[sinthusized]

This class was an introduction to indigenous health and health philosophies. The majority of the class were first year midwives and so in practice, this was kind of a mixture of intro level stuff as well as the actual health philosophy part. For the latter, we talked about different models of health, impacts of colonialism and examples of how models of indigenous health are used.

Mark breakdown:
Participation = 10%
Presentation on Weekly Readings = 15 %
Essay outline = 15 %
Final Essay = 60 %

Typically, each class consisted of a student presentation on the readings with discussion and sometimes a lecture by the instructor OR a guest speaker.

I felt that the topics were really interesting and that it is important to know about these topics if you are going to work in a health-related profession. The final essay was writing about how an indigenous model of health is used in practice and though I was worried about the final because it was worth so much, I felt that writing it was creating a synthesis of all the topics of the course.

The 5 guest speakers were all great; very engaging and very nice to talk to. However, when there weren't any guest speakers, it felt like I was only coming to class to listen to student presentations. There are no tests and basically, all the information valuable to writing the final essay was in the readings. Even attendance wasn't taken and there was about 60 people in the class. So, I'm not sure if the instructor even learned our names and I honestly don't really know how participation was evaluated. Though I liked that there was no exam, I felt that the course have been structured to reward students who did come to class. I also felt that the instructor could have been more clear about the requirements for assignments.

Overall, it was an alright course and was very informative.