Indigenous Worldviews and Pedagogies in Indigenous-Based Programs: Social Work and Counselling

Introduction

This chapter presents on the findings of a case study that was conducted with the Indigenous Social Work degree program (formerly Native Human Services), based in Sudbury, Ontario and the Maori Counselling degree program, based in Hamilton, Aotearoa (New Zealand). This research set out to examine the social and political approaches that Indigenous peoples undertook to situate Indigenous designed programs within Western academic institutes and to find out what were the distinctive features of these programs in relation to their content and pedagogy. A case study method combined with an Indigenous methodology approach was used to guide this research. This involved gathering key pieces of information as well as interviewing participants (graduates/faculty/developers). Key themes that emerged were that Indigenous worldviews and pedagogies were critical aspects of Indigenous social work/counselling programs.