This is a website designed to encompass and exchange information relating to the knowledge and ways of knowing of the Alaska Native. The standards indicated on this site are designed to complement the current State of Alaska curriculum and ensure that schools and communities are taking the cultural identities of students into consideration. The standards hope to emphasize cultural heritage instead of the traditional teaching and learning. The standards are categorized for educators, students, curriculum, schools, and communities.
Tag Archives: education
1.5 – Hōkūleʻa Educational Journey
This is one area that really interests me. I have recently come to know voyagers on Hōkūleʻa, a sailing canoe built on traditions of Hawaiian boat building culture.
To me, this project highlights some of the best ways that education and technology can work with an indigenous culture to express themselves, as well as build bridges to other cultures. The inclusive element of such a project is important as well. They share their worldview with others, and look to build connections in order to nurture conservation and environmentally sounds attitudes. This boat is coming to Bali in August, and I am exciting to visit them and meet the crew.
Module 1 Post 4: Two-Eyed Seeing – An integrative approach to education
In Hare’s (2011) Learning from Indigenous knowledge in education, there is an emphasis placed on the importance of incorporating Indigenous knowledge and ways of thinking in today’s educational systems. As such, I was curious to see if there were post-secondary institutions that could serve as an example and I came across the Institute for Integrative Science and Health in Nova Scotia.
The program aims to explore science in a manner that is culturally inclusive using the Two-Eyed Seeing as the guiding principle. The Two-Eyed Seeing refers to learning to see the strengths of Indigenous knowledges using one eye and Western knowledges using the other, and then finding ways to learn, see and understand how to know using both eyes together. This video explains the concept in more details.
The site is extremely well organized and could be beneficial to anyone seeking to research ways in which post-secondary institutions are bringing together Indigenous and Western scientific knowledges. The website offers more information in the forms of videos, articles, activities, etc.
I found the approach of Two-Eyed Seeing really captivating and was able to find a few more sites that are informative on the topic and its inclusion in education:
Two-Eyed Seeing: Building Cultural Bridges for Aboriginal Students
Module 1 Post 1 – Re-Indigenizing Digital Spaces
Based on the readings from week 1, there is the question of whether or not or to what extent can/should technology be incorporated into Aboriginal education, especially when it seems to contradict pillar forms of Indigenous knowing and learning.
I was able to meet with at least one Aboriginal Educator who believes that the internet will be vital in spreading awareness about his people (specifically the Anishinabe) and Indigenous people in Canada and wants to build his digital toolbox. His name is Eddy Robinson and he is part of Morningstar River – their website is here: http://www.morningstarriver.com/index.html
When he came into speak he used Keynote through his Mac, and did mostly lecture-style teaching. He left things open for student questions, but the group was shy, unfortunately. He opened and closed the time with a song, and had brought a drum with him. Afterwards, he spoke about how he on the one hand wants to make some resources available online, but is conflicted about making all knowledge available to anyone. For example, he mentioned creating a video about the process of smudging that he would post but make private, with a limited time-frame of viewability to groups that had invited him in. I think he was feeling aware that a ‘safe space’ (his words) is created where he is invited, but the internet is not equally safe. That said, he cited his friend and colleague Wab Kenew (and specifically his ‘8th Fire’ series) as a way that technology is spreading what he sees as important work. I’m very interested in doing further research and reflection on this juxtaposition, and what practical learning can be derived from it as an educator.
1.3 – The Role of Christianity and Education in Suppressing Polynesian Culture
The age of Imperialism certainly caused serious upheaval around the world. Natives globally underwent similar transformations as they were exposed to new technology and worldviews (in most cases, by force). Here are a couple links demonstrating that in the 18th Century Polynesians were subjected to a similar combination of doctrine and education as discussed in Marker’s paper, Borders and the Borderless Coastal Salish: decolonizing historiographies of Indigenous Schooling (2015):