6. Aboriginal worldviews on connection, as a tonic for student mental health

 

As teachers, we know students are struggling with mental health. We have PD on helping them to develop resilient mindsets and set up support teams in schools. Counselling offices are busy from 9 to 3, every day. Still, the above graphics (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2022) show that the situation in Canada is dire. 

Yes, the pandemic is being blamed for a lot of this sharp downturn in mental health, but even prior to COVID, students were working hard to maintain a positive mindset. For example, Werner (2016) talks about how studying world issues such as poverty, famine, ecological stress, social chaos and international debt, can have a profound effect on student state of mind. Anxiety, despair for the future, etc. can contribute to near complete student shut-down. The author talked about how learning is affected in these situations. He said "without hope, there is no incentive for learning". I would argue, based on the above infographics, that more than just learning is affected when students feel overwhelmed. 

Teachers are given curriculum guides which, according to our governing bodies, have to be taught, but what if we taught them just slightly differently? Werner (2016) talks about allowing students to share authentic emotion amongst themselves, with the teacher, and encouraging them to create a better version of the issue, set in the future, which could be written, painted or performed. I thought this had potential as a powerful tool, one worth trying in my own classroom, perhaps after one of the more traumatic units in my Canadian History class, such as the one on residential schools. 

Then I came across this document, Our Words, Our Ways (Alberta Education, 2005) which spoke about Aboriginal worldviews, which I felt offered interesting options as well. What if teachers presented some Aboriginal beliefs about how the world is viewed, in hopes of sharing culture, building awareness and providing more tools for strong mental health? In Our Words, Our Ways, CONNECTION comes back a few times as a theme in Aboriginal worldviews. Connection to all things and all people, as well as to the land and to community. For example, First Nations believe that everyone has a duty to work together, that everyone has an important role to play in problem-solving and survival. This is made evident in the following quote from the document. 

      All individuals assume a responsibility for themselves, not in isolation, but in relation to all else.             Each individual is regarded as a participating, contributing member of the group. Cooperation and           sharing are vital.

I feel like this viewpoint could be shared with students as another alternative for framing the world around them. I wonder if this would help students to feel like they have an important role to play in forming the future, to encourage them to have faith in their opinions so that they have the strength to share them with the politicians of the future?

Aboriginal Services Branch and Learning and Teaching Resources Branch. (2005). Our Words, Our Ways. Alberta Education.

Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2022). Children and youth mental health in Canada. CIHI. Retrieved July 31, 2022, from https://www.cihi.ca/en/children-and-youth-mental-health-in-canada

Werner. (2016). Teaching for hope. In Case & P. Clark (Eds.), The anthology of social studies [Volume 2] : issues and strategies for secondary teachers (Updated edition., pp. 193–197). The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2).