A Queen’s University professor is conducting a survey that studies how much first-year students know about issues affecting indigenous people in Canada.
Anne Godlewska distributed the survey to 10 universities, focusing on what first-year students understood. A second survey will be distributed in three years to see how much these students know when they are in fourth year.
Godlewksa said she was inspired to do this after teaching a class on indigenous geography, and finding students knew little on the topic.
“The students knew no more than what I knew when I went through high school,” Godlewska said.
She said she began to look for reasons to explain this lack.
“I started to look at the curriculum, and that explained it,” she said. “It was really appalling that what we are taught by schools is part of [the problem].”
Laura Schaefli, the survey’s project manager, said the survey aims to find out if lack of teaching is the problem, or if it is a larger problem in society.
“I think we see it in the media especially by what gets talked about and what doesn’t get talked about, as well as in [how] the legal system takes care of it,” she said.
Schaefli said the survey is not aiming to find out which university knows the most, but to find out how many students across Canada know about Indigenous peoples.
“We’re trying to survey as many students as we can in each province, [not] at how each university differs,” Godlewska said.
One issue Godlewska said the survey uncovered was that many people knew the facts but didn’t care enough.
“It’s in our interest to be ignorant, [and] that’s ultimately what it comes down to,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to behave in ways that disadvantage others if we don’t understand the needs of others. We don’t have to care if we don’t know.”
She added Queen’s has a minor in aboriginal studies but no major.
Godlewska plans to eventually distribute the survey across Canada. They have finished distributing it in Newfoundland and Labrador, and are now in Ontario—though Carleton refused to do the survey.
Godlewska said Carleton’s equity office refused to do the survey because they were already aware students knew little about indigenous issues.
“The Centre for Aboriginal Culture Education hosts events throughout the year to raise awareness of Aboriginal issues, cultures, traditions and worldviews,” said Carleton’s Aboriginal cultural liaison officer Naomi Sarazin in an email.
Carleton is located on unceded Algonquin territory and mentions this at every university ceremony.
She said we should attempt to address this issue by figuring out the reasons behind students’ lack of awareness.
