Intended for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners, this course will explore indigenous ways of knowing and how they can benefit all students. Topics include historical, social, and political issues in Aboriginal education; terminology; cultural, spiritual and philosophical themes in Aboriginal worldviews; and how Aboriginal worldviews can inform professional programs and practices, including but not limited to the field of education.
4.1 Ab ed through the wheel Contemporary [Part 2] (10:00)
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Del curso dictado por University of Toronto
Aboriginal Worldviews and Education
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Contemporary Themes in Aboriginal Education
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Jean-Paul RestouleAssociate Professor
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
>> Accreditation is an issue, like I was mentioning earlier.
Especially with, you know, people who would come in and, and be a language and
cultural resource. They don't often have the accreditation,
and it's something that's difficult for them to attain while also maintaining the,
the work, the really important work that they're doing in their communities.
So a lot of them come in as education assistants.
Or they, they're working in the school with any number of different roles and
titles, but not with the same kind of level of authority recognition or pay, as,
as the teachers that are there. And turnover is high, too.
Where the teacher is working in first nation schools part of that is that they
could get paid more when they go to a prudential school.
So, lot of the teachers go to first nations communities as a place to gain
experience because it's hard to get work in the, in the cities.
And, and they'll get some experience. And when an opportunity arises, they
leave. Some are very much pushed out by
communities who are tired of seeing the high turnover.
And so, there is, there is, you know, some responsibility on the communities to
actually welcome some of the teachers who are quite wanting to do some good work in,
in those places and they're not received as [laugh] warmly.
Just I, I think again, a legacy of history.
But I think our communities can take some responsibility for that, too.
So these are just some of the trends, and there are many more in kind of the
movement into the contemporary education moment.
I think another thing to look at is you know, post secondary education, which has
been something that average people desire. And it's been stated that this is an
aspiration for most average people on a survey I saw.
More than 80% of people when asked, how much education would you like to have?
They, they spoke of post secondary or, you know higher like bachelors degrees or
higher. And yet, we know that participation is,
is, is about a third of Canada's participation.
So, how come the real experience is so far below the aspiration?
I mean, it's a challenge that we have to meet, as educators, to, to close that gap.
So, are there any questions about this? Brief history of [laugh] average
education. Yeah?
>> In, in today's school standards can a parent opt to just have their child home
schooled, or is it still against the law to take your child out of school?
>> No. The, the homeschooling is an option.
It's definitely and option, yeah. >> Yeah, is it like a trend in certain
communities or? >> You know, I've read something somewhere
recently that it's one of the growing populations in homeschooling.
I don't know how high it is. I couldn't tell you exactly how high, but
I know it's one of the growing ones, yeah. >> I read recently about online high
school system. I was just curious if you'd >> Is this in
northern Ontario? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of
success to that, that model. And one of the reasons being, for
aboriginal people who are forced to leave their communities when they're entering
high school. So, they had to go to larger urban area,
south of them sometimes. If they're from remote fly-in communities,
then they have to board in the cities as well and it's quite a, it's quite a
transition. Transition to high school is hard for
anyone. But, when you have to leave your community
and sometimes be hundreds of kilometers away from your community and someone is
withholding you, people that you're living with, not necessarily family, that whole
adjustment was the part of the reason for the birth of the, that internet high
school. So that they could be learning in their
communities because they were feeling the biggest barrier to their learning in the
high school was these transition issues of leaving the home and leaving the
community. So, this was seen as a way to kind of
allow them to stay home with their, their context and connections and learn that
way. So it's, it's been kind of talked about
as, as quite a success story. There are challenges with it but yeah,
it's certainly a model for remote communities.
And the way that it kind of works is like the teacher does travel to each of the
communities at least once in a, in a, I don't know if they do it by contract or by
course. But they certainly visit at least once per
contract or one per course and physically meet with the students, help them through
anything that they're having trouble with and then always available you know, at
certain times online and it's, it's a good model.
Yeah, another questions here? >> Yeah.
This is probably [unknown]. In terms of aboriginal youth from
communities having to go to larger cities for high school, what is the housing
situation for youth who go to different communities for high school?
Where do they stay? >> Yeah, the housing situation when you
transition from your community. You know, sometimes they're staying with
friends or families, family members who are in those cities.
There are like services and, you know, families that are recognized by the
schools who will they're kind of involved in, in more than just providing a
residence. Like they're doing that then but they also
become important guides and mentors. So sometimes the schools enter into kind
of quite a relationship with who's going to be aborting home or family for them.
But that, yeah, there's kind of a system in place for where they're going to stay
as they access these schools. Yeah?
>> Are there opportunities in public schools for aboriginal children to learn
their languages? And if not, is it possible for them to opt
out of any French classes and take cultural classes instead?
>> Yeah, okay. So the, you know, the question about
schools and language there, I've only really seen it in alternative schools
where that might be a mandate of, of what makes the school an alternative school is
that it does work with the language and culture.
And so, they'll have language classes. Yes, there are regions where you can opt
out of the French language credit or requirement and learn the indigenous
language. Again, there's, there's also that
struggle, too, of finding the accredited language teachers.
And Angelee/g, you have a point to make about it, too?
>> I just wanted to add to that, because I feel like, so you're kind of talking about
what's happening maybe in the urban centers, right?
But, if we're talking about schools in [unknown] community, my understanding, and
I might be wrong, is that at least in the community that I work in is that the
federal government doesn't fund language for schools.
Like so like, you know, [unknown] for instance, they won't fund it.
So like the school in the community I worked in, they wanted to confirm for
language, and they pretended it was a broom closet to get to, for attempting to
like, for it actually to be built. >> Yeah.
>> In the classroom. >> Okay.
Yeah. I understood you'd be saying provincial
schooling, so I was trying to address that, but did you mean in first nations
communities too, or? >> I was asking specifically about urban
schools. >> Yeah, okay.
No, no, no. It's good that you have that context, too.
I was just wondering why I didn't answer that way.
[laugh] And it's like, oh, I thought you said provincial.
Yeah? >> If, if I can just show that, my, my
younger brother living in a rural on [unknown] school that we're near [unknown]
reservations where we're given options for language classes that there was in the
public school system. And then, actually one [unknown] was
required, okay? >> Mm-hm.
>> So anyway, there's some examples, but they're like, little pockets of, like,
rural areas. >> Exactly.
Yeah. That's what I was trying to say.
In some regions. >> Yeah.
>> Because there, there's places where it's offered and places where it's not
offered, even with a large population nearby.
So, I'm not, I'm not sure why that is except that, I'm guessing here, but I
would suspect it has to do with a passionate teacher or principal who's
willing to take that up and make it a, an important part of what they offer at the
school as a way of including people. A lot of these, these trends and themes
and things are, are initiated by someone who has a vision and wants to carry it
out. And so, I think sometimes it's not about
like rules and polices always being in the way, it's about someone with a vision
actually carrying it out. And you know, I always encourage teachers,
and I do the teachers education work, to not worry about what the rules say, but to
do what you want to do and need to do. And, you'll find that you don't actually
have to be looking over your shoulder at someone going to come down and enforce
those rules. [laugh] in fact, you may even be commended
someday for having that vision. And so, I think that's probably a good
place to, to stop, and we'll.
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