Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom

Recommendations

Info

Flexibility in Scheduling, Grouping, and Program Configuration Finding ways to be flexible is a big challenge for school trustees as well as school-based and district educators. Creativity and determination are required, together with a willingness to explore possibilities and take risks in attempting to do things differently. As with any attempt to implement change, communication and engagement with all education partners (including Aboriginal community members and parents) are critical. The reward for success, however, is increased community satisfaction with schooling and better educational outcomes for students. What does flexibility mean? • When a potlatch or other ceremony is happening and an exam or test happens, we need the flexibility to allow that student another day and time to complete or finish. • When we observe protocol such as a loss in a community, schools and teachers need to understand and acknowledge and find ways to help students keep their academic grades up. participant, Tsaxis The Aboriginal events that we want students to participate in and learn from don’t often happen within a 9 to 5 schedule. They go into the evening, and some go on for as long as four days. Also, many important activities take place in summer, and lots of education is happening on those days. Educators need to find a different way to organize schooling (the school calendar) so kids can learn from participation in these experiences or have a day to go to sites. At the very least, there should be provision for students to do a presentation on what they learned when they come into school in September. A whole-day, whole-school open house on the first day of school that includes invites to family and other community members might also be a way to recognize and capture some of this learning. participant, Williams Lake Aboriginal children will miss classes to attend activities (e.g., food gathering), and teachers should give them credit/recognition for attending those activities. participant, Williams Lake The Graduation Program is so very important — and the Ministry cannot be too prescriptive, but must be flexible and allow for differences and styles of learning as well as a lot of Elders in classroom. participant, West Kelowna Allowing non-First Nations and First Nations kids to connect with the local reserve community (e.g., via field studies, visits) might be another way to stimulate/build understanding of what it means to be Aboriginal. participant, Williams Lake 54 Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom: Moving Forward
When it comes to flexible calendars, fishing and mushroom picking season could be accommodated. For the Xeni Gwet’in wagon ride, students miss school without adverse effect. And SD27 has five or six different calendars already: Naghtaneqed and Dog Creek have their own calendars established through working with the communities. We also have alternate programs where students can start later etc. Some schools have 4.5-dayper-week schedules (e.g., Alexis Creek Elementary & Junior Secondary). We are pretty far ahead. For even better success, perhaps we could have teens start later and go later in the day. participant, Williams Lake Another approach being used in SD27 is to support rural education and make arrangements for students in outlying areas to take in-town courses part of the time. Having students transition gradually to in-town schooling as they progress to higher grade levels lessens the impact on them, and they are more comfortable knowing some teachers when they eventually come into town on a more full-time basis. This idea could be extended to deal with the transition to post-secondary as well. The community would like to see opportunities for the grade 12s to meet TRU (Thompson Rivers University) staff and learn more about careers there. That would give them the sense of belonging there and make them more comfortable to go there. participant, Williams Lake The linear timetable is not structured to allow for learning in an Indigenous way. It doesn’t allow for deeper exploration of things that students may be passionate about learning. Make space in the day/week/year for this to happen more often. participant, West Kelowna Building programming in an extra-curricular space (e.g., an after-school program — 3h for 12 weeks focussing on Okanagan history, culture, language, ceremonies, protocols, and that include two youth gatherings plus a 25h community project commitment such as helping Elders — service work) and then obtaining credit/certification for it once it is built has been an effective strategy for avoiding some of the development pressures/ restrictions that the system otherwise would impose. participant, West Kelowna Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom: Moving Forward 55
Page 1:
Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspecti
Page 4 and 5:
ISBN 978-0-7726-6928-5 Copyright ©
Page 7:
Acknowledgments The Ministry of Edu
Page 10 and 11:
Indicators of Success. ............
Page 12 and 13:
A world of resources now exists to
Page 14 and 15: This [the problem of education in t
Page 16 and 17: The Agenda and Approach for the Gat
Page 18 and 19: •• identify specific practices
Page 21 and 22: Aboriginal Education for All Learne
Page 23 and 24: Indigenous education has to be link
Page 25 and 26: Characteristics of Aboriginal World
Page 27 and 28: So much of worldview is carried in
Page 29 and 30: We are moving towards correcting hi
Page 31 and 32: We need to teach accurately and tea
Page 33 and 34: Engage with the local perspective,
Page 35 and 36: There are many ways of connecting s
Page 37 and 38: Recognize individual goals and stre
Page 39 and 40: Protocols are key in understanding
Page 41 and 42: Young people love the stories and b
Page 43 and 44: Traditional teaching used to explor
Page 45 and 46: Injecting music into what we do to
Page 47: Emotion is missing from present-day
Page 50 and 51: The Role of the Teacher In any comm
Page 52 and 53: Community Engagement The path to su
Page 54 and 55: Teacher Preservice Training and Ins
Page 56 and 57: Teachers and administrators need to
Page 58 and 59: A Positive, Learner-Centred Approac
Page 60 and 61: Ensure that the territory-specific,
Page 62 and 63: Leadership and Staffing Beyond prof
Page 66 and 67: The Learning Environment and Resour
Page 68 and 69: Aboriginal Education in Action: The
Page 70 and 71: Burnaby secondary student Destiny M
Page 72 and 73: We cannot rely just on FSAs, Provin
Page 74 and 75: •• the voice of youth (includin
Page 76 and 77: •• deliberate and explicit meas
Page 78 and 79: •• Elders, support staff member
Page 80 and 81: •• there is less bullying withi
Page 82 and 83: Helpful Links #BCAbTalks In keeping
Page 84 and 85: 3. http://noii.ca/aesn/ and the rel
Page 86 and 87: Co-operative Reflection on Practice
Page 88: #BCAbTalks
show all

Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?