New Bachelor of Social Work Program Adapted to Cree Needs and Knowledge

This fall, the Cree School Board and McGill’s School of Social Work, Indigenous Access McGill are launching a new Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program tailored to Cree priorities and values.

As in a standard Bachelor of Social Work program, students will be expected to master subject competencies to meet accreditation requirements, but they will be able to do so while remaining in their communities. The academic schedule will reflect community life, for example factoring in a break for goose-hunting season in the spring. Students will also study Cree language.

Darlene Cheechoo, Director of Higher Learning

“We aimed to ensure that the Cree language, culture and reality were incorporated throughout and that, upon completion of our program, students will have the highest quality, culturally relevant education that will assist them in their chosen career path, benefiting those in our Nation whom they will serve,” said Darlene Cheechoo, Director of Higher Learning.

The CSB has been working with other Cree entities and leaders to ensure that the program fulfills community’ training and capacity-building needs and is accessible to iiyiyiu aschii students. For the first year, all instructors are Indigenous.

Indigenous experts and instructors collaborated with McGill’s online programs instructional design team to adapt standard classroom content for synchronous and asynchronous online delivery, and traditional knowledge to an academic framework.

“They helped us find ways to bridge gaps between the way a colonial institution delivers information and assesses knowledge, and community-focused wisdom and experience. This includes consideration of where Indigenous and Western perspectives converge,” said Ann Seymour, associate professor in the School of Social Work and one of those involved in creating the new program.

Seymour said the successful program-design experience can serve as a model for the development of other Bachelor’s degree programs for Indigenous students, as well as help to meet the goal of increasing Indigenous content in curriculums, as set out in the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The program for the first full-time & part-time cohort is already full.