Tag Archives: creating positive relationships with aboriginal students

Module 3- Post 1: Yes, There are Amerindian Children in Barbadian Schools !

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At this stage of my ETEC 521 journey I am settling down some what and my focus is shifting from trying to understand indigeneity in general sense to looking at how it applies to my own teaching situation. I must thank Heather for helping me to sort this out. This new approach delivered fruits immediately as I just discovered there are significant populations of indigenous people in the Caribbean region where I am teaching right now. This article from the indigenous portal web site mentions over 2300 from one tribe alone. While at the site you can have a look at the Caribbean section for more information on indigenous from this region. Our curriculum in the Caribbean is determined by the regional examination body The Caribbean Examination Council and it does not cater for them in any way. As a matter of fact from the accounts of this article the children are being told by educators that their people are extinct. It mean that our education system has a long way to go if we are to care of our indigenous people.

This new knowledge has changed my perspective so I will be changing my research to look at a framework for including the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean in formal education with minimal risk to their culture.

The silver lining of this dark cloud is that the indigenous people of the Caribbean are leveraging the web to advance their cause as would be seen in the rest of my post to this web log.

Teachers as allies?

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Champagne, L. D. (2006). Physical education teachers as allies to aboriginal students: Dimensions of social consciousness. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

 

The title of this study grabbed my attention immediately, because I have noticed that the most positive times of relationship-building with my indigenous students have happened outside of the classroom, in times of physical activity (such as charitable runs, PE classes, or even unloading classroom supplies from the car). I wondered about this, and was told by the Aboriginal Education teacher at my school that it might have to do with reduced eye contact, less pressure for immediate verbal responses, and the experiential nature of activity. I wanted to read research that explained this further.

 

Champagne conducted a qualitative study encouraging eight PE teachers to reflect on their positive experiences with Aboriginal students. What worked well? What didn’t? She then presented the teachers’ narratives with theoretical explanations based in a framework of critical pedagogy, culturally relevant teaching, and anti-racist education. She found that, like many other non-indigenous educators, her subjects felt unprepared to properly engage indigenous students. The PE teachers were aware that they were uniquely positioned to incorporate teaching practices more closely aligned with indigenous educational philosophy, because of their ability to discuss holistic health, to encourage teamwork rather than independence, and to have experiential lessons. Champagne ends her study with the recommendation that all pre- and in-service teachers receive more direct education on teaching indigenous students, so that all teachers can become “allies” of those students and cease practices that create harm.

Educators must see Aboriginal education as a social justice issue.

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Dupuis, J. K. (2012). Supporting urban Aboriginal social justice in education: A case study of the educational leader’s roles, responsibilities, and relationships as care providers. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

 

I am still reading this 200+ page dissertation but I am so excited about the knowledge that it offers. It is part of my personal philosophy that I cannot reach, teach, or support my students without creating relationships with them first. That presents more of a challenge when the educator has a different frame of reference than their students. I believe that this research will provide assistance with bridging that gap.

 

In Kovacs’ qualitative study, she begins with the purpose of developing a community of care model in which educators are only a part. She stresses the importance of schools involving students’ parents and representatives from their culture, whether that is extended relatives, elders, or other care providers. Overall, her interest is in providing social justice – “balance and harmony in respect to supporting…Aboriginal people” (9). She concludes that, particularly in urban centers, education does not fully support Aboriginal students’ “holistic well-being” (194), although she acknowledges several efforts that have the potential to create improvement. She concludes with a series of questions meant to provoke thought in educators, as well as to provide avenues for further research.

A resource to learn about “Responsive Educational Systems”

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http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/docDetail.action?docID=10385334

This link leads to the ebook “Synthesis Report of the Aboriginal Knowledge Learning Centre’s Literature Reviews: Responsive Educational Systems”, by Patricia Kovacs. It was funded by the First Nations Adult and Higher Education Consortium and by the University of Saskatchewan.

The book is what the title implies – a literature review of “responsive” educational systems. It provides a collected resource for educators attempting to learn more about best practices in First Nations education, specifically ways to foster a spirit of learning rather than to force the typical educational mold. The synthesis is informed by consultation with elders and educators from regional First Nations groups, and appears to be an accurate source of information. The authors emphasize that the shared elements among FNMI cultures are different than mainstream culture, and the colonial legacy has created issues that cannot be ignored; they argue that it is “critical to understand this, to fully realize the barriers that hinder opportunities for FNMI learning” (7).  The book does more than to just review the literature, too: it provides information about indigenous learning philosophies and important tenets of indigenous cultures, as well as reviews of educational systems that have seen success, and recommendations for further improvement.

What do you do when your culture is a mismatch with your students’?

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Fryberg, S. A., Troop-Gordon, W., D’Arrisso, A., Flores, H., Poniszovskiy, V., Ranney, … Burack, J.A. (2013). Cultural mismatch and the education of Aboriginal youths: The interplay of cultural identities and teacher ratings. Developmental Psychology, 49, (1), 72-79. DOI 10.1037/a0029056

 

This peer-reviewed study was co-authored by a team of eleven people, both indigenous and non-indigenous. They began their study out of a concern that existing literature focuses more on identifying what the deficits in Aboriginal education are, rather than on positive ways to improve it. They hypothesize that a lack of educational attainment in Aboriginal students springs from a mismatch in the cultures of teachers and their students – Aboriginal students’ cultures emphasize “interconnectedness and interdependence”, whereas mainstream education tends to value “independence and assertiveness”. This divide leads to Aboriginal students feeling alienated from the educational setting. The study included 115 secondary students in a Naskapi community, and looked at the correlations between students’ identification with their culture, students’ assertiveness levels, and students’ grades. They found that students who identified strongly with their own culture tended to score higher on measures of assertiveness and achievement than students with lower self-reported cultural identity. Additionally, higher levels of self-reported cultural identity correlated positively with their teacher ratings. From this, the authors concluded that one way to increase Aboriginal students’ school achievement and to foster positive relationships between non-Aboriginal teachers and their Aboriginal students was to support the growth of Aboriginal students’ cultural identity. This support requires the inclusion of Aboriginal philosophy and cultural experiences within the school setting. For my project, I believe that this offers concrete guidance into improving my own practice and the experience of my students. The conclusions also demand further research into the best ways to sensitively and appropriately include Aboriginal philosophy and cultural experiences.