Teaching & Learning Indigenous Heritage
Dominica-Kalinago Territory
Salybia Primary School

Workshop Description
Heritage is a broad concept that in education is usually merged within classes of Social Sciences. It is often used as a term that has connotations across time. It tells the history of the past but also relates with the present and the ways in which the past has influenced the lives of present day’s people and how the future of the next generations will be shaped. But heritages today are in danger. Looting and vandalism are threats to both tangible and intangible heritages. Political and social tensions, misinformation and unawareness are some of the factors that affect the preservation and conservation of the material culture and expressions of the past.

One way to protect heritage is to raise the awareness among members of society of the value it has for today’s and tomorrow’s generations. For this, knowledge is required. And this knowledge must be shared with the community. Education is therefore a key element to ensure that students understand the significance of heritage and its importance. Caribbean countries have many diverse heritages from natural, indigenous and historical origin. It is the responsibility of today’s inhabitants to preserve what has been left by the people of the past for future generations.

This workshop for in-service teachers from the Caribbean addresses precisely the pre-colonial and today’s indigenous heritage using a didactic approach and “hands-on, minds-on” educational experiences to introduce the topic in classroom settings.

Purpose
Reflexivity is an essential competence for the practice of teaching. Because of time limitations teachers usually have little opportunity to come together with other peers and reflect on their practice and the ways they face opportunities and challenges on a daily basis. This workshop offers these teachers the space to have reflections and discussions about indigenous heritage.
Collaboration is a necessary competence for teaching performance. Revisions worldwide of the school curriculum aim at creating a cross-disciplinary model of teaching that motivates collaborative learning. Teachers are encouraged to work together in the design of activities that can be applied across several school subjects.

Creativity is a complementary competence to teaching knowledge. Constructivist pedagogy has gained an important space in transforming educational understandings about the process of teaching and learning. Students are no longer seen as “vessels” to be “filled” with knowledge provided by their teachers. Under the constructivist umbrella of, for example, cognitive learning, social learning, discovering learning, meaningful learning, problem-based learning, students are invited to participate actively in the construction of their knowledge and in the interactions with their environment. Therefore, teachers need time and space, resources and knowledge to enhance their creativity skills to design classroom activities that go beyond the traditional passive models of learning.

Strategy
This workshop is designed on the basis of the Pedagogical Teachers Knowledge approach as presented by Grossman, 1990. In this way, emphasis will be given not only to the content of the subject matter but additionally to other components of teachers’ base knowledge such as knowledge of students’ understandings, curricular knowledge, knowledge of instructional strategies and knowledge of the context. Teachers will be able to explore the didactics of indigenous heritage from some of the educational experiences contemplated in the program such as lecture modality, guide activities, role play, collaborative learning and designing portfolios.

Content
The contents of this workshop are based on a variety of didactic resources. These include the curriculum guidelines of Dominica, official school textbooks, educational material produced by the Kalinago people and scientific material offered by the NEXUS ERC-Synergy 1492 project. Material culture and intangible expressions are used as axiomatic axes to articulate pre-colonial and indigenous heritage today. A range of practical activities forms part of the program of the workshop. Teachers will have opportunity to explore these contents through collaboration and hand-on experiences.

Contact: Mrs. Eldris Con Aguilar, MA