What it is like to be a student in an online STEM course (Audrey Aamodt, Fidji Gendron, Tayna Dahms)

1. COHERE Conference
October 27, 2014

2. What is it like to be a student in
an online STEM course?
An attempt to bridge Western Science and
Indigenous Science
@audreyaamodt
Fidji
Tanya
Audrey Aamodt, Fidji Gendron, & Tanya Dahms

3. Course Overview
● Course origins
● Funding for research
● Multi-Instructor locations & stories
● Multi-disciplinary areas
○ Food Science
○ Biology
○ Biochemistry
● Indigenous Knowledge - Assumptions
● Elders and Ethnobotanists

4. Qualitative Research Overview
● Qualitative Research: Assumptions
● Researcher positioning
● Theoretical & methodological framing
● Student participants
● Interview questions -> Conversations
● Troubling the data
● Implications for online pedagogical practice
● Discussion

5. How the course started
• Biologist at the First Nations University of
Canada
• The importance of Indigenous knowledge
• Colleagues with different expertise

6. President’s Teaching and Learning Scholars Grant
● What are the perceptions of students regarding
multidisciplinary team teaching and the quality of their
learning experience?
● Will the presence of Elders in a Science course influence
students: cultural relevance; learning outcomes;
interest in science; and the perceived meritorious role
of Elders in postsecondary education?

7. Wish to Investigate
● Does the blending of Indigenous and Western knowledge
provide a more holistic understanding of medicinal plants,
not otherwise accessible?
● What are the perceptions of students regarding
multidisciplinary team teaching and the quality of their
learning experience?
● Does multidisciplinary team teaching provide instructors
with new and effective ways of teaching and knowing?
Expectation: students and instructors will laud pedagogical
integration of WS & IS

8. STEM Course Instructors BIOC 200:
Medicinal Plants and Culture
• Dr. Maria Pontes Ferreira
– Department of Nutrition & Food Science
• Dr. Tanya Dahms
– Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Dr. Fidji Gendron
– Department of Indigenous Science, the
Environment and Economic Development

9. Online course – Spring 2014
• BIOC 200: Medicinal Plants and Culture
– University of Regina = 11 students
– First Nations University of Canada = 12
students
• NFS 4800: Evidence-Based Ethno-medicine:
Medicinal Plants and Culture
– Wayne State University = 13 students
Detroit
Regina

10. What does multidisciplinary team
teaching look like? Food Science

11. What does multidisciplinary team
teaching look like? Biology

12. How did I come to teach this class?
• Knowledge of medicinal plants partially self-taught,
wild harvesting and self-administration
• Professional relationship with Fidji and Maria
• Deep personal interest in medicinal plants, but
with only the associated Biochemistry knowledge
• How could we make the class accessible to all
interested in medicinal plants?
• How could we teach about medicinal plants
without the deep knowledge of Indigenous Elders?
• How could this enrich student learning?

13. What does multidisciplinary team
teaching look like? Biochemistry

14. What does multidisciplinary team
teaching look like? Biochemistry

15. Role of Indigenous knowledge in STEM
We contend that:
1. Minorities are underrepresented in postsecondary science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
education with high academic attrition rates
2. Academic performance and retention improve when
cultural relevance and support are provided
3. Minorities in STEM may benefit from having cultural
mentors and a science identity unconflicted with ethnic
identity
4. The interface of Western Science and Indigenous Science
is an opportunity to bridge this divide.
How would elder knowledge impact non-minority students?

16. Elder and Ethnobotonist
Elder Betty McKenna at the Medicine
Wheel, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada
Dr. David Michener at the Great
Lakes Garden, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Non-PhD traditional Elder STEM-trained PhD botanists

17. Elder Betty
In The Medicine Room
http://vimeo.com/67573592
Password: bioc200
16:04 – 19:05 min

18. Qualitative Research:
Epistemological Grounding
“The hermeneutic perspective combats the positivist
notion of objectivity in several ways, each of which
reflects a different conception of knowledge
construction. Social reality is not conceived of as “out
there” waiting to be discovered and measured, but
rather it is relational and subjective, produced during
the research process. The researcher is not assumed
to be value-neutral and objective but rather an active
participant, along with the research subjects in the
building of descriptive, exploratory, and explanatory
knowledge”
Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2006) The practice of qualitative research, SAGE, London, UK.

19. Qualitative Research
• Likely as a result of the positivist approach, “the
term ‘research’ is inextricably linked to European
imperialism and colonialism”1
• “Qualitative research is a situated activity that
locates the observer in the world”1 – interpretive,
naturalistic approach to the world
• QR alters the “gaze” so participants are not
objectified ... making an attempt to interpret
phenomena in the context of meanings
1. Denzin and Lincoln (2011) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research, SAGE, London, UK.

20. Researcher Positioning: Audrey
● PhD Student, U of R, Faculty of Education
○ Research interests: using autobiography, life-writing,
metissage to trouble normative narratives
● Southern Saskatchewan is my home
○ Treaty 6 & 4 (Treaty Education)
○ Settler, farming ancestry
○ HS Teacher - Math & Biology
● I am a settler becoming unsettled...
● How might research become a decolonizing
experience?
○ One of my mentors fwd the research assistant ad

21. Theoretical & Methodological Framing
● Critical Theory; Post-structural Perspectives
○ critical: subvert hegemonic structures
○ Post-Structural conception of discourse
● Phenomenological Interview Design
○ What is it like?
○ What does it mean?
○ Lived experience of “being in the world”
● Indigenous Methodology considerations
○ Storied perspective
○ not research on or for FNMI, but with...

22. Indigenous Research:
Teachings from Margaret Kovach
● Indigenous Knowledges (p. 20)
● “The purpose is not to propagate unhelpful binaries, but to
point out that Indigenous approaches to seeking knowledge
are not of a Western worldview” (p. 21)
● “While this is not a matter of one worldview over another,
how we make room to privilege both, while also bridging the
epistemic differences, is not going to be easy” (p. 29)
● Historically, “while colonization came to affect every aspect
of Indigenous life, Western science in particular has worked
to first subjugate and then discredit Indigenous knowledge
systems and the people themselves” (p. 77)
● “the Indigenous epistemological framework incorporates a
decolonizing aim” (p. 48)
Margaret Kovach (2009). Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations & Contexts

23. Research Participants & Context
● Total: 13 students
○ 2 responded in writing
○ 3 participants from WSU
○ none self-identified (to me) as FNMI; many spoke in
“othering” ways
● emailed invitations & via UR Course platform
● held conversations via Google Hangouts
○ to align with their online experiences
○ recorded with YouTube, private setting
○ challenging (technical issues), awkward, difficult to be
personable, feelings of inadequacy as a researcher

24. Interview Questions
• I wonder if you might tell me about your interest in the course?
What drew you to enroll? Is it what you expected?
• I know that this course is an introduction to medicinal plants and
culture that is offered online. Would you tell me about it?
• What is your experience with online coursework / comfort level
with online courses / using online resources for learning (for
discussion, for assignments, content understanding)?
• Are there parts of the course, or the way the content was
presented, that you found interesting? Which ones?
• In what ways did they pique your interest?
• What is it like to have multiple instructors, each with different
contributions and perspectives?
• Are there any aspects of the course delivery that you find most
engaging? Helpful? Tricky?

25. Interview Questions
• Say a friend of yours is interested in taking the course next time
it is offered. They ask you about what the course is like. What
would you tell them?
• I’m curious: Are there any opportunities offered that challenge
you to think about botany, biochemistry, medicine, or science in
ways that you might not have expected?
• In what ways do you find the guest talks (or the field trip video)
contribute to the course?
– Would you say that they help you engage with the course content in
particular ways? If so, why?
– Could you elaborate on one in particular that you found most
interesting? Useful? Surprising to you?
• Would you like to say anything more about what is like to be a
student of this course? Perhaps more about the ways that the
content of the course is offered?

26. The Tension of Time in Online Spaces
● “hard to [self] motivate”
● “dedicate the time”
● “do everything on your own time”
● “so much information” in only 6 wks
● “so fast...going through the motions”
● “late night work”... fit into schedule
● “I should have put more time into it”
● “assignments has been interesting... b/c it is at my own pace”
● “it’s a lot of work... keep on top of it”
● “It was a little bit heavy”
● “if I need to go to class in the middle of the night, which I have
done, I can do that”
● “make sure you are diligent with your timelines”

27. Experiences with Multiple Instructors
● “flow”
● “each did their own part... not doing anything as a whole...
separate things... It didn’t just feel as though I had 3 profs. It
felt like I had one”
● “more options for learning”... finding teaching styles that
apply to you, not being “stuck” w/ 1
● “for me, easier to deal with one person [for assignments]”
● “broader learning... bring different things to the table”
● “I really liked the different perspectives that they had”
● “refreshing to have... then you weren’t stuck with the same
mode of lecture & same vocal patterns & it made you think
more”

28. Accessibility
● “Honestly, I enrolled because I thought I would be
bored out of my mind in [small SK city]”
● “Everything was very accessible. The videos they put
up were great...”
● “I loved the audio PDFs. I wished there were more
of those... [they] were more interesting & easier to
go back to than PPTs”
● “It was very balanced and very accessible”
● “this class was a lot more inviting… more hands on”

29. Reflections on Elder Gifts
● “the most powerful [aspect of the course] for me was the medicine
walk videos”
● “I feel like she brought it all together”
● “another perspective that sits with you really well, and it kind of makes
you think about things from another side so that you can be more
understanding... I think it is all about changing your perspective...”
● “I thought [the Elders were] so cool... It’s not coming from a science
perspective anymore [but] from someone who has a deep, a different
type of, a deep knowledge...”
● “The videos were insightful. I could definitely tell it would be better to
be there to learn, walking with them; showed the respect the elders
treat our daily body with. How we take care of our body. You don’t
abuse the land. And that’s alright with me.”
● “since we find all these disciplines merging together it’s not really
outside of the scope to bring in traditional uses and how perhaps
cultures in the past found uses for molecules”

30. Elder Participation:
Towards Holistic Understandings
Mainstream students highlighted access to
Traditional Indigenous Knowledge as a key
opportunity for learning Western Science content.
-------------------------
“How does one think a subject not ordered by classical linear
time – by past, present, and future – but produced within a
folded, ‘crumpled’… time so that time distant touches time
near… both can be lived simultaneously?”
(St. Pierre, 2004, p. 332)
Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre (2004) In Dangerous Coagulations

31. Troubling the Data
● my tendency to look for themes / teaching tips.
● reminder that the things that students share
aren’t “universal truths” - there are
inconsistencies (even in one person’s account)
● Recognize the difficulty in trying to represent
one’s own experiences “accurately”.
● What might the students’ stories of their lived
experiences with the course help me/us to see?
● Reminder: all knowledge is partial...

32. Blending TEK & WS?
“key issues of concern and debate are rising in the
literature such as examining the similarities and
differences between Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (TEK) and Western Science... and
whether blending or integration can actually be
achieved in a Western framework without
misappropriating Indigenous knowledge”
Lowan-Trudeau, G. (2013). Considering Ecological Metissage: To Blend or not to Blend.
Journal of Experiential Education, XX, X. (pp. 3-4)

33. Weaving IS & WS
❖ Providing students with meaningful
opportunities to engage with both Traditional
Indigenous Scientific Knowledge and Western
Science perspectives is more than tokenism.
❖ Therefore, with awareness of how easy it is to
appropriate Indigenous knowledge in a colonial
context, “weaving” as a pedagogical sensibility
may be helpful.

34. Juxtapose to decolonize
“Indigenous Métissage purposefully juxtaposes layered
understandings and interpretations of places in Canada with the
specific intent of holding differing interpretations in tension
without the need to resolve or assimilate them” (p. 542).
“the task of decolonizing in the Canadian context can only occur
when Aboriginal peoples and Canadians face each other across
historic divides, deconstruct their shared past, and engage
critically with the realization that their present and future are
similarly tied together” (p. 535).
Dwayne Donald. (2012). Indigenous Métissage: a decolonizing research sensibility.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(5), 533-555

35. Decolonize Education
“As teachers begin to confront new pedagogical schemes of
learning, they will need to decolonize education, a process that
includes raising the collective voice of Indigenous peoples,
exposing the injustices in our colonial history, deconstructing the
past by critically examining of the social, political, economic and
emotional reasons for silencing of Aboriginal voices in Canadian
history, legitimating the voices and experiences of Aboriginal
people in the curriculum, recognizing it as a dynamic context of
knowledge and knowing, and communicating the emotional
journey that such explorations will generate” - Marie Battiste,
2002, p. 20
http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education/24._2002_oct_marie_battiste_indigenousknowledgeandpedagogy_l
it_review_for_min_working_group.pdf

36. Implications for online practice
We propose that online (science) courses
can be decolonizing educational
experiences, a space to create further
opportunities for increasing ethical
relations between settler and Indigenous
peoples in North America, and beyond.
❖ Disrupt linear time, invite a multitude of
voices, be accessible & willing to
become disrupted.

37. @audreyaamodt
Fidji
Tanya
Questions? Discussion