The grant application period for 2023 is now closed. Stay tuned for updates about the RHF’s next round of program granting and Indigenous teacher education convenings.
We are honoured and proud to highlight and support these grant recipients and their efforts to lead the way in Indigenous teacher education:
Yukon University, Yukon First Nation Education Directorate, First Nation School Board, YK: $2 million is being awarded towards the Collaborative Indigenous Teachers Education Program. The four-year program will transform education by challenging inequitable approaches. In collaboration with Knowledge Keepers, Yukon University will help to bridge the education gap and create culturally responsive learning environments.
University nuxełhot’įne thaaɁehots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills (Treaty No. 6 Territory): With a $2 million grant to kick start a five-year project, kiskeyihtamowin kiskinohamatowin (teach each other) aims to create three distinct teacher education streams – immersion, elementary and secondary programming. Rooted in Land, language, Ceremony, and relationship, the project is guided by the laws of love, honesty, sharing and strength.
Gabriel Dumont Institute (SK): Over the next four years, the Métis-led organization will invest $1,280,000 in grant funding in their Expanding Teachers Education Program. This will support the institute in expanding their capacity to accept and train more Indigenous students in their journeys to become teachers. The grant will also cover the cost of tuition, living expenses, additional resources, faculties and flexibility for online learning.
Seven Generations Education Institute (ON): The institute will create pathways for Indigenous language teacher training by investing a $2 million grant in their five-year, Indigenous-led project Language Creates the Farm Team. Adopting the Elders Circle approach, the program integrates culture and land-based teachings with an emphasis on building from an earlier practicum.
Mi’kmaq Wolastoqey Centre – University of New Brunswick (NB): A $1,999,000 grant toward their five-year project, Culturally Grounded Indigenous Teachers, will redesign the Bachelor of Education program to include Indigenous language immersion with a land-based approach.
University College of the North (MB): Receiving a $2 million grant toward its Teacher Training and Language Revitalization in Northern Manitoba: Building Capacity Together program. The five-year project aims to expand teachers’ training with semi-remote pathways, enhance language certifications, facilitate transitions to BA and BEd programs, and implement a literacy readiness initiative with land-based and language training support.
Office of First Nations and Inuit Education (OFNIE) – McGill University, QC: Their Strong Foundations, Strong Partnerships, and Strong Futures: Advancing Indigenous Teacher Education by Investing in Instruction program is being awarded $1,979,664. Collaborating with education authorities such as Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, Cree School Board, Kahnawake, Kanehsatake Education Centres, and Central Quebec School Board, the partnership is focusing on community-based teacher education and professional development.
2023 Key Themes
The 2023 RFP invited project submissions across four priority themes that had risen to the surface through coast to coast to coast listening and learning sessions:
1) Language: Because teacher education programming that emphasizes FNIM language preservation, revitalization, and promotion will both encourage more Indigenous teachers into the profession, and support and sustain teachers in the field.
2) Land: Because land-based learning can be integrated into FNIM teacher education, as a means of encouraging more teachers into the profession and supporting and sustaining existing FNIM teachers in the profession.
3) Leadership: To prioritize FNIM leadership development opportunities within the education sector, both to encourage and support Indigenous leadership and systemic decision-making capacity in the field of education, and to provide for greater long term mentoring pathways for new FNIM teachers.
4) Love: To provide support for programming that reflects a caring, inclusive, and compassionate learning environment within FNIM teacher education.
Successful projects must:
- Be Indigenous-led and truly innovative;
- Have a measurable connection towards a goal of adding 10,000 FNIM teachers across Canada; and
- Describe how the project reinforces the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action related to education.
Review the 2023 Granting Guidelines (PDF) for reference.
