{"id":18,"date":"2012-11-19T23:31:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T06:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2012-11-19T23:40:03","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T06:40:03","slug":"risk-taking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/risk-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifelong Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Wholistic Education (with a \u2018w) \u00a0 \u00a0 Etec 521<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Two summers ago, I took Etec 521 with Dr. Michael Marker.\u00a0\u00a0 The course ended up being a profound experience for me, but it did not start that way.<\/p>\n<p>For the first 6 weeks of the course, I was floundering to find my place and to connect with the curriculum.\u00a0 I understood prior to taking the course that Indigenous perspectives were unique, important, and in need of greater recognition.\u00a0 I knew that Aboriginals had a strong connection to the land, but didn\u2019t really understand the implications of that.<\/p>\n<p>As the course progressed, I began to realize that my problems in the course were rooted in my worldview.\u00a0 I was making a number of problematic assumptions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Aboriginal ways of learning are the same as my own ways of learning<\/li>\n<li>Learning is something that is done in a universal manner<\/li>\n<li>The impact of colonization is something that First Nations groups have overcome<\/li>\n<li>Technology is culturally neutral<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the biggest assumptions I made is that Aboriginals simply identify with the land their tribe is from much in the same way, we, westerners identify with the town we grew up.\u00a0 In this regard, land simply identifies a person. For the Indigenous, land is much more significant.\u00a0 The connection goes well beyond identify.\u00a0 For First Nations land has a spiritual, physical, social and cultural connection &#8211; so much so that a member of a tribe can feel disenfranchised when she is away from her territory.<\/p>\n<p>It took me a while to grasp this concept.\u00a0 Fortunately, there were some students of First Nations descent in the course to help and, of course, Dr. Marker.\u00a0 One pivotal set of events in the course took place when our class was asked to view two documentaries:<\/p>\n<p>March Point &#8212; available here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=80nfzX7wzlQ\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=80nfzX7wzlQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fraser River Journey &#8212; available here:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fraserjourney.ca\/\">http:\/\/www.fraserjourney.ca\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A short summary of March Point:<\/p>\n<p>For centuries the Swinomish Indian Tribe in Western Washington State has relied on the natural resources of the Skagit Valley. Before white settlement tribal people inhabited the valleys, rivers, and shorelines, living off the rich land. But in 1855 most of this land was taken away by the U.S. government in the Treaty of Point Elliott. The Swinomish people were left with basic health care, some fishing rights and a small reservation.\u00a0 In the late 1950s, two oil refineries operated by Shell and Tesoro were built on March Point in an area that was once part of the Swinomish reservation by treaty. Over time, the presence of the refineries has negatively affected the health of the water and land.<\/p>\n<p>Three teens from the Swinomish Indian Tribe volunteered to make a movie to reduce the amount of time that they spent in drug counselling.\u00a0 \u00a0These teens decided to investigate the impact of the two oil refineries.\u00a0 The film is their interpretation of the harm colonization and settlement have inflicted on the culture, environment, and spirituality of their tribe.\u00a0 (adapted from Londghouse Media, 2009).<\/p>\n<p>A short summary of Fraser River Journey<\/p>\n<p>Fraser River Journey documentary follows a group of 12 B.C. First Nations youth on a raft trip down the Fraser River. Wielding waterproof video cameras, the youths set out to document their adventures on one of the most stunning and diverse river systems in the world and re-live a journey that Simon Fraser had taken 200 years earlier.\u00a0 This time the journey is discussed from a First Nations perspective. During the trip downstream, they learn important things about their heritage, their ancestral lands, and themselves.\u00a0 (adapted from Jaswal, 2010).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Impact upon my Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the participants in Fraser River Journey, Bonnie, died a year after its filming.\u00a0 One of the participants from March Point relapsed into a period of substance abuse.\u00a0 When I read about Bonnie\u2019s death after having viewed her journey in such detail, I was shaken.\u00a0 Bonnie wished to become an RCMP officer and was one of those students who seemed to be pulling her life together after some issues with alcohol.\u00a0 Bonnie\u2019s death reminded me that even once-in-a-lifetime events like a month long journey down the Fraser River are sometimes not enough to combat the tremendous pressures that many Aboriginal youth face with the challenges of decolonization, racism, poverty, and disenchantment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wholistic Education\u00a0 (with a \u2018w\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As I progressed through Etec 521, I began to appreciate how a comprehensive methodology is needed to address the needs of Aboriginal learners.\u00a0 Parent (2009) has argued that for Aboriginal educational reforms to be successful, First Nations must reclaim their traditional teachings and values, so that they can heal and be whole once more.\u00a0 Wholistic (with a \u2018w) education is rooted in Aboriginal languages, land, cultures and the oral tradition. \u00a0More recently, it&#8217;s understood to be part of a lifelong experiential process, which engages, uplifts, and develops all aspects of the individual and potentially the collective community or nation (Archibald, 2008).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connection to Metaphor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The death of an outstanding youth due to the pressures that she faced has no parallel in golf.\u00a0 The notion of wholistic education has no direct comparison to golf.\u00a0 In the case of First Nations culture, wholistic education is centered on cultural revival, and in some cases cultural survival.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine a concern being any more pressing than the preservation of one\u2019s ancestral traditions.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, golf is a pastime.\u00a0 The world would essentially be very similar if golf were not played.\u00a0 Nevertheless, those who play the game understand it to be a lifelong endeavor.\u00a0 Golf is something that a person must commit to if they wish to progress.\u00a0 For many, this translates into spending considerable time reading about the game and understanding it deeply so that improvements can occur.\u00a0 Any golfer can tell you that superficial efforts to change one\u2019s swing or approach to the game will quickly fail.\u00a0 Golf, despite being a trivial game, demands total commitment from participants.\u00a0 To excel, one must believe in one\u2019s self and be dedicated to the fundamentals they have embraced and rehearsed.<\/p>\n<p>With First Nations cultures the challenge is exponentially immense. The difficulties of how to reclaim traditional culture and understandings that have been passed down for centuries is not something that will be readily overcome.\u00a0 Aboriginal youth, in particular, are struggling to preserve traditional teachings in a world that is rapidly changing.\u00a0 What little advice golf offers for this challenge is that the process for learning must be something that a person commits to wholeheartedly.\u00a0 For a select few, golf borders on being a spiritual endeavor.\u00a0\u00a0 For First Nations youth, traditional teachings and values identify the soul of their culture and desperately need to be re-discovered and preserved because the loss of such understandings would be profound.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Archibald, J. (2008). Indigenous storywork: Educating the heart, mind, body and spirit.\u00a0Vancouver: UBC Press.<\/p>\n<p>Jaswal, N.\u00a0 (2010). The Fraser River Journey.\u00a0 Retrieved from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fraserjourney.ca\/\">http:\/\/www.fraserjourney.ca\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Longhouse Media (2009).\u00a0 March Point.\u00a0 A Native Lens film by Longhouse Media.\u00a0 Retrieved from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/marchpointmovie.com\/?page_id=13\">http:\/\/marchpointmovie.com\/?page_id=13<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Marker, M. (2003). Indigenous voice, community, and epistemic violence: the ethnographer&#8217;s &#8220;interests&#8221; and what &#8220;interests&#8221; the ethnographer.\u00a0<em>International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education<\/em>. 16 (3): p. 361.<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Parent, A. (2009b).\u00a0 Keep them coming back for more: Urban Aboriginal youth\u2019s perceptions and experiences of wholistic education in Vancouver.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Community Report<\/em>. Retrieved from:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.unya.bc.ca\/downloads\/keep-them-coming-back-for-more-amy-parent.pdf\">http:\/\/www.unya.bc.ca\/downloads\/keep-them-coming-back-for-more-amy-parent.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wholistic Education (with a \u2018w) \u00a0 \u00a0 Etec 521 Two summers ago, I took Etec 521 with Dr. Michael Marker.\u00a0\u00a0 The course ended up being a profound experience for me, but it did not start that way. For the first &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/risk-taking\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7528,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/devinderdeol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}