Practical Logistical Considerations
Weather Concerns
For many faculty teaching in Northern schools, weather can be a factor. Plans for a robust field experience may have to be adapted or abandoned when the weather reaches -20 Celsius, or a storm forces class cancellations. Planning ahead with alternative methods, such as virtual field trips, or entrepreneur interviews, may be necessary. Transportation may also be a factor. The chosen neighbourhood may have a rich diversity of content, or may have unique features, that will make it a great site. But it might be hard to get to, particularly for students without access to private transportation. The site may lack sidewalks or curb cuts, or it might be in a hilly area, creating challenges for students with mobility issues. Being mindful of equity and access considerations is important.
Importance of Speakers
We have made extensive use of speakers to add “data” to the students' understanding of the community. Being intentional about inviting speakers from the neighbourhoods enhances the connectedness of the ecosystem that the students experience. Speakers humanize the community and ground theory within a neighbourhood context. For example, in a course that focused on the Kensington and Inglewood business districts, the Business Improvements Area directors of both neighbourhoods visited the class to discuss the history and dynamics of the community and their interactions with City Hall. A city councillor spoke on city policies and urban planning design. A local banker discussed how the bank supported local businesses, including a discussion of financing options. In each case, the speakers added value.
Class Size Concerns
Class size may also be a concern. A small class will bear a greater proportion of the workload amongst fewer members, while a large class may require two sites, or parallel projects. We have used different strategies for conducting team work within the Street Challenge pedagogy, and they all worked well because we tried to adapt to the size of the class. In a small class, an instructor may prefer to have the whole class working as one team, focused on one place. We have had classes with up to 12 students working as a large project team. In a larger class, an instructor will need to choose groups, which can become complicated over the course of a semester. To enhance the synergies between the different exercises, we created teams of 4-6 students that worked together over the whole semester, but for some assignments they would split into 2-3 subgroups to complete specific tasks. Even in a large class which used two different field locations, student teams would be assigned to one or other place for the whole semester, with the intention of creating a synergistic pathway through all the modules towards the final project.
Student Engagement
Student Commitment
An additional student-focused concern is sustained commitment and engagement with the process. It is essential to make the value clear for the students, and to ensure balance and diversity within the teams. We chose to create the teams, and thus ensured a balance of business, engineering, and other majors on each team. An alternative approach would be to define required parameters for each team, and allow students to create their own teams. If some students know each other well, and others are ‘strangers’, this may create some tensions in the classroom, so some curated meet and greet exercises may be helpful to ensure that students create teams that are inclusive of a diverse set of perspectives and skills. Providing structure and agency for students increases commitment and engagement.
Faculty Involvement
The level of involvement of a faculty member in the Street Challenge activities is also a consideration. Depending on how the pedagogy is used, a faculty member might want to accompany the students as a participant/guide (particularly in the initial field experience) so that student activities can be properly orientated and redirected to connect to learning outcomes. If the pedagogy is implemented with multiple field visits, however, it may not be feasible for the faculty member to participate beyond a single visit. In these cases, we found class debriefing discussions, and pre- and post- reflection assignments, were effective alternatives to spending time in the field with students.
Inclusion of Indigenous Perspectives
The inclusion of place-based learning, among other Indigenous ways of knowing, is a legal requirement stated in Alberta Education’s Teaching Quality Standards (2019, p. 6), where “a teacher must develop and apply foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) for the benefit of all students”. The Street Challenge Project was supported by a grant from the University of Calgary’s Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Therefore, the authors of this work felt it was of great importance to ensure that Indigenous perspectives were considered and well incorporated into the module plans. While there is minimal incorporation of Indigenous perspectives into the provincial curriculum, the development of foundational FNMI knowledge is important for Canadian students to have an opportunity to learn about, acknowledge, and respect the history and culture of Indigenous people (Harrison & Greenfield, 2010, p. 65).
The authors understand that Indigenous knowledge is not something that can be “packaged within a unit of work and taught out of context or away from the place it was produced” (Harrison & Greenfield, 2010, p. 66). Therefore, the Street Challenge project and its accompanying modules are based on holistic life-long learning, an “essential human endeavour” (Canadian Council on Learning, 2007, p. 3) that will benefit our students beyond the classroom. While the Street Challenge is a journey of place-based learning to be undertaken by students and educators alike, there is also multiple opportunities to engage in learning guided by Indigenous principles, such as discussion, witnessing, reflection, collaboration, community involvement, peer support, and various types of assessment (Anoee, 2015, p. 97-99).
Weather Concerns
For many faculty teaching in Northern schools, weather can be a factor. Plans for a robust field experience may have to be adapted or abandoned when the weather reaches -20 Celsius, or a storm forces class cancellations. Planning ahead with alternative methods, such as virtual field trips, or entrepreneur interviews, may be necessary. Transportation may also be a factor. The chosen neighbourhood may have a rich diversity of content, or may have unique features, that will make it a great site. But it might be hard to get to, particularly for students without access to private transportation. The site may lack sidewalks or curb cuts, or it might be in a hilly area, creating challenges for students with mobility issues. Being mindful of equity and access considerations is important.
Importance of Speakers
We have made extensive use of speakers to add “data” to the students' understanding of the community. Being intentional about inviting speakers from the neighbourhoods enhances the connectedness of the ecosystem that the students experience. Speakers humanize the community and ground theory within a neighbourhood context. For example, in a course that focused on the Kensington and Inglewood business districts, the Business Improvements Area directors of both neighbourhoods visited the class to discuss the history and dynamics of the community and their interactions with City Hall. A city councillor spoke on city policies and urban planning design. A local banker discussed how the bank supported local businesses, including a discussion of financing options. In each case, the speakers added value.
Class Size Concerns
Class size may also be a concern. A small class will bear a greater proportion of the workload amongst fewer members, while a large class may require two sites, or parallel projects. We have used different strategies for conducting team work within the Street Challenge pedagogy, and they all worked well because we tried to adapt to the size of the class. In a small class, an instructor may prefer to have the whole class working as one team, focused on one place. We have had classes with up to 12 students working as a large project team. In a larger class, an instructor will need to choose groups, which can become complicated over the course of a semester. To enhance the synergies between the different exercises, we created teams of 4-6 students that worked together over the whole semester, but for some assignments they would split into 2-3 subgroups to complete specific tasks. Even in a large class which used two different field locations, student teams would be assigned to one or other place for the whole semester, with the intention of creating a synergistic pathway through all the modules towards the final project.
Student Engagement
Student Commitment
An additional student-focused concern is sustained commitment and engagement with the process. It is essential to make the value clear for the students, and to ensure balance and diversity within the teams. We chose to create the teams, and thus ensured a balance of business, engineering, and other majors on each team. An alternative approach would be to define required parameters for each team, and allow students to create their own teams. If some students know each other well, and others are ‘strangers’, this may create some tensions in the classroom, so some curated meet and greet exercises may be helpful to ensure that students create teams that are inclusive of a diverse set of perspectives and skills. Providing structure and agency for students increases commitment and engagement.
Faculty Involvement
The level of involvement of a faculty member in the Street Challenge activities is also a consideration. Depending on how the pedagogy is used, a faculty member might want to accompany the students as a participant/guide (particularly in the initial field experience) so that student activities can be properly orientated and redirected to connect to learning outcomes. If the pedagogy is implemented with multiple field visits, however, it may not be feasible for the faculty member to participate beyond a single visit. In these cases, we found class debriefing discussions, and pre- and post- reflection assignments, were effective alternatives to spending time in the field with students.
Inclusion of Indigenous Perspectives
The inclusion of place-based learning, among other Indigenous ways of knowing, is a legal requirement stated in Alberta Education’s Teaching Quality Standards (2019, p. 6), where “a teacher must develop and apply foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) for the benefit of all students”. The Street Challenge Project was supported by a grant from the University of Calgary’s Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Therefore, the authors of this work felt it was of great importance to ensure that Indigenous perspectives were considered and well incorporated into the module plans. While there is minimal incorporation of Indigenous perspectives into the provincial curriculum, the development of foundational FNMI knowledge is important for Canadian students to have an opportunity to learn about, acknowledge, and respect the history and culture of Indigenous people (Harrison & Greenfield, 2010, p. 65).
The authors understand that Indigenous knowledge is not something that can be “packaged within a unit of work and taught out of context or away from the place it was produced” (Harrison & Greenfield, 2010, p. 66). Therefore, the Street Challenge project and its accompanying modules are based on holistic life-long learning, an “essential human endeavour” (Canadian Council on Learning, 2007, p. 3) that will benefit our students beyond the classroom. While the Street Challenge is a journey of place-based learning to be undertaken by students and educators alike, there is also multiple opportunities to engage in learning guided by Indigenous principles, such as discussion, witnessing, reflection, collaboration, community involvement, peer support, and various types of assessment (Anoee, 2015, p. 97-99).