Category Archives: Statement Connecting Blog to Research

The renaissance of the Secwepemc language after the lost generation, due to residential schooling

Language immersion has always fascinated me since I began teaching French Immersion. However, I realize that “true immersion” is hard to come by. Unless we are the only ones surrounded by the new language, it is extremely hard to escape the influences of English. While searching for topics for my weblogs, I discovered that a small elementary school in Chase, B.C. has been offering Secwepemc (Shuswap) immersion. I immediately was intrigued. Secwepemc is also the local language spoken here in the Cariboo.

After hearing stories firsthand of the disastrous consequences of the residential schools, I realized that the Shuswap Nation’s culture and language acquisition were threatened to almost extinction. Generations were literally skipped, robbing them of their aboriginal tongues and traditions.

Slowly, as the memories of the horrors of residential schools are left behind, the Shuswap are taking pride in learning their own language and regaining their identity through their culture. What I would like to look into for my research is whether it will ever be possible for the Shuswap Nation to be fluent in Secwepemc again. By using podcasts and recordings of elders, will they be able to acquire the language knowledge of their ancestors?

Reference

http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/09/06/Chief-Atahm-Elementary-School/

Connecting Blog to Research: Getting “credit for Learning

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I am fascinated by the concept of getting validation for your learning, wherever it happens and whenever it happens. I struggle with the idea that high school students can only “get credit” once they meet traditional “credit giving” regulations. Traditionally, to attain credit, a student has had to take a course in a school during a set time, in a set place, meet set course objectives as well as curricular objectives mandated by the provinces in Canada.

What about the kids who are learning outside of these traditional credit giving constraints? What about students who are passionate about learning in their own way, are meeting provincial curriculum objectives, but are not learning in traditional ways?

Over the last year, I have been trying to develop alternative programs to “track” student learning and figure out options to provide students with programs that still offer credit for learning- in a different way. My work has primarily been examining connectivism and open online projects.

Sean Lessard has been doing similar work trying to track indigenous learner stories. He has been developing alternative programs for FNMI youth to create solutions for course credit.

Sean’s passion stems from finding retention strategies to not only keep Aboriginal kids in high school and identifying that education (learning) is more than something they are obligated to achieve. In previous summers, Sean has developed, “pow wow camps” where students spend time on the reserve learning through an interdisciplinary program to achieve course credits. He has focused on CALM 10 and PE 10, with CTS options like Leadership and Mentorship in combination with summer work programs on the reserve. The programs are full of authentic cultural learning experiences that can applied to real life learning situations.

This summer I am going to collaborate with Sean to integrate digital literacy into a pilot alternative camp project.

Based on my open online projects, where I have encouraged students to document their learning in a wide variety of digital formats, I will help create a digital platform for students to track their own learning. I will also help develop the pedagogical model, using social media and digital skills, to help encourage retention strategies. With Sean, I will be developing the digital framework pilot for the “4 E Camp” http://www.metisemployment.ca/looking-for-training/upcoming-projects

For my project, my goal is to create a website that will be separated into four parts:

Learning Design and Framework (pedagogy and assessment)

Technology ( Tools used, how I used them and why)

Cultural Considerations

References and ResourcesI look forward to the opportunity to learn with Sean and to collaborate on a project from different perspectives with a common purpose.

Verena 🙂

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

Using technology for storytelling

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Since beginning this course, one argument that resonated with me in a large way is that internet, in its very nature and form, might not be that compatible with some indigenous groups’ core cultural values related to personal connectedness with each other, and to physical space. Howe (1998) acknowledges this bind by pointing out that internet use is not so much a choice, but a modern necessity (p. 21). I find this difficult to sit with since it appears that indigenous cultures are implicitly being told about ‘how to be’, if they wish to survive (Howe, p. 22). Therefore, I am interested in researching how different technologies can be used to support storytelling, a process that is core to many indigenous cultures’ transmission of values. Weeks ago, I was looking at this site, “The Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk” and I realized that part of the site design – a scrolling newsfeed – allowed Kugluktuk people to share experiences and histories with their community – a modern spin on tradition. This is only one example and is just a starting point, but I wanted to include this example because my impetus began here. I have also begun looking at: The First Mile. This site provides updates on how different First Nations groups are using technology to support cultural sharing. I am also reading the articles cited below to obtain a more solid base in the importance of storytelling tradition as a vehicle for maintaining cultural traditions. Essentially, I want to research how indigenous peoples are using various technologies as cultural tools, as opposed to being subject to the technology itself.

Any suggestions are most welcome!

Ginelle

Howe, Craig, “Cyberspace is No Place for Tribalism,” Wicazo Sa Review (Fall, 1998), 19-27.

McKeough, A., Bird, S., Tourigny, E., Romaine, A., Graham, S., Ottmann, J., & Jeary, J. (2008).

Storytelling as a foundation to literacy development for aboriginal children: Culturally and

developmentally appropriate practices. Canadian Psychology, 49(2), 148-154.

Retrieved from:

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/220806413?accountid=14656

Piquemal, N. (2003). From native North American Oral Traditions to Western Literacy: Storytelling in

education. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 49(2), 0-n/a.

Retrieved from:

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/228667524?accountid=14656

Statement Connecting Blog to Research

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In our ETEC 521 discussions, I (and some others) expressed a desire not to teach ‘straight line theory’, not to inadvertently act in ways that alienate or culturally harm indigenous students. This desire ties into my overall goal for this course, to learn better ways to teach and retain my indigenous students. I believe that the key to all of this will be to foster more effective relationships.

Looking for some support in this, I approached the Aboriginal Education teacher at my school. She provided me with a chart contrasting cultural behaviors on fifteen different points. I’ve included the first four below, as an example:

	Traditional Aboriginal	Non-Aboriginal
Eye contact during conversation	Very little eye contact – most conversation conducted looking away from each other.	Eye contact is continuous or nearly continuous during conversation.
Answers to a question	Reply is delayed until facts are sifted through. Thus a period of silence before a reply is made.	Reply is immediate although the first few words may contribute little to the answer – talks while formulating the answer.
Speaking voice	Tends to pitch lower. Speech is slower, softer.	Tends to speak with a higher pitched voice. Speech is louder, faster.
Body Language	Nodding of the head and exclamations indicate understanding of what is being said, not necessarily agreement.	Nodding of the head and exclamations indicate agreement and / or acceptance.

What this chart emphasized to me is that treating all students equally is not sufficient. My research focus, as a result, will be on learning ways to enhance my relationships with indigenous students, through culturally sensitive behaviors that lead to more effective teaching and higher student retention.

This is a broad topic and I expect to narrow my focus. I’ll start by looking for current and local research to help create that focus. So far, dissertations and the www.ccl-cca.ca/aboriginallearning/website have provided some direction.

Alana

Can technology help to revitalize and support dying languages?

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As a language teacher, I understand that languages are a very important aspect to culture. Languages shape and define a culture. Even the English language adds cultures to its regions. England would not be the same if they spoke like those in parts of the US or Canada. The language, right down to the accent and dialect, gives cultures a special uniqueness. When reading through some of the optional readings in Module 2, I came across this quote: “Computers, video cameras and recorders can’t save languages; only people can do that,” says Penfield, “but technology can support revitalization efforts” (UA News Services, 2004). Therefore, I plan to research language revitalization using technology because I believe that technology can help revitalize languages in aboriginal communities and feel that it is important to do so.

I plan to investigate languages that are close to my area in hope to give my own Aboriginal Support colleagues a way to reach our students. I feel that if I focus part of my research on helping those whom I work with and teach, I will be able to see and feel an impact. My essay may include themes such as revitalization efforts in Canada/BC, Languages in my area that are spoken and how they are being revitalized, and technology that can enhance and support language revitalization.

References:

UA News Services. (2004). Professor Uses Technology to Preserve Tribal Languages. Retrieved from http://uanews.org/story/professor-uses-technology-preserve-tribal-languages

Research Statement

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How is the Indigenous understanding of the environment different from western scientific understanding?

There are a few areas around environmental understanding and interconnectedness in which I would like to research further. I am passionate about the environment and see myself agreeing with a lot of traditional values that I have come across so far compared to dominant western science values. As a Grade 7 Science teacher in BC, I am obligated to teach TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) when addressing ecosystems and sustainability. How teachers address this as well as the depth that we go into it is not consistent from what I’ve seen. I want to better my teaching practice by incorporating more TEK examples and activities in the classroom as well as further my knowledge on the topic. Furthermore, I want to see how technology, if at all, can help disseminate information of Indigenous knowledge to people via the Internet or other digital technologies. Looking ahead, I see that we will be addressing environmentalism and the Indigenous relationship to understanding the natural world compared to the western scientific approaches in Module 4 of the course. I have already found some research papers discussing environmentalism and Indigenous knowledge and have attached to Module 1 posts. I will continue to do this in further modules.

Alicia

Can an increase in culturally relevant technology in classrooms increase British Columbia Aboriginal Dogwood Graduation Rates?

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Can an increase in culturally relevant technology in classrooms increase British Columbia Aboriginal Dogwood Graduation Rates?

After watching the video of Dr. Lee Brown speaking of drop-out rates of Aboriginals in our school system, this helped me hone in on what I would like to look into for research. After this video I went to the BC Ministry of Education Website and looked at the graduation rates from the last few years. The last five years show an average of only 45.8% in relation to aboriginal graduation with a Dogwood Diploma.

Discussion of technology and whether it is culturally neutral, as well as if it is beneficial to indigenous peoples has been already touched upon in this course, therefore my research extends from here.

A continual theme in the British Columbia Education System is low graduation rates of aboriginal students. Combining this with the theme of increasing technology in our BC school system, I would like to see if this increase in technology can increase aboriginal graduation rates in British Columbia. Longer term, this requires creating technology and curriculum that is culturally relevant for aboriginal peoples and this is an area that I would like to focus on. Since lack of support is also suggested for low completion rates, looking further into how online courses or technological communities can help increase graduation rates is also on my research radar. Incorporating technology in classroom has shown that it can attract and retain student attention and enhance the self-sufficiency of learning. Types of obstacles that could inhibit this type of technology being incorporated into classrooms could be: Financial resources, technical support, and manipulation of aboriginal culture into BC curriculum. These obstacles will be considered heavily in my research.

Marijke Henschel

Nisga’a: Defining Sense of Place Online as a Mechanism of Reaffirming their Cultural Identity

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Overview: My project will combine a short movie presentation with a 2000 word essay.

Movie Title: The Nisga’a Struggle: Was it Apartheid or Assimilation?

Movie Theme: The movie will provide a historical context of the Nisga’a’s history from 1867 to the 1999 land claims. The movie will provide an insight into the continuous struggle of the Nisga’a to define their sense of place in the context of a Eurocentric environment.

Essay Title: Nisga’a: Defining Sense of Place Online as a Mechanism of Reaffirming their Cultural Identity

Research Topic: This essay will examine how the Nisga’a use the internet, specifically their official government website, to define sense of place in their cultural context. Furthermore, by defining sense of place, this essay will examine how the Nisga’a has blended the experiences of the past and the internet to preserve and move their cultural forward in the 21^st century.

Themes: All the themes are interconnected and will be examined to gain an understanding of how the Nisga’a use their government website as an anchor in preserving their cultural identity and moving it forward in the 21^st century, as part of a global community. The website also provides evidence that the Nisga’a’s cultural identity has been shaped by interaction with a Eurocentric world view. The essay will examine sense of place through the following themes:

Places have location,
Place have physical and cultural characteristics,
Places change,
Places interact with other places, and
Places are in regions.

Essay will answer the following question:

What is sense of place?
How does the Nisga’a government website represent sense of place?
Why is it important for the Nisga’a to use the internet to define sense of place in their unique cultural context?
Evaluate whether defining a sense of place on the world-wide-web is beneficial or harmful as the Nisga’a move forward in the 21^st century.

Sources

Nisga’a Lisims Government (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.nisgaanation.ca/

Final Project: Using technology and online learning to increase education levels and employment opportunities for remote first nation communities.

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Module 2 Post 2, Final Project Focus Area

I came across a paper titled Connecting Aboriginal Learners in Remote Communities: An Online Social Work Course when searching for a topic for my final project. The article mentioned that the aboriginal “students enjoyed the experience [of the online course] and found the method of learning and the computer skills gained to be useful.”

I decided to look further into this topic of online learning and found an excellent article titled: Ready, Willing, And Able: Prospects For Distance Learning In Canada’s First Nations Community. The below passage inspired me to focus on this topic for my final project.

“The educational attainment levels of First Nations people in Canada lags behind that of mainstream society. Because many reserves are in rural or remote areas, attending postsecondary institutions has meant leaving the community. However, advances in information technologies and distance education program delivery mean that First Nations people can obtain postsecondary educational credentials without having to leave their home communities.”

With increased education comes increased employment opportunities, therefore the focus for my final project will be:

Using technology and online learning to Increase education levels and employment opportunities for remote first nation communities.

References

Hick, S. (2008). Connecting Aboriginal Learners in Remote Communities: An Online Social Work Course. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 20:3-4,267-281. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/pdf/10.1300/J017v20n03_04

Voyageur, C. (2001). Ready, Willing, And Able: Prospects For Distance Learning In Canada’s First Nations Community. The Journal of Distance Education, VOL. 16, No. 1, 102-112. Retrieved from: http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/174/131

Regards,

Greg Campbell