendations of the 2017 Decanal Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning, convened by Dean David Cameron in response to the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Terms of Reference

The mandate of the Curricular Working Group of the IRTL is to develop a strategy to effect five of the original 20 calls to action.

Please note that the task here is not necessarily to be literal in advancing these action items as originally conceived. Rather, it is to consider the spirit of what was intended in each case and to develop an implementable strategy for the Faculty of Arts & Science, given the current best practices and state of the curricular arts. In some cases, work has begun but was interrupted by COVID-19; in other cases, the IRTL had recommended an amended approach.

The five recommendations that will inform the work of the CWG are as follows:

Ask Faculty Members
  • Call to Action #11: Ask faculty members within all A&S units to review their curriculum and learning materials with the goal of ensuring that course content concerning Indigenous peoples reflects best practices and contemporary scholarship.
Develop a Strategy
  • Call to Action #12: Develop a strategy to communicate more effectively to current and prospective students about the existing curricular and co-curricular opportunities in the Faculty of Arts & Science to study in ways that (1) draw on or reflect Indigenous systems of knowledge; (2) imagine and consider Indigenous futures; and (3) learn about the history and present of settler colonialism and the nation state. An Indigenous Teaching & Learning course guide is a good first step.
Provide Student Opportunities
  • Call to Action #16: Provide opportunities for students to experience land-based pedagogies so that they can learn within Indigenous worldviews on the land, with Indigenous knowledge experts. Land-based pedagogies include the study of the complex and sophisticated relationship with citified Indigenous territories, including Tkaronto.
Enhance Curricular & Co-curricular Opportunities
  • Call to Action #17: Enhance curricular and co-curricular opportunities related to experiential and community-engaged learning, to give students opportunities to learn Indigenous knowledges through the languages and about Indigenous knowledges, such as language learning immersion, community service and work study experience.
Provide Ongoing Resources
  • Call to Action #19: Through the Dean’s Advisory Group, provide ongoing resources (including staff support) for faculty members who wish to integrate Indigenous perspective within existing courses, for example through team teaching, guest speakers and field trips.
Membership Selection & Appointment
Membership Terms

The working group is intended to sit for no more than one year; as the committee is being constituted in the fall of 2022–23, its term will end a year later in the fall of 2023–24.

Record Keeping

All documentation related to committee business is filed via SharePoint, accessible to current members only.

Reporting

As noted, the Curricular Working Group will provide a report to the Indigenous Research, Teaching and Learning Committee by December 2024 and a written report to the dean by January 2025. This report will include recommendations in a number of key areas, as indicated by the breadth of the calls to action related to curriculum.

Guiding Calls to Action

The original Arts & Science Working Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning was established in 2016 to help the faculty respond to the calls to action of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The A&S working group developed 20 calls to action to guide the faculty's reconciliation efforts.

In the years since, the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Indigenous Research, Teaching and Learning — the original working group's successor — has focused on recommending process changes and initiatives to help Arts & Science fulfil the working group's calls to action.

Those calls to action, as originally published in 2017, are:

  1. Found a new (to be named) college, that will serve as a home for advanced research in Indigenous languages and cultures, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous student experience in the heart of downtown Tkaronto (Toronto). 
  1. Work with the Centre for Indigenous Studies (CIS) when CIS identifies the time is appropriate to implement a change in status from EDU:B to EDU:A, by introducing additional 49% faculty-member positions to the unit and upgrading existing 49% positions to 100%, if wanted by those faculty members. This will support its academic goals and vision to serve as the tenure-home for faculty members and to develop a rigorous advanced research and graduate program in Indigenous studies at the Faculty of Arts & Science.
  2. Support CIS as they plan to meet their growing needs for physical space. If CIS and First Nations House continue to choose to co-reside, this choice should be supported by Arts & Science.
  1. Create a leadership position within the dean’s office, in consultation with First Nations House and the Centre for Indigenous Studies, to coordinate and direct the implementation of the Calls to Action, to liaise with other divisions and University units, and to support conversations around reconciliation.
  2. Beginning in the 2017–18 academic year, create a Dean’s Advisory Group on Indigenous Teaching and Learning that will follow through on the recommendations of this report, as well as respond proactively to other issues arising.
  1. Ensure college and faculty/registrarial offices are equipped to meet the diverse needs of Indigenous students by hiring Indigenous registrarial staff, providing ongoing staff training, developing awareness of on-campus services and by developing relationships with community resources and support networks to which students can be referred.
  2. For the start of the 2018–19 academic year, put in place new academic supports for Indigenous students enrolled in the faculty, regardless of program, such as a First-Year Learning Community and a mentorship program.
  3. Develop a strategy to increase Indigenous student enrolment in Arts & Science through relationship-building activities with urban Indigenous organizations, high schools and First Nations, starting with those closest to the University of Toronto and expanding outward.
  4. Expand and support the network of available Elders and Traditional Healers who are knowledgeable in their Indigenous languages and cultures to provide spiritual and cultural support for students. Ensure the support network is accessible for Indigenous Two-Spirited, LGBTQ and genderfluid students.
  1. Support the Centre for Indigenous Studies to develop programs based on Indigenous languages such as Anishinaabemowin, Kanien’kéha, Inuktitut, etc.
  2. Ask faculty members within all Arts & Science units to review their curriculum and learning materials with the goal of ensuring that course content concerning Indigenous peoples reflects best practices and contemporary scholarship.
  3. Develop a strategy to communicate more effectively to current and prospective students about the existing curricular and co-curricular opportunities in the Faculty of Arts & Science to study in ways that 1) draw on or reflect Indigenous systems of knowledge; 2) imagine and consider Indigenous futures; and 3) learn about the history and present of settler colonialism and the nation state. An Indigenous Teaching and Learning course guide is a good first step.
  4. Working from the Indigenous teaching and learning course guide, develop a broader range of courses that can support a 0.5 FCE breadth requirement to develop student knowledge of local Indigenous communities, Indigenous analytical methodologies, forms of cultural expressions, systems of knowledge; the current structure and history of settler colonialism in Canada; and the residential school system.
  5. Create a strategic plan to ensure that by 2027, an increasing number of Indigenous faculty and staff members who have knowledge of Indigenous languages and cultures are hired within Arts & Science so that the total complement of Indigenous faculty and staff members more accurately reflects the Indigenous peoples within the population of Canada.
  6. Develop networks of support for those engaged in Indigenous Teaching and Learning such as communities of practice and research fairs.
  7. Provide opportunities for students to experience land-based pedagogies so that they can learn within Indigenous worldviews on the land, with Indigenous knowledge experts. Land-based pedagogies include the study of the complex and sophisticated relationships with citified Indigenous territories, including Tkaronto.
  8. Enhance curricular and co-curricular opportunities related to experiential and community engaged learning, to give students opportunities to learn Indigenous knowledges through the languages, and about Indigenous knowledges, such as more new courses, language learning immersion, community service and work-study experiences.
  1. Collaborate with the director of indigenous initiatives and Office of the Vice-President, Human Resources & Equity to ensure that all staff members in Arts & Science are provided with training in Indigenous cultural awareness and critical race analysis to better understand the relationships between settler societies and the Indigenous peoples on whose land the university sits, and that access to such training is also provided for faculty members.
  2. Through the Dean’s Advisory Group, provide ongoing resources (including staff support) for faculty members who wish to integrate Indigenous perspectives within existing courses, for example through team teaching, guest speakers and field trips.
  1. As soon as possible, we call on the dean to formally respond to the report of this working group and provide a road-map for implementation.