Author Archives: Alana Giesbrecht

Module 4, Post 5 – Do your readings support colonial ideals?

Johnston, I. (2006). Engaged Differences: School Reading Practices, Postcolonial Literatures, and Their Discontents. . In Yatta Kanu (Ed.), Curriculum as Cultural Practice (116 – 130). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

For any of you language arts teachers out there, this one is worth a read. The author discusses the phenomenon that exists in Canadian language arts classrooms, in which certain texts have become ‘canonized’. How many of you think of “Romeo & Juliet” as the Grade 10 play, “Macbeth” as the Grade 11 play, and “Hamlet” as the Grade 12 play, when the curriculum actually doesn’t even call for Shakespeare, just an understanding of drama? We have an option to change the readings, making choices that reflect the place and cultures of our students. Nothing says that “All Quiet on the Western Front” has to be read – why not check out Thomas King’s new novel, “The Inconvenient Indian”? One reason that resistant teachers might have is that there aren’t established lesson plans or public support for new materials, another might be that teachers are unwilling to introduce material with controversial topics because of anxiety about how to facilitate the conversations that will ensue. The thing is, to teach all students effectively, teachers must be willing to step outside of their comfort zones and make readings choices that support the removal of colonial ideals. Johnston makes a strong argument towards this case.

Module 4, Post 4 – Is Hybridity a Good Thing, or a New Word for an Old Idea?

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Richardson, G. (2006). Singular Nation, Plural Possibilities: Reimagining Curriculum as Third Space . In Yatta Kanu (Ed.), Curriculum as Cultural Practice (283-301). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

“The question arises of how to reconceptualize curriculum in terms that do not maintain colonial structures of privilege and dominance” (284). Indeed.

This chapter calls for a deconstruction of the current cultural biases that exist within curriculum, so that a new curriculum, “open to multiple discourses, and plural assumptions and strategies” (284) can be realized. This newly realized curriculum would be the Third Space, a place of cultural hybridity. I support the goal of classrooms that encompass multiple discourses and plural assumptions, but I’m not sure that I understand this author accurately – all the other essays and studies in this book resonate as sensitive and accurate arguments, but to me this Third Space seems like a reincarnation of the ‘cultural melting pot’ idea. I agree that there is a need to deconstruct biased curriculum and replace it with culturally sensitive/inclusive material, I just am not certain that cultural hybridity should be the end goal. The author states that with cultural hybridity, “national identity is seen to be [a] continual and dynamic process of encounter, negotiation, and dislocation among and between cultural groups” (285); to me, negotiation and dislocation sound like assimilative terms.

Module 4, Post 3 – Postcolonial Poetry Project

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Willinksy, J. (2006). High School Postcolonial: As the Students Ran Ahead with the Theory . In Yatta Kanu (Ed.), Curriculum as Cultural Practice (95-115). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

This chapter reads as a narrative case study, by an academic who joined a Grade 12 English class in Vancouver as a guest teacher. The purpose was for the guest teacher to teach a postcolonial poetry unit that was an accurate reflection of the time and place that the students were learning in. One idea that stood out for me was that it is misleading for teachers to teach about colonialism as if it was over, if their curriculum still reinforces colonial or assimilative ideals.

The writer engaged the students in a collaborative poetry project wherein each student had to source a poem that reflected their cultural heritage, in its original language and in an English language translation. Each student created a section of their new postcolonial poetry anthology, including the bilingual poetry presentation, a poetry analysis, and discussion questions. The hope was that other teachers would choose to use this new anthology as well, rather than the previously used one which represented an older, Caucasian view of Canada. The students in the study “were engaged in nothing more than providing an additional sense of Canadian identity and landscape to the scope of their curriculum” (110).

Module 4, Post 2 – Teaching ESL in a Non-Assimilative Way

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MacPherson, S. (2006). To STEAL or to TELL: Teaching English in the Global Era . In Yatta Kanu (Ed.), Curriculum as Cultural Practice (71-94). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

The acronyms in the title are: STEAL (Surreptitiously Teach English as an Assimilative Language) and TELL (Teach English as a Liberatory Language).

This chapter tackles the assimilative goals of English language instruction head on. It provides quotations from historical documents that unabashedly claim the goal of assimilation, and it also uncovers less purposeful but still harmful effects of current instructional practices.

MacPherson makes the point that it is not sufficient for minority languages to be used in the personal realm alone – this might help to ensure the languages’ survival, but only at a conversational level. For the full texture and depth of a language to survive, it must be used academically and professionally.

The author is not against the teaching of the English language; she/he teaches English to speakers of other languages. The point is that the English language is not necessarily fit to convey the ideas of other cultures, and so must not be allowed to dominate minority languages. When the higher level words of a language are lost through disuse, because the language has been relegated to the private conversational realm, then the ideas that those words expressed can also be lost.

Module 4, Post 1 – Kinder Curriculum

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Mason, R.T. (2006). A Kinder Mathematics for Nunavut. In Yatta Kanu (Ed.), Curriculum as Cultural Practice (131-148). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

This chapter introduced me to the idea of “ethnomathematics”. It’s exactly what it sounds like – the acknowledgment that there are cultural aspects in math curriculum. I don’t teach math, but the idea is transferable to any discipline, in my opinion. “It is most useful to view the curriculum as a site of struggle in which pupils, teachers, parents, as well as voices from industrial, commercial, and other settings have at various times competed in various ways and with varying relative strengths to assert their priorities…From this perspective, the curriculum is neither free from nor determined by the economic and political space in which it operates: it makes more sense to ask how ideas fit with society, how they encourage particular ways of seeing particular ideologies” (135). I found this quote striking because of course the curriculum that we teach is value-laden – someone has chosen to prioritize some knowledge over others, and as such the chosen knowledge is laden with the beliefs and values of the curriculum-maker. It does make sense to question the curriculum and to make choices that create culturally sensitive lessons, as this chapter instructs.

Braiding Histories

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Dion, S. D., & Dion, M. R. (2004). The braiding histories stories. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 2(1), 77-100.

I started reading the work of Susan and Michael Dion because Heather McGregor recommended it, on hearing of my enthusiasm for the power of story. This sibling pair has published many articles, and it was difficult to choose just one for this weblog. I’m very interested in Susan Dion’s work with adolescent girls, their self-image, and their stories, but as far as I can find out she has presented that work verbally at conferences and it has not been published. If anyone knows differently, please let me know!

I identified with the position that the Dions find themselves in, culturally. They are of mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritage, and they ask themselves the following questions – “Can you be Aboriginal if you didn’t grow up within an Aboriginal community? If you had no access to Aboriginal languages, to cultural practices, are you still Aboriginal? What does it mean to be Aboriginal?” (78). Those are important questions that many urban Indigenous students struggle with.

Like the previous article that I posted, the authors here provide stories to their audience, so that the audience can ponder the meaning and learn from the stories. The stories show the realities of Aboriginal life, and the systemic discrimination that Aboriginal people still face.

A Few Stories (of many)

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Mancini, R. (2007). Telling their stories. Education Forum, 33(2), 15-17.

“Take [this] story. It’s yours. Do with it what you will. Tell it to friends. Turn it into a television movie. Forget it. But don’t say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You’ve heard it now.” -Thomas King

This article opens with King’s thought-provoking quotation. The meaning that I take from it is that there is power and responsibility in sharing stories, in being a storyteller or an audience.

Mancini then quotes startling statistics about violence against Indigenous women in Canada, including the fact that, in the last decade, more than 500 Indigenous women have gone missing in Canada, and that Indigenous women are “eight times more likely [than their non-Indigenous counterparts] to be killed by their spouses after separating, to be forced into a life of drugs and prostitution, or to contract HIV” (15). These statistics are particularly relevant to me, as my students are all female, but they should be repugnant to all. The article then offers the stories of women who have been traumatized by the colonial government, through loss of status, residential schools, and other horrors. Although the article isn’t specifically about education, it relates to the idea of culturally responsive schooling:

“Kerrie and Sara were educated in systems where not one of their teachers looked like them or taught in a manner that was culturally like their own. In class they were often asked to provide the “Indian” opinion, as if they could speak for all Indigenous peoples… Janie struggled within the mainstream education system. She didn’t see how the knowledge she gained there related to her daily life. Her classes were not taught in her native tongue, and the traditional ways of her people were “add-ons” to course curriculum” (16).

What will the audience do, since they’ve heard these stories now?

Culturally Responsive Schooling

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Castagno, A. E., & Brayboy, B. M. J. (2008). Culturally responsive schooling for indigenous youth: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research 7 (8), 941-993. DOI: 10.3102/0034654308323036.

This article is much more than just a literature review. Its 192 source (!) reference list could function as a library shelf of relevant literature – I invite you to scan it looking for sources to support your own research and projects. Incidentally, it cites our own Dr. Marker. Further, the article does not just review the literature; it critically analyzes the common themes presented and the areas that can still be improved.

“Culturally Responsive Schooling” – the title caught my attention because teaching methods that enhance teacher-student relationships are the focus of my research. Because of the broad spectrum of research reviewed, however, this article is relevant to all ETEC 521 students. I think everyone should use this as a reference!

The review begins with dismal statistics for Indigenous student achievement in the United States. The authors acknowledge that most teachers and districts are interested in ways to address the disparity, but state that the plethora of research can be daunting. Their aim is to gather, condense, and synthesize the literature to make it more accessible. Included are a history of Indigenous schooling, a rationale for culturally responsive schooling, an overview of culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy, necessary teacher attributes, issues and challenges that arise with culturally responsive schooling, and a summary of the most successful culturally responsive schooling methods.

The authors stress that truly culturally responsive schooling will be a lengthy process of change involving the effort and goodwill of many intricate systems. The knowledge exists, as they show: implementation must begin/continue.

Indigenous Renaissance – Naturalizing Indigenous Knowledge

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Battiste, M., & Henderson, J. S. Y. (2009). Naturalizing indigenous knowledge in eurocentric education. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 32(1), 5-18.

This article is primarily focused on how indigenous languages are a source of indigenous knowledge. For those of you interested in the study and preservation of indigenous languages, I highly recommend this article. Its positive and powerful diction is infectious – the article will get you excited about the “Indigenous Renaissance”.

There’s another reason this article is exciting, too; remember the previous discussion thread where we discussed the idea that some math (i.e. straight lines as the shortest route from A – B) was contradictory to Indigenous knowledge? That inspired me to learn more about ways in which the curriculum was Eurocentric, and this article speaks to that. The authors assert the idea that “through its applications and teachings, [Eurocentric knowledge] has long ignored, neglected, or rejected Indigenous knowledge as primitive, barbaric, and inferior, centering and privileging European methodologies and perspectives” (6). That idea is not new, but this article goes further, exemplifying ways that teachers can avoid these harmful practices. It concludes with concrete suggestions for teachers who want their classrooms to be more culturally inclusive, creating “potential for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners in trans-systemic ways that European knowledge alone cannot do” (13).

“Storywork” – Add it to the lexicon

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Archibald, J. (2008). Indigenous storywork: Educating the heart, mind, body, and spirit. Vancouver BC: UBC Press.

This ebook can be accessed via http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/docDetail.action?docID=10348906

I’ve been looking at ways for non-indigenous teachers to teach more sensitively to indigenous students in mixed-culture classrooms, to improve teacher-student relationships and to increase indigenous student retention. ‘Story’ is something that continuously appears – the power of story to re-frame history, to teach, to draw students’ attention. It’s a way that indigenous philosophy can become more fundamentally entrenched in the learning of students. However, story, like any other cultural tool, must be handled sensitively. This book is written expressly to that purpose. It informs readers of the nuances of story – whose story is this? Can it be shared? What’s its purpose? It also helps readers learn to effectively use story as a teaching tool – storywork. It looks at how story can be incorporated into the classroom at every age level (from primary to adult). Best of all, it tells some stories!

This book will be helpful to any teacher wanting to include more Aboriginal viewpoints and education into their own practice. Chapter Four, “The Power of Story to Educate the Heart” (pp100-117) is particularly relevant to teachers of secondary and adult learners.