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

COHERE ConferenceOctober 27, 2014

What is it like to be a student in an online STEM course?

An attempt to bridge Western Science and Indigenous Science

Audrey Aamodt, Fidji Gendron, & Tanya Dahms

@audreyaamodtFidji

Tanya

Course Overview

● Course origins● Funding for research ● Multi-Instructor locations & stories● Multi-disciplinary areas

○ Food Science○ Biology○ Biochemistry

● Indigenous Knowledge - Assumptions● Elders and Ethnobotanists

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

How the course started

• Biologist at the First Nations University of Canada

• The importance of Indigenous knowledge• Colleagues with different expertise

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?

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

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

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

DetroitRegina

What does multidisciplinary team teaching look like? Food Science

What does multidisciplinary team teaching look like? Biology

• 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?

How did I come to teach this class?

What does multidisciplinary team teaching look like? Biochemistry

What does multidisciplinary team teaching look like? Biochemistry

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?

Role of Indigenous knowledge in STEM

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

Elder BettyIn The Medicine Room

http://vimeo.com/67573592Password: bioc20016:04 – 19:05 min

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.

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.

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

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...

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

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

• 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?

Interview Questions

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?

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”

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”

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”

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”

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

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...

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)

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.

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

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_lit_review_for_min_working_group.pdf

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.

Questions? Discussion

@audreyaamodtFidji

Tanya