Required Courses

This program will start in Summer 2025. Summer term courses will take place at the University of Alberta (in-person); Fall and Winter term courses will be online.

Any course times listed are in Mountain Time (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).

These are graduate-level, credit courses, requiring between five and ten hours of coursework per week in the fall and winter terms (13 weeks). Courses offered in the spring and summer terms are condensed (six and three weeks respectively), so the amount of time spent on coursework is increased. This includes time spent on readings, assignments, presentations (group and individual), and writing papers.

Note: you must take a course in the term for which you apply. Course offerings are dependent upon sufficient enrollment.


Summer Term

EDU 595 Exploring Ideologies for Indigenous Language Sustainability ★3

In this course, we explore how understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and motivations that people hold about language (both their own language, and others' languages) is a key element in developing community-specific strategies for language sustainability. Students will learn to document and engage with a wide range of language ideologies, and develop a deeper understanding of Indigenous cultural and linguistic resilience.

EDU 595 Linguistic Analysis for Indigenous Language Sustainability ★3

In this course, we explore approaches to describing the sound, word and sentence patterns of Indigenous languages in context. Students will develop skills in recognizing and analyzing linguistic patterns in their own languages, and increase their understanding of how an awareness of those patterns is essential for language educators.

Fall Term

EDU 595 Teaching and Learning for Indigenous Language Sustainability ★3

In this course, we explore methods for supporting Indigenous language learning by community members of all ages. Students will discover successful approaches to language teaching and learning in the home, in school, on the land, and online, and become familiar with how both traditional cultural practices and modern technology can benefit the language learning process.

Winter Term

EDU 595 Pathways to Indigenous Language Sustainability ★3

In this course, students develop a plan to grow and sustain the use of Indigenous languages in the daily lives of individuals and communities. Students will learn how to investigate current language usage patterns in their own communities, as well as how people (no matter their level of fluency) can support the vitality of their language in all spheres of life through daily speaking and writing in the language.


Courses may be taken through Open Studies or as electives in other graduate programs. Contact us at gcesinfo@ualberta.ca for details.