Author Archives: Pat A Son

Module 2- Post 5: Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future

Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future

http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/index.html

This is by far the most interesting website I have encountered in this part of my journey into the world of education of indigenous people. It is essentially an online multimedia teacher education program by UNESCO that provides professional development for student teachers, teachers, curriculum developers, education policy makers, and authors of educational materials. It is made up of 27 professional development modules, organized in four thematic sections. Of special interest to this blog is the module Indigenous knowledge & sustainability that covers topics such as:

The wisdom of the elders;
Why is indigenous knowledge important?;
Living by indigenous knowledge;
Indigenous and formal education;
Enhancing the curriculum through indigenous knowledge.

These make this module an invaluable resource for any teacher that is new to indigenous education but what is more important is that it shows how the web can be leveraged for professional development of educatiors. Which is a concept that those involved in the education of indigenous people can exploit for their own needs.

Module 2- Post 4: Cultural Responsiveness and School Education: With particular focus on Australia’s First Peoples.

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Cultural Responsiveness and School Education: With particular focus on Australia’s First Peoples.

http://ccde.menzies.edu.au/sites/default/files/Literature review Cultural Responsiveness and School Education March 2012 FINAL.pdf

One discovery that I made from doing this blog is the amount of work done by the Australians with respect to the education of their indigenous people from which any educator with an interest in indigenous education can learn a lot from. This document is testimony to this being a review of over forty(40) pieces of literature it gives valuable insights into what cultural responsiveness education is and how it can be accomplished thus arming the educator with the knowledge to better cater for the needs of indigenous people in their system.

Module 2- Post 3: Closing the Gap in Education? Improving Outcomes in Southern World Societies

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Closing the Gap in Education? Improving Outcomes in Southern World Societies

http://books.publishing.monash.edu/apps/bookworm/view/Closing+the+Gap+in+Education%3F/55/xhtml/title.html

This online book that is published by Monash University served as gentle reminder of the power of the internet and the objectives of this blog within the context or this course. The book is the result of a 2009 conference of the same name. It was the third international conference in a series of partnerships between the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements (MISGM) and Monash South Africa. It looked at the pressing challenges facing education systems – Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. These countries have considerable underlying similarities, including colonial settlement histories, multicultural societies, and separate dualistic pockets of poverty and affluence. This provides a wealth of information for educator and stakeholders who are looking for solutions for the problems associated with the education of indigenous people. Below are the links that I preferred but the entire book can be a useful resource.

Section 1:The scope and substance of marginalisation in education

Section 2:The structure and entrenchment of disadvantage

Section 3: The challenges facing Indigenous education

Section 4: Enhancing social justice and equity

Module 2-Post 2: Achieving Improved Primary and Secondary Education Outcomes for Indigenous Students- An overview of investment opportunities and approaches

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https://www.amp.com.au/wps/amp/au/FileProxy?vigurl=%2Fvgn-ext-templating%2FfileMetadataInterface%3Fids%3De0842bef78fc2210VgnVCM10000083d20d0aRCR

As I continue my journey into the new (to me) world of indigenous education I came across this report that targeted the philanthropic sector of Australia. It provides information that would help them to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with improving primary and secondary level indigenous education outcomes in any country. In addition it also provide a guide for practitioners in the not-for-profit and government sectors with an interest in Indigenous education. As such his document could be useful to any interested in indigenous education in any part of the world.

At first I found targeting investors to be a an interesting approach but after considering that children are the most important legacy of any society it became an obvious approach.

Of all the points mention in this report the one that stood out to me was the the need for teaching courses that include Aboriginal or Indigenous Studies as a core component since a good teacher can overcome many of the negative effects caused by the problems and barriers facing Indigenous children. However non-Indigenous teachers which makes up the most of the teaching force often find it difficult to adopt to the needs of Indigenous students without adequate training and preparation. Yet only about half the universities in Australia offer teaching courses that include Aboriginal or Indigenous Studies as a core component.

I came away from this paper with the belief every teacher training institution in a country with Indigenous people must make Indigenous Studies as a core component of teacher training.

Module 2 – Post 1: Learning & Knowing in Indigenous Societies Today

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Learning & Knowing in Indigenous Societies Today
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001807/180754e.pdf

At 128 page this book is not meant for online viewing but for print. Read however you choose this book is a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in indigenous people and educational. The introduction provides a very good framework for understanding of the differences between education from a western context and indigenous cultures. It provides insights as to the friction that is generated between the two. This was very useful to me as I am now learning about indigenous people and education.
The rest of the book consist of the accounts of the following eight different issues on the topic from eight different indigenous people from different countries around the world:

The indigenous peoples of Venezuela in search of a participative and intercultural education for their survival by Marie-Claude Mattéi Muller
Sustaining indigenous languages and indigenous knowledge:developing community training approaches for the 21st century by Margaret Florey
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and biocultural diversity: a close-up look at linkages, delearning trends, and changing patterns of transmission byStanford Zent
Biodiversity regeneration and intercultural knowledge transmission in the Peruvian Andes by Jorge Ishizawa & Grimaldo Rengifo
Loss of traditional practices, loss of knowledge, and the sustainability of cultural and natural resources: a case of Urak Lawoi people in the Adang Archipelago, Southwest Thailand by Supin Wongbusarakum
Transmitting indigenous knowledge through the school curriculum in a diminishing bio-cultural environment: the case of Botswana by Herman M. Batibo
Learning and Inuit knowledge in Nunavut, Canada by Peter Bates
African hunter-gatherers: threats and opportunities for maintaining indigenous knowledge systems of biodiversity by Nigel Crawhall

This goes a long way in establish how indigenous people around the world face the same problem with westernized education.

Learning from the experience of indigenous people

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My research question at this point “What African American societies can learn from the experience of indigeneous people in the world of education.”

Background

There are no indigenous people in most of the Caribbean, but here, like all of the Americas is settled primarily by a migrant population of people of many different origins. The migrants who descended from the colonists have emerged to be the domininant economical and political force of the Americas and as such has been able to dictate the way of life for most of the contries. The remaining migrants and the indigenous people in the larger north American Countries are usually lumped together as “minorities”

These minorities have a lower standared of living and a lower success rate at education than the “majority”. The dropout rate for minorities from poverty stricken areas are as follows 81% of Native American, 73% of African American, 66% of Latino, and 34% of Whites (APA, 2012).

Minorities such as African Americans and Native Americans are both stereotyped in traditional media with their heritage and culture ignored by traditional education.

So far we have looked at how indigenuos people are using media to present themselves to the world and the issues that sorround this from our stand point as educators. I suspect that the lessons learned here can be transferred to the classroom of those who teach minorities other than indigenous people

Reference

American Psychological Association(APA). (2012). Facing the School Dropout Dilemma.American Psychological Association . Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/school-dropout-prevention.aspx

Module 1 – Post 5: Indigenous Education and the Prospects for Cultural Survival

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http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/united-states/indigenous-education-and-prospects-cultural-s

What makes this article different for me is that it provides insights in to the education of indigenous people by chronicling the complex history of an indigenous people educational institution from a boarding school to a university. Because is focuses on an institution rather than a program it provides a working example both how the thinking on the education of native people has evolved over the years and the challenges that arose over time. As I read I became convinced that more institution that caters for the need indigenous people are needed in the world of education.

Module 1 – Post 4: Education in the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples: Bringing education back into the mainstream of Indigenous Peoples’ lives

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http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/echoes-16-02.html

I am convinced that English is not first language of the author of this article because it is titled as a poem. Nevertheless it is a useful for people interested in the education of indigenous people. An interesting point made here is the fact that in indigenous education are not inspired by sheer nativism alone but also because Indigenous Peoples also want to learn “modern” sciences, but in the context of their own culture.

Module 1 – Post 3 Creating a Place for Indigenous Knowledge in Education: The Alaska Native Knowledge Network

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http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/articles/raybarnhardt/pbe_ankn_chapter.html

This article is chapter from the book Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity by Greg Smith and David Gruenewald. It describes a ten-year educational restoration effort aimed at bringing the Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of knowing to the forefront in the educational systems serving all Alaska students and communities today. It looks at the challenges native people struggle with living in two worlds and an effort of Alaska Federation of Natives, in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and with funding from the National Science Foundation called the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative (AKRSI). AKRSI’s task has been to implement a set of initiatives to systematically document the Indigenous knowledge systems of Alaska Native people and develop school curricula and pedagogical practices that appropriately incorporate local knowledge and ways of knowing into the formal education system. This can serve as model for other native people that are struggling with the same problem.

Module 1 – Post 2: Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation

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http://scienceinafrica.com/old/index.php?q=2003/march/ik.htm

The interesting thing about this page is that it presents a model for education that was developed through collaboration between young and old, and between rural Africa and the industrialised world, which might serve as a catalyst for other grassroots organisations to develop educational strategies appropriate to their own circumstances. This was done in an effort to counter the still a widely held view that anything associated with culture and hereditary values is pagan. It reminded of the efforts Inuit Broadcasting Company in the screen memories article.