Term Paper

Medicine Wheel Pedagogy

Cree Elder Michael Thrasher: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teaching-by-the-medicine-wheel/

MW Pedagogy Paper: 25% (Due Week 12)

For this assignment, you will use Medicine Wheel Pedagogy to develop an understanding of a concept from an Indigenous perspective. This will help you to understand this concept from a wholistic perspective. (We will discuss what it means to understand concepts wholistically in class lecture).

Process is key for this assignment. Be sure to reflect on and write about the process of moving through each “quadrant” or “section” of the medicine wheel as you begin to understand the concept.

How to do this assignment:

In the EAST, you must position yourself and define the concept assigned to your class section – NOT Indigenous perspectives — the understanding YOU have of the concept prior to this assignment. My lectures can be cited for this section but ONLY this section. If you choose to use a dictionary definition or other sources, you MUST cite those sources.

In the SOUTH section, tell us your personal experience with the assigned concept. NO citations are required in the SOUTH section of your paper because this section relates to the topic section. Based on the memories or personal associations you have with the assigned concept, tell that story.

First, students will read and summarize, in their own words, the Indigenous resource assigned to each class in the WEST section of the paper. This resource is given below these instructions and will be available for download on Moodle. In this section, you must figure out what the concept means from an Indigenous perspective. NO marks will be given for this section in cases where direct quotes are used. Paraphrase only. This resource MUST be cited.

In NORTH, the last section of the paper, tell me how and why YOU (not the government or Canadians) should/could honour Indigenous understandings of the concept assigned to your section while you are living and learning in Indigenous homelands. The objective of this section is to demonstrate political integrity—to honour through action First Peoples’ ways of being while benefitting from Indigenous homelands.

Marks will be taken off assignments that perpetuate colonial perspectives in your in-class writing. Colonial perspectives will be discussed in Week 2 lecture.

Assessment Criteria:

1.5-spaced

1,000 words

12pt font

1” margins

APA citation 

NO TITLE PAGE, ABSTRACT OR HEADER REQUIRED 

Put your name, student number, date, instructor name, course and paper title at the top of your first page. A guiding template is posted in Week 1 of your INDG 101 Moodle.  

Proof-read and edit your final paper AT LEAST 2 times before submitting it. It will affect your grade in positive ways.