Nelson is steadfast in its commitment to being a partner on the path to Truth and Reconciliation. By collaborating with Indigenous communities, we seek to create authentic, accurate First Nations, Métis, and Inuit resources.
Our goal is to create resources that empower educators and inspire Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians to walk humbly together and to promote intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.
Over the past four years, we have taken steps to reflect on our resource development strategy more deeply, in light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and to create more culturally responsive resources. We are continually reviewing, updating, and retiring resources that do not fulfill this vision. With new resources (print/digital/professional learning) we have deliberately ensured that we have included Indigenous ways of knowing across the subject areas.
At that time, we also created the position of National Director of Indigenous Education, Equity, and Inclusion at our company to ensure that Indigenous communities are involved, and our resources are authentic and accurate.
While we are constantly reviewing and updating content, Nelson is not a trade publisher that creates material for the masses; we are a specialty educational resource developer for preK-12 that is constrained to aligning, leveling, and providing specific coverage of our content to address the provincial education curriculum.
When changes are made to the curriculum, we are ready to respond with resources that meet those curriculum outcomes and expectations. We ensure that our content development teams include Indigenous authors, educators, advisors, and collaborators to reflect the pedagogy and content changes required to the curriculum at that time.
We remain prepared to respond to future curriculum changes and to create resources that align with those changes.
It is our hope that provincial curricula across the country accurately reflect Indigenous history, contributions, perspectives, and ways of knowing in their concepts and expectations, including a truthful representation of the genocide perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.
Nelson’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation goes far beyond just resource development. This fall we are hosting a webinar series titled, The Whole Truth About Residential Schools: Then and Now. The four-part series will cover the learning and teaching of the horrific history of Indian Residential Schools and will provide teachers and administrators with practical strategies on how to teach about the topic in Grades K-12. We are also proud to continue to offer our $10,000 Indigenous Student Scholarship this year. This will be awarded to an Indigenous youth community leader and language champion.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Linda Issac, National Director of Education for Reconciliation, Equity, and Inclusion, Nelson, linda.isaac@nelson.com