Author Archives: Laurie Campbell

Module 4 Weblog – Laurie Campbell

Module 4 Weblog

Laurie Campbell

In Module 4, I thought more about how we engage with other cultures as we examine our own cultural values. This was a hard one for me, as I’m not sure that I’ve spent the necessary time on introspection. One of the reasons I went into the MET program at UBC, however, is because of the time I’ve spent thinking about the value I place on STEM education for all students, including the indigenous students in my classroom. As a member of the “dominant” culture in southern Alberta, I think I will spend some time in this weblog looking at sites that promote science and technology learning for aboriginal students. Maybe this will be a way for me to reconcile my own cultural values with those of the Blackfoot students in my school. Aboriginal students in Canada seem to be missing out on some of the opportunities available to other students for STEM education. Perhaps one of the reasons STEM education is sought after in my (fairly affluent) school is because it is seen as a way for students to ‘get ahead’ and out-compete others for future job opportunities. I’m oversimplifying, but perhaps the value my culture places on individualism and competitiveness has something to do with the success some students have in STEM education, whereas someone from a more collaborative, community-valuing culture may not place the same emphasis on STEM. I’m sure my own prejudices are showing here, and I’m not at all sure that my wild guesses are even appropriate, but I’m hoping these links will show that STEM activities are indeed compatible with indigenous ways-of-knowing and of value to ALL learners, including aboriginal students.

InSTEM – Indigenous Youth in STEM

https://actua.ca/en/programs/national-aboriginal-outreach-program/

I stole this link from Domenic Maggiolo (thank you!) in our course. InStem is “… a customized, community-based approach to engaging First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth in locally and culturally relevant STEM education programs.” Actua received funding from the Government of Canada as well as Google and Suncor, among others. They describe themselves as “a national charity that is preparing youth to be innovators and leaders by engaging the in exciting and accessible STEM experiences that build critical skills and confidence” and advertise that they reach 250,000 youth each year. Their network members offer camps, workshops and clubs.

Actua – Coding the Future: What Canadian youth their parents think about coding

https://actua.ca/uploads/Actuas_Coding_the_Future_Survey_Report.pdf

I liked this paper, because of their focus on comparing parent values and child interest in coding, allowing us to see a snippet of cultural value transfer in action. They state that:

Over 92 per cent of students and parents believe that knowing how to use digital technology will be very or extremely important to their future careers.
There remains a socio-economic divide. Parents with a higher education and income regarded digital technologies and careers as more important than those with a lower education and income level.

Google’s Codemakers program launches in Iqaluit

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/google-s-codemakers-program-launches-in-iqaluit-1.3009996

This article highlights students in Iqaluit as they combine computer programming and throat singing. Students got to work with the music software and also with Nelson Tagoona, a “well-known beat boxer” known for pioneering “throat boxing”. This blend between high-tech and indigenous culture is an example of how youth can become more engaged when given the opportunity.

“Elders of the Future” Exhibit

http://www.uleth.ca/research/centres-institutes/institute-child-and-youth-studies/elders-future-exhibit

This was a photography exhibit in Lethbridge, Alberta, “created and curated by a multi-generational and multi-cultural team, including Blackfoot community members,” celebrating the resiliency of local Blackfoot communities through their family and child-rearing practices.

Aboriginal Science and Technology Education Program – Mount Royal University

http://www.mtroyal.ca/ProgramsCourses/FacultiesSchoolsCentres/IniskimCentre/AboriginalScienceandTechnologyEducationProgram/index.htm

Mount Royal University here in Calgary offers this program to indigenous students preparing for and studying in the Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Computer Information Systems degree programs. They offer, “…academic and personal advising, funding application support, tutorial support, cultural and social support, social events and coordinate visits from Elders and other community members”.

Module 3 Weblog – Laurie Campbell

At the beginning of Module 3, there was a question that guided much of my thinking as I worked my way through the course material. “Indigenous peoples are diverse, but they share the common experience of being colonized by western and imperialist powers. Can technology be useful in supporting Indigenous communities’ efforts to de-colonize values and thoughts?”

Many of my links have something to do with how technology may be useful to the First Nations people of Treaty 7 as they relate to the Catholic Church and the Calgary Catholic School System post-TRC (Truth and Reconciliation).

Blackfoot Language & Culture (3-year Program of Studies, Alberta Learning)

http://www.learnalberta.ca/ProgramOfStudy.aspx?lang=en&ProgramId=684282#

This site lays out the curriculum for the three-year high school Blackfoot language and culture program. It outlines the general and specific learner outcomes for all three courses. The curriculum was written in 1993 and unlike other language and culture programs in the Alberta, it contains sections on Community Services (drugs and alcohol abuse), Employment, and Social Responsibility. Within this website, there is no mention of who authored the curriculum, or whether these authors are themselves indigenous. Would the topics of study be different if this curriculum was written today? Interestingly, there is a section on native contributions to technology in the 30-level course.

Alberta Teachers’ Association – Indigenous Education and Walking Together

https://www.teachers.ab.ca/For%20Members/Professional%20Development/IndigenousEducationandWalkingTogether/Pages/WalkingTogether.aspx

This “Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation Professional Learning Project” is a site put together by the Alberta Teachers’ Association to “support teachers to increase capacity in foundational knowledge of First Nations, Metis and Inuit as outlines in Alberta Education’s new Teaching Quality Standard”. There are a number of workshops available as well as other resources available through the ATA library.

New Alberta Teaching Quality Standards (TQS)

https://education.alberta.ca/media/3739620/standardsdoc-tqs-_fa-web-2018-01-17.pdf

Being implemented this school year and next, the new Alberta TQS document outlines the responsibilities that Alberta teachers have in and out of the classroom. Now grouped into 6 main sections, this document outlines how teachers are expected to foster effective relationships, engage in career-long learning, demonstrate a professional body of knowledge, establish inclusive learning environments, adhere to legal frameworks and policies and most relevant to ETEC 521: Applying Foundational Knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops – The Church in Canada and Indigenous Peoples

http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/church-in-canada-and-world/catholic-church-in-canada/indigenous-peoples

This site points out that approximately 25% of all indigenous peoples in Canada identify themselves as Catholic. According to the 2011 Canadian Census, 39% of Canadians as a whole identified themselves as Roman Catholic (down from 45.3% in 1991). There is a short discussion of Catholic Missionaries from the 17^th to 19^th centuries, including a description of the evangelizing process as “uneven and limited.” “If there were bishops and missionaries championing aboriginal rights, there were also theologians and Church leaders defending colonial exploitation. While some missionaries attempted to protect and understand native cultures, others failed to value native beliefs and customs as seeds of the Word of God.”

The Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project: Methodological Approaches to Child-Centred, Community-Driven Research

http://crytc.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/2016/01/28/the-digital-blackfoot-storytelling-project-methodological-approaches-to-child-centred-community-driven-research/

I haven’t been able to find a link to the actual Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project, yet. This site is an invitation to a public lecture by Dr. Erin Spring from the University of Lethbridge. It will be interesting to track this one down and see how technology was used in this case to tell Blackfoot stories.

Weblog 2 – Laurie Campbell

For this portion of my Weblog, I want to look at sites connecting Module 2 with my stated research interest. The title of Module 2 was “Stereotypes and the Commodification of Indigenous Social Reality” and I’m looking at the current relationship between indigenous members of Treaty 7 here in Alberta, with the Catholic Church and specifically the Calgary Catholic School District.

Neizen, David. 2005. “Digital Identity: The Construction of Virtual Selfhood in the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Volume 47, Issue 3, July 2005 , pp. 532-551. Retrieved from: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/3879390?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

The first link is directly from Dr. Marker (thank you!) and isn’t really a web link, but is a paper looking (partially) at how indigenous people with the skills to affirm their cultural identity online find themselves in an “uncomfortable situation, a condition sometimes awkwardly referred to as ‘bi-culturalism’” (Neizen, 2005). I was having trouble figuring out how the technology piece would fit in with my research and I think this paper will be very helpful.

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation – University of Manitoba – http://nctr.ca

After the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada wrapped up its activities in 2015, its findings and recommendations came under the authority of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. This is a good site to get a feel for how the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are currently being used.

Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future – http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf

A summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The preface outlines the work of hearing from over 6000 individuals affected by residential schooling and discusses the physical and sexual abuse suffered by students, as well as the death rate in these institutions. There are sections on the history and legacy of residential schooling, as well as “The challenge of reconciliation” and Calls to Action.

The original 1876 Indian Act – http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Historical%20Reports/1876%20Indian%20Act.pdf

The 1876 Indian Act outlines the Canadian federal government’s role in managing reserve land, income and indigenous people themselves.

Indian Act – The Canadian Encyclopedia – https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-act

A good explanation of the original Indian Act in 1876 and subsequent amendments. It describes the Act as, “an evolving, paradoxical document that has enabled trauma, human rights violations and social and cultural disruption for generations of First Nations peoples.” Indeed, much of the legislation affecting the indigenous population of Canada was aimed at promoting assimilation into non-indigenous society. “Indian status was seen as a transitional state,” and “a First Nations person lost status if they graduated university, became a Christian minister, or achieved professional designation as a doctor or lawyer.”

The modern version of this act is also described on this website as it “still outlines the various rules around reserves, financial guardianship of minors and the mentally incompetent, management of band resources, elections, and other aspects of life on a reserve.”

Module 1 Weblog – Laurie Campbell

1. The Endangered Languages Project

http://endangeredlanguages.com

In reading Bowers thoughts in week one, I was struck by his acknowledgement that “tribal leaders… see in the computer a means of revitalizing indigenous languages and preserving the traditional knowledge essential to tribal identity” (Bowes, 2000). I went looking for examples of this, especially for the Siksika language from my Treaty 7 area. Sure enough, I stumbled across The Endangered Languages Project, with a page of Siksika resources:

http://endangeredlanguages.com/lang/1677/guide

which included this little video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=197&v=4gqWBlT4j1s

Wouldn’t it be lovely if the YouTube translate feature could figure out Blackfoot!

References:

Bowers, C. A., Vasquez, M., & Roaf, M. (2000). Native people and the challenge of computers: Reservation schools, individualism, and consumerism. American Indian Quarterly, 24(2), 182-199.

2. Siksika Nation

http://siksikanation.com

The Siksika Nation website is a valuable resource for learning more about the Siksika and the Blackfoot Confederacy. There is information here about the chief and council, history and culture, news and upcoming events, and departments such as family services and justice. There is also a link to the Siksika Board of Education Website:

https://sites.google.com/SIKSIKABOARDOFEDUCATIOn.com/home

I love reading school newsletters. It’s a little window into what other students and teachers are experiencing.

3. KAIROS Blanket Exercise program

https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/about/

This is an activity we did as professional development in our school, but there is a version available for many different audiences. Participants use blankets to represent land used 500 years ago and re-enact the consequences of events affecting First Nations peoples, including treaty-making, disease and residential schools.

4. Supporting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calgary Catholic School District Call to Action

https://www.cssd.ab.ca/Programs/ProgramSupports/FirstNationsMetisandInuitEducation/Documents/CCSDandTRC_CalltoAction.pdf

In reading Michael Marker’s paper from Week 2, I started thinking about how two people can recall the same event differently. He discussed the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and how Catholic clergy “…expressed deep resentments towards what they saw as the Commission’s emerging history of their schools; they saw it as incompatible with their order’s historical contributions to the survival and prosperity of natives peoples in Canada, and above all with their memories of what it was like participating in (and making personal sacrifices for) this project of human welfare” (Niezen, Truth and Indignation as quoted in Marker, 2015).

Priests and nuns involved in residential schools often saw themselves as doing the good work of the Catholic Church and believed that assimilation of aboriginal children was for their benefit, ignoring (or unaware of) alternative approaches being used south of the border.

Currently working for the Calgary Catholic School District, I am currently studying our board’s work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I’m wondering if this is a possible research interest for me in this course.

References:

Marker, M. (2015). Borders and the borderless Coast Salish: decolonizing historiographies of Indigenous schooling. History of Education: Journal of the History of Education Society, 1-23

5. Calgary Catholic Diocese of Calgary – Letter from former Bishop Frederick Henry on Residential Schools (2000).

http://www.calgarydiocese.ca/news-events/bishops-blog/residential-schools.html

Written back in 2000, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Bishop Frederick Henry of the Calgary Catholic Diocese wrote an open letter discussing the Church’s role in aboriginal education from 1857 through the 20^th century. Specifically, he addresses lawsuits brought against the Anglican and Catholic churches by individuals who were sexually or physically abused in residential schools. He points out that it was a “church-state partnership…in which the government was the senior partner,” and that “[e]ssentially, the residential school system was a creature of the federal government even though the children in the schools were, in most cases in the immediate care of the churches” (Bishop Henry, 2000).

I would like to do some more research into the current position of the Calgary Catholic Diocese now that the first phase of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been completed.