Critical pedagogical transition in instructional content development: A vocabulary intervention using social media for Indigenous youth

Indigenous students speak diverse languages, and many of them are English language learners (ELLs). Research has consistently shown that it takes at least 5–7 years for ELLs to catch up with their English-speaking peers in academic language skills. Inequitable access to learning resources, along with diverse political, socioeconomic, and historical issues, have led to Indigenous students’ persistent academic underachievement, in particular for Indigenous youth in high school, where considerably increased academic language demands in content areas place them at high risk of academic failure and lead to extremely high dropout rates. Technology may enable us to bypass costly infrastructure requirements to develop innovative language interventions, given Indigenous students’ increasing interest in digital technology use. Considering culturally responsive pedagogy, our project aims to develop a content-based literacy intervention using social media for Grade 9–10 Indigenous students. This includes 30 curriculum units we developed integrating the Indigenous tradition of oral storytelling as a springboard to engage students and support their learning of academic vocabulary. These units based on First Nations youth’s stories are aligned with Ontario curriculum in subject content areas. This paper focuses on content development of our instructional design, where we honor “Indigenous ways of knowing.” With a transformative approach to teaching and learning, the project designed to support Indigenous youth’s academic language development aims to go beyond academic success. The school has been proven to be a significant protective measure against adverse factors that lead to the high suicide rate among Indigenous youth. This intervention project capitalizes on technology to promote literacy engagement and overcome the impact of low socioeconomic status and the intergenerational effects of historical trauma that have negatively affected the well-being and academic progress of many Indigenous youth.