Introducing Engineering Students to Communication Practices for Engagement with Indigenous Communities

In response to the Calls to Action outlined by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission universities across Canada have slowly begun to make changes within their curricula aimed at reflecting on and redressing the legacy of our shared colonial history. As part of this process, technical communication instructors within the School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia have created an Indigenous Community Consultation Project. Using project-based learning pedagogy, the project fuses technical communication instruction on genres such as reports and presentations, with the challenges of preparing engineering students to apply their communication skills within the context of a long and complex colonial history and its legacy with specific communication needs. This paper overviews the rationale and structure of the Indigenous Community Consultation Project, as well as discussing key initial reflections upon the project by the instructors involved with this course. Lastly, thoughts on future directions for the project and related research are also considered.