Pathfinders: Realizing Reconciliation through Lessons Learned

In 2016, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars came together to imagine a better world through a bold approach to education at the Werklund School of Education. This imagining took the form of a newly designed graduate pathway program which focused on meaningfully and actively responding to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) (2015) 94 Calls to Action. Central to the design of our program is the inclusion of a capstone service-learning project that asks graduate students to bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups in designing and delivering projects of mutual benefit. In sharing reflections from their respective learning journeys, our students reveal the complexities and challenges of reconciliatory work but also its many rewards. Further, in sharing these courageous acts and thinking about the lessons learned through our own role as post-secondary educators, we hope to inspire others to take action.