Western University Celebrates ‘Triple Crown’ of Higher Education Honors Driven by Indigenous Learning Bundles

A program that started three years ago to share Indigenous knowledge with Western’s teachers and students is now an award-winning effort that’s educated more than 4,000 people on campus. 

Maatookiiying gaa-miinigoowiziying (also known as Sharing Our Gifts) won a 2024 D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning, which honours educators creating “innovative approaches to student-centred teaching and learning.” 

“It’s really gratifying to receive acknowledgement for our efforts. We’ve put our heart and soul into this project. We’re really excited to share what we were able to do here,” said Candace Brunette-Debassige, education professor and project lead.  

This recognition is part of a rare triple win, with Western receiving the D2L (formerly Desire2Learn) Award as well as the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, awarded to professor Nicole Campbell and the 3M National Student Fellowship, awarded to Allison Pert, all in the same year. 

“Congratulations to the award winners from Western University. One in each category is amazing! Their leadership and commitment to advancing teaching and learning is an inspiration to all of us working in higher education,” said Patrick Maher, chair of the board of directors for the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE).

All three awards were presented at STLHE’s annual conference in Niagara Falls. 

“That Western is home to all three of this year’s prestigious STLHE national award recipients is a testament to the excellence in teaching and learning that takes place in classrooms across our campus and beyond,” said Florentine Strzelczyk, provost and vice-president (academic).  

“Congratulations to each of these deserving award winners—we are grateful you choose to share your talents, expertise and passion with our community.” 

A new approach 

The 18-person interdisciplinary team behind Maatookiiying gaa-miinigoowiziying created 10 teaching bundles (digital resources) for use by Western instructors. 

The bundles are created by seven Indigenous scholars and feature 14 local Indigenous knowledge holders sharing their insights and wisdom about specific Indigenous topics. Each three-hour bundle is described as an independent offering, “gifted to instructors to embed into different courses and fields.” 

“This process has called us to think about teaching and knowledge sharing in a different way, which is really powerful.” – Candace Brunette-Debassige, education professor and project leadBoth students and instructors learn from the bundle content, an unexpected result of the project.  

“This project defines learners in a much broader way than just the student experience. It’s looking at how we do reconciliation work across different groups in an ethical way, where we really put Indigenous peoples in the driver’s seat and listen across our differences,” Brunette-Debassige said. 

“We were so focused on getting these bundles into classes and in front of the students, but then we realized, the development process engaged everybody in learning and transforming.” 

Inspiring campus 

The demand for the learning bundles is huge, with nearly 4,000 students and 220 instructors engaging with the knowledge shared in the resources.  

Brunette-Debassige described the effort – inspired by Kahente Horn-Miller, a Mohawk scholar who spearheaded the Collaborative Indigenous Learning Bundles created at Carleton University – as planting a seed.  

Western’s digital resources came out of work to address underrepresentation and elevate Indigenous voices in curriculum, a priority in the Indigenous strategic plan. 

“This was a way to bridge and share Indigenous voices more broadly,” she said. 

“We also heard from instructors who were predominantly not trained in Indigenous studies or Indigenous themselves, that they wanted to do more, but they were scared not to do it properly. They didn’t want to misappropriate or misrepresent.” 

The project team helps instructors facilitate and integrate new learning. Each bundle includes a recorded conversation with an Indigenous knowledge keeper from the local territory. 

“We’re bridging and building relationships with local people and bringing them into our curriculum,” Brunette-Debassige said. 

The collaborative nature of the project team was critical. Professors, staff and graduate students helped to design and implement the learning bundles. It helped grow skills in online curriculum development while taking some of the pressure off Indigenous faculty at Western, who were being asked to speak across campus. Horn-Miller also offered support through the process. 

Evaluation shows learning, growth 

The results have been overwhelmingly positive. 

The Maatookiiying gaa-miinigoowiziying team was recognized earlier this year with the Vice-Provost (Academic Programs) Award for Excellence in Collaborative Teaching at Western. 

Evaluations of the learning bundles also produced excellent feedback from students and instructors: 

• 96% of instructors surveyed said the resources helped them feel more confident engaging with Indigenous perspectives in their courses 
• 92% of instructors surveyed said they were better equipped to teach Indigenous perspectives in respectful and ethical ways 
• 92% of students surveyed said they could draw clear connections between the knowledge shared in the bundle and other coursework 
• 90% of students surveyed said it enhanced their overall learning 

Brunette-Debassige and other members of the team published papers on the Indigenous learning bundles and the process of creating them. 

It was a challenging but fulfilling initiative, she said. 

“We’re not just creating resources, we’re also helping people facilitate them; we’re working with instructors who are genuinely interested in learning with the bundles,” she said. 

“There are layers to it, which I don’t think we fully realized when we embarked on the project, that it would be so all-encompassing. It’s been an extremely rewarding process. It’s stretched me in every way possible. We’ve learned a lot.”