Decolonizing the Engineering Curriculum

Reconciliation+design is a set of adaptable resources developed to enable Engineering faculty to include Indigenous reconciliation in engineering courses. These resources consist of lecture slides, sample assignments, and rubrics are primarily centered around decolonization. Your role will be to teach the decolonization curriculum from your perspective.

Indigenous voices are added via the reconciliation+design dialogues that you and your students are invited to. You may attend the annual cycle of events as they occur, or use the recordings. The advantage of these large-scale events is that they amplify Indigenous voices across many audiences without putting undue burden on Indigenous community members.

Instructor Trainings

This resource begins with five trainings for instructors:

1. Decolonization
2. Ways of Knowing
3. Systems Thinking
4. Facilitating Difficult Discussions
5. Land and Title Rights

These trainings are intended for instructors to complete before implementing the learning modules into the classroom. The trainings include videos, readings, additional resources, among other content, to provide a foundational knowledge base on some of the key concepts that are covered in the learning modules.

Learning Modules

The content provided in our decolonization curriculum is broken into three modules. These modules include lecture slides, lesson plans, assignments, and corresponding rubrics. Slides and rubrics may be modified as needed to be tailored to your specific teaching style.

The module competencies are:

• Module 1 – Dialogue and Engagement, Including Listening
• Module 2 – Recognizing Social Context (Understanding Indigenous Values, Ways of Conducting Business and Governance Styles)
• Module 3 – Designing for Communities

These resources were developed for use in combination with coaching support. Coaches are not included in this open educational resource due to funding constraints, but the materials have been modified to be self-navigating. We gift you these resources and ask that you contact us at pamwolf@civil.ubc.ca to continue research measurement.

Wireframe for the Decolonization Curriculum

Attached below is the wireframe for the decolonization curriculum, which shows the learning objectives for each module.

Indigenous Foundations

Indigenous Foundations is a cohort learning activity led by Jannik Eikenaar at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, where you will learn about:

• Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Indigenization in Canada.
• Indigenous histories and contexts: how to become a well- informed ally to Indigenous Peoples.
• Language, terminology, and tools for respectfully acknowledging Indigenous Peoples and their lands
• How to practice cultural safety in your daily work and life. We highly recommend contacting Dr. Eikenaar at Jannik.Eikenaar@ubc.ca to join one of the cohorts. His Foundations program provides an excellent education in the, well, foundational historical knowledge of Indigenous experiences in Canada.