4 Relevance
Guiding Questions
- How does this course or classroom reflect and connect to the learners current life, culture, and interests?
- Is this coursework relevant to the learners’ larger community, career goals, or interests?
What Relevance Means
- Relevance means that learning should reflect the needs of Indigenous ways of knowing and connect your students to the content of your course.
- Relevancy means knowing where your students are coming from both physically and mentally to best support their learning.
- Relevancy means using relatable content and examples to connect your students to the course.
- Get to know where your students are living, where they have come from, what their interests are, and what their future goals and aspirations are and use this information to guide your course lessons, assessment, and examples.
The Importance of Relevance in Online Learning
Relevancy is important because it provides a realistic and grounded meaning to your lessons and your course. Incorporating real-world, local, or current topics and examples in your lessons will keep the students engaged, help them remember the main idea or take-away message from the course, and allow them to see the curriculum in the real world.
The audio recording below is a conversation between the authors, Joanna and Hayley, about integrating the R of Relevancy into our teaching practices. Video is available with closed captioning. [Video] Integrating Relevancy into Online Learning video transcript [website]
How to Integrate Relevance in Online Learning
Upon starting a course, get to know the community your students are living in and what their interests are inside and outside of the school environment.
Some guiding information could be:
- Discovering what common community and cultural references are
- Finding out what careers they might be interested in using surveys
- Leaving room for conversation before or after class
First Peoples Principles of Learning – A Holistic Pedagogy
The First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL) [website] is a guiding set of questions and philosophies which represent an attempt to identify common elements in the varied teaching and learning approaches particular to Indigenous societies. These principles help the facilitator make connections with their students, the community and give guidance for shaping the teaching philosophy and mode of instructions and assessment in the classroom. The FPPL recognizes that pedagogy in Indigenous societies is dynamic and culturally specific – rooted in a specific language and viewpoint. Understanding, embracing and incorporating the FPPL into your everyday teaching and pedagogy will build deeper connections to your students and engage the holistic view of learning into your course.
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA)
Please visit the FIPPA chapter in our appendix section of our book [website] for information regarding the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act [webs