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

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.

The fight to revitalize Canada’s indigenous languages

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Module #2, post #1

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/fight-to-revitalize-canadas-indigenous-languages.aspx

Since my research topic is on the revitalization of aboriginal languages, I decided to start doing some searching to see what’s out there. I came across two sites right away: one from uvic about a language revitalization program certificate that they offer and the other from universityaffairs.ca

The second website had some very interesting information about Canada’s aboriginal languages and what is being done about them. There seem to be federally funded projects to help revitalize Canada’s dying (or dead) aboriginal languages.

This website connects to many other sites such as the First Peoples’ Culture Council and even government sites such as Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

Module 2 – F.A.I.R. Media

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Mod 2 – Post #1

While I was looking up Aboriginal representation in the media, I came across this Facebook page. FAIR Media stands for Accurate Indigenous Representation. There are 10,488 likes on the page and it seems that many people post and comment along the issues of how Aboriginal people are represented in the media. It seems like a community of learning and sharing and it is an example of how the Internet has allowed Indigenous people connect and relate to one another as well as bring awareness to stereotypes/misconceptions.

Check out this 5 minute video posted on the site: First Nations People in Mainstream Media

Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/realIndigenous

Alicia

Connecting Research to Weblogs

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Relationship between digitization of knowledge and place based learning….

The digitalization of elder knowledge was a topic that interested me, however, after watching/listening to the guest speakers from week 4 I am more interested in the relationship that exits between the digitalization of elder knowledge and place based learning.

This interest is relevant as technology affords the ability to live in a digital world and to ignore the connections that are deeply rooted in the physical. Even taken out of an indigenous context the digitalization of knowledge removes the essence that this knowledge is embedded in the physical context. This general concept applies

One of my hypotheses is that there is an opposing relationship between digitalizing knowledge and delivering placed based knowledge, however, I want to investigate whether this is the case. My future weblogs will explore how place based knowledge is incorporated into mainstream education, and how the digitalization of knowledge impacts the amount of place based knowledge that occurs. To explore this I plan to investigate the impact of digitalization of elder knowledge in conjunction with the impact that this preservation of knowledge has on how learning is occurring. I am hoping that once I explore these two areas individually there will be themes that emerge to help me develop and further tailor my research questions.

Thanks,
Kiersten

How to attract qualified Teachers

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Module 2 Post #6

While continuing to look at graduation rates of Aboriginal students I decided to Google attracting and retaining qualified teachers to remote First Nation communities. I found this CBC article that breaks down the First Nations schools Report.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/05/17/pol-first-nations-education.html

Highlighted in the article is that “First Nations’ schools have lower quality teaching, an inferior curriculum and fail to provide proper services for children with special needs” and that there are “serious problems with the ability of First Nation schools to attract and retain teachers and support staff.”

So my question to the class is: How do we attract and provide incentive for qualified teachers to move to some of these remote communities?

Cheers,

Greg Campbell

Developing a First Nation Education Act

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Module 2 Post #5

I just finished reviewing a document titled Developing a First Nation Education Act: Discussion Guide located on the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada website.

http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1355150229225/1355150442776

The 2012 document discusses how improving education is a priority for the government of Canada as well as First Nations. The document discusses how Aborginal students “lag behind non-Aboriginal students in literacy, high school completion and post-secondary graduation rates”.

The purpose of developing an act would be to “provide a framework for achieving better outcomes for students through reform by: creating standards and structures; strengthening governance and accountability; and providing mechanisms for stable, predictable and sustainable funding.”

Definitely worth a read.

Greg Campbell

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

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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/

Secondary Graduation Rates

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Module 2 Post #4

I just finished reading the below article titled: A Portrait of First Nations and Education from the Chiefs Assembly on Education.

http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/events/fact_sheet-ccoe-3.pdf

The article contained some startling information regarding graduation rates for First Nation students as well as some amazing information. The article used data from 2004-2009 and found that the First Nation high school graduation rate was 36% compared to the Canadian graduation rate of 72%. The amazing information was that the Membertou First Nation graduation rate in Nova Scotia was 100% during the past 3 years. The article also contains some interesting information on First Nation language and learning and infrastructure and capital requirements.

Regards,

Greg Campbell

Aboriginal Representation

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Module #2 – Post #2

Smith, Loretta. (2006). Mending Fences: Increasing Aboriginal Representation in Canada. Department of Political of Science, University of Guelph. Written for the 78^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association: York University. Accessed via: http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2006/Smith,%20Loretta.pdf

In reviewing literature in module #1 and now Module #2, our discussions have led me to further explore the type of representation and amount of representation that exists for Aboriginal people in Canada in regards to the federal government. This of course leading to barriers to participation in governance and precursors that we can than connect or discount as influencing this participation.

As I wrote in Discussion #4, I quote myself, “having to partake within the Canadian government requires assimilation at many levels for Aboriginal people, it is a Western construct.” So what is it specifically that could present challenges, barriers or even benefits in contemporary times for participation in federal governance?

I hypothesized before beginning the article that socio-economic conditions, lack of access to higher Education, secure and well paid employment of course tension from historical relationships between Aboriginal people and the government.

Smith’s article hypothesizes 6 factors, of which many I had not considered:

Aboriginal candidates receiving less funding than non-Aboriginal candidates
Aboriginal candidates placed in non-winnable ridings
Aboriginal candidates run at more local governance levels than federal due to less personal sacrifice
Aboriginal people not considering Canadian government to be legit and therefore do not participate
Aboriginal people do not have appropriate professional experience/education
Questions whether the single-member electoral system prevents Aboriginal candidates to be elected in proportion to their total share of the population

Smith provides great stats (so I do recommend looking at the tables provided) – local stats are out of BC and Federal stats obviously cross the nation J Smith concludes that funding did not consistently seem to be an issue for Aboriginal candidates, nor did the placement of ridings for candidates (there was no evidence of tokenism either). And, there was also a lack of Aboriginal participation at local levels of government, therefore cancelling out that hypothesis.

Results did show however, that for those Aboriginal representatives that were elected, they had high level Professional experience and had University-level Education, all of which is not representative of the Aboriginal population. Only 6.39% of Aboriginal population has University education and only 17.48% of the Aboriginal population is employed professionally (Smith, Loretta. 2006. Pp.19). This result indicates, along with other details, that Aboriginal politicians and candidates are more like non Aboriginal politicians than their own communities.

Broader Perspectives: A comparison of approaches

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Module #2 – Post #1

Cornell, Stephen. And Kalt, Jospeh. P. (2006). Two Approaches to Economic Development on American Indian Reservations: One Works, the Other Doesn’t. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents. Accessed via: http://www.nwtopportunities.com/sites/default/files/approachesedevelopment.pdf

This article examines two approaches that exist to economic development on Aboriginal Reservations. One end of the spectrum posits the “Standard approach”, a hierarchical system fashioned from Federal policy and procedure in an attempt to make decisions on behalf of Aboriginal peoples, and the “nation-building approach” that recognizes that sovereignty of Aboriginal tribes, the value of cultural tradition and perspective and governance and of course the sustainability required to improve overall socio-economic conditions for Aboriginal peoples.

Cornell & Kalt begin the article by providing context through the use of four example tribes that have made significant headway in terms of economic development, socio-economic improvements and acknowledged sovereignty for their people. I found this to be very inspiring as it is neither the sense nor the type of story that is presented in everyday media regarding Aboriginal communities. Breaking down the “standard approach” and the “nation-building approach” we see the following key differences as factors for impeding, influencing and shaping economic development for Aboriginal people:

Standard Approach	Nation-Building Approach
Short-term, not strategic Agenda determined externally Economic development seen as economic problem Indigenous culture as impeding development Elected leadership reduced to distribute resources	Practical sovereignty – agenda determined internally Effective governing institutions – rules of the game that fit tribal objectives Cultural match – government needs to be seen as legitimate by the people Strategic Orientation – sustainability rather than a quick fix Nation-building leadership – that incorporates tribal values