the marginal indigenous educational status in canada

THE MARGINAL INDIGENOUS EDUCATIONAL STATUS IN CANADA

“The state of Aboriginal education remains bleak”? (Hare and Barman 2000, p. 355).

11/02/2020 1© Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri 2020

Presentation Contents

• Introduction: The legacy of the history of colonial education

• Introduction: Main Theme, Central Question, Main Thesis and Main Argument

• Education that Matters: Educational Achievement and Educational Attainment: The Indigenous – Non-Indigenous Educational Gap

• Purposes and Outcomes of Indigenous Education

• Pattern of Indigenous Education

• Dynamics of Indigenous Education: Residential and Post-residential School Education; “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• Theoretical Perspectives on Indian Control of Indian Education

• HOPE

• Conclusions

• References11/02/2020 2

•MOTIVATE:•Why we need to be interested in Indigenous education in Canada

The Legacy of the History of Colonial Education

• In Canada, the history of education is rooted in missionary schooling. Early schools were aimed at making all Canadians productive members of an emerging capitalist economy. For Indigenous peoples, this was particularly violent and disruptive process, involving at times their forcible removal from their homes and communities. Pedagogically our ancestors were subjected to instruction premised on colonial superiority, in turn marking them inferior along with their knowledge and culture. The history of racism and education is unmistakably linked and inseparable for Indigenous peoples. Ideologies of racism continue, furthermore, to shape modern educational contexts and structure a devastating series of outcomes (Cannon and Sunseri 2018, p. 145)

11/02/2020 4

IMPACT OF THE LEGACY

• Many Indigenous children and youth do not experience the same success with schooling as their non-Indigenous counterparts. For example, though graduation rates may show slight improvement, Statistics Canada (2018) indicates that among First Nations young adults (ages 20 to 24) living off-reserve 75 per cent completed high school as of 2016, yet only 46 per cent of those living on-reserve graduated. Among non-Indigenous youth, high school completion rates are noticeably higher, with 92 per cent having high school certificate. The most common post secondary education qualification for Indigenous learners aged 25 to 64 years is college. Despite the educational gains being observed among First Nations, Inuit, and Metis, employment rates have not increased for Indigenous peoples (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 204)

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHANGING THE LEGACY

• Long-standing local, national, and international policy statements convincingly argue that improved educational outcomes for Indigenous learners are critical to enhancing more general social, health, and economic indicators for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Indigenous peoples have always attended to the education of their children and youth, as observed in treaty documents across Canada. Indian Control of Indian Education (NIB 1972), the final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP 1996), the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report (2015)…all affirm that education is the means by which Indigenous peoples in Canada will strengthen their identities, families, communities, economies, and that they have the right to an education that reflects the cultures, histories, traditions, languages, and aspirations of their peoples. Along with asserting that Indigenous people will find greater meaning and relevance in educational opportunities through inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in curricula, they note the many ways that paying respectful attention to Indigenous knowledge will benefit Canada’s ability to address a wide variety of economic, environmental, social and educational issues we confront as a society (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 204-205)

•MAIN THEME:

•Education, Domination and Transformation

•CENTRAL QUESTION:

•Why and to what extent does educational status matter for Indigenous Peoples in the 21st century Canada?

•MAIN THESIS

•Educational attainment should matter a lot to Indigenous Peoples of Canada because since the early colonial era of Canada educational status has influenced accessibility to valued societal resources such as property, power, privilege, and prestige.

11/02/2020 7

INTRODUCTION:The main Argument: Education Matters for Indigenous Peoples although colonial education has not worked for them:

• In contemporary society, there is a strong linkage between educational attainment on the one hand and economic status/development, political status, privilege and prestige on the other. That is why we need to know the following:

• 1) As the skills requirements of a post-industrial, globalized economy rise, the marginalization, poverty and relative disadvantage of Indigenous peoples are in danger of increasing unless [educational] success can be radically improved (RCAP 1996b: 561).

• 2) Educational practices constitute a strategic part of the political agenda for any group which seeks to control its own destiny or that of other groups (Wotherspoonand Satzewich 2000: 145).

• 3) Colonial education (especially Residential Schooling) and post-colonial education have not worked for Indigenous peoples, but higher education is the gateway to Indigenous peoples’ freedom in the post-industrial Canadian and global economy. Indigenous people cannot therefore afford to abandon the pursuit of higher educational credentials.

• Hence, a) “An increased sense of urgency for creative and focused dialogue aimed at a change in the educational system is required” (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 204-205) and b) the Indigenous efforts to take charge of Indigenous education in Canada by ensuring that the front and center of education in Canada would include Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies.

11/02/2020 8

•EXPLORE•To know and understand the major concepts of Indigenous educational status in Canada

MAJOR CONCEPTS

•Educational Attainment

•Educational Practices

•Colonial Education (Residential Schools)

•Postcolonial Education

•Educational System (Patterns and Dynamics)

•Indigenous Education

•Indigenous Knowledge

•Indigenous Pedagogy

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT

• Average FSA Performance of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Students in Elementary School 2001/02 – 2005/06

•http://www.csls.ca/events/cea2008/richards.pdf

•See page 25 of the pdf report.

11/02/2020 11

http://www.csls.ca/events/cea2008/richards.pdf

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT:

Statistics Canada, 2001EDUCATIONAL STATUS PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE

All Canadians Aboriginals

Less than High School 30.4 48.0

High School Only 14.0 9.8

Trades 10.4 12.1

No Postsecondary 56.2 70.5

College 15.0 11.6

Bachelor’s Degree 10.6 3.4

Master’s Degree 2.7 0.5

Earned Doctorate 0.5 0.08

11/02/2020 13

EDUCATIONAL STATUS

2001 2006

06

2001 2006

High School 77.0 80.0 NA NA

Trades 10.4 10.8 12.1 11.4

College 15.0 17.3 11.6 14.5

Bachelor’s Degree 10.6 11.6 3.4 4.1

Master’s Degree 2.7 3.8 0.5 0.7

Earned Doctorate 0.5 0.7 0.08 0.1

PERCENTAGE

All Canadians Indigenous People

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT:

Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 and 2006

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMEMT:The gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal university attainment rates is widening

YEAR ABORIGINAL NON-ABORIGINAL

1981 2% 8.1%

1991 2.6% 11.6%

1996 4.2% 15.5%

2001 5.9% 20.1%

2006 7.7% 23.4%

11/02/2020 14

Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census

The proportion of the population with a university degree

Proportion of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people by selected levels of educational attainment, sex and age groups, Statistics Canada, 2011

Aboriginal People Non-Aboriginal People

25-64 25-64

Selected levels of educational attainment

Percentage Percentage

Postsecondary qualifications 48.4 64.7

Trades certificate 14.4 12.0

College diploma 20.6 21.3

University certificate below bachelor

3.5 4.9

University degree 9.8 26.511/02/2020 15

Proportion of Aboriginal people by selected levels of educational attainment, sex and age groups, Statistics Canada, 2011

Aboriginal Women

Aboriginal Women

AboriginalMen

AboriginalMen

35 to 44 years 55 to 64 years 35 to 44 years 55 to 64 years


Percentage Percentage Percentage Percentage

Postsecondary qualifications

55.3 46.5 48.0 47.1

Trades certificate 9.9 10.1 19.3 22.3

College diploma 27.1 21.4 18.3 14.1


4.6 4.8 2.7 3.2

University degree 13.6 10.2 7.6 7.6

Proportion of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit aged 25 to 64 by selected levels of educational attainment and sex, Statistics Canada, 2011

First Nations

First Nations

First Nations

Metis Metis Metis Inuit Inuit Inuit

Women Men Both sexes Women Men Both sexes Women Men Both sexes


% % % % % % % % %

Postsecondary qualifications

47.3 41.9 44.8 57.1 52.3 54.8 35.6 35.7 35.6

Trades certificate

8.5 18.6 13.2 10.8 22.2 16.3 7.5 19.3 13.2

College diploma

23.1 15.0 19.4 28.2 17.8 23.2 19.0 12.1 15.6


4.5 2.6 3.6 4.2 2.8 3.5 2.3 1.0 1.7

University degree

11.1 5.8 8.7 13.9 9.4 11.7 6.8 3.4 5.1

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

• http://www.aboriginalaffairs.gov.on.ca/english/services/datasheets/education.asp

11/02/2020 18

http://www.aboriginalaffairs.gov.on.ca/english/services/datasheets/education.asp

PURPOSE OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION & COLONIAL EDUCATION

•Declared Intentions of Education:

•The manifest intentions of pre-contact, colonial, and contemporary Indigenous educational systems are similar:•Providing knowledge, skills and abilities for

students to maintain or transform themselves and their communities/societies sustainably.

11/02/2020 19

OUTCOMES OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION & COLONIAL EDUCATION

•The underlying purposes and outcomes of Indigenous and colonial education are, however, different:

• Indigenous education: Engages/empowers graduates to enrich their communities.

• Colonial education: disengages/disempowers indigenous peoples to sustain the privileges of the dominant group:• …native youth were trained in European schools in order to prepare them for

leadership positions that would advance colonial political or mission interest (Wotherspoon and Satzewich 2000:117).

• …the sharing of Indigenous knowledge was severely disrupted by assimilationist schooling policies and practices that aimed to rid Indigenous peoples of their identities. For well over a century, residential schools were the primary means by which governmental and religious bodies attempted to systematically eradicate languages, cultures, and values from the lives of Indigenous children…they sought to alter completely the way Indigenous children and youth came to understand and live within their world (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 217)

OUTCOMES OF COLONIAL EDUCATION

•Though a basic education was provided for Indigenous peoples, it prepared students for participation in the lower fringes of the dominant society…Federal policy, initiated by government and carried out by church, legitimized and even compelled children to be schooled not for assimilation purposes but for inequality (Hare and Barman 2000: 333).

11/02/2020 21

ASSUMPTION

•Deceptive declared/manifest intention of colonial education:•The manifest intention of colonial and postcolonial

education to develop Human Factor Competency among Indigenous people seems deceptive (Adu-Febiri 2003) .•False Assumption: that at contact Indigenous

peoples were somehow deficient in the human factor competency, i.e., human capital, emotional capital, spiritual capital, cultural capital, moral capital, and aesthetic capital.

PATTERN OF EDUCATION

•Pattern:•Shifts from indigenous-initiated/directed education system through European-initiated/directed to partially Indigenous-initiated/directed education system.

•Indigenous educators in contemporary Canada seek to assume total control of Indigenous education, decolonize and indigenize it

11/02/2020 23


•Pre-colonial Pattern:•In the pre-contact period the curriculum and pedagogy of Indigenous education was indigenous-initiated and indigenous–directed.

•Although this education was controlled mainly by Indigenous elders, it was education of the Indigenous people by Indigenous people and for Indigenous people.

11/02/2020 24


•Colonial Pattern:

•This pattern changed to Euro-Canadian initiated and controlled education in the colonial period.

•Contemporary Pattern:

•In contemporary Canada, the pattern is changing to partial Indigenous control.

DYNAMICS OF EDUCATION

•Precolonial: • Curriculum: indigenous content: 3Ls (Looking, Listening,

Learning/Leading)—Oral literacy, numeracy, life skills • Pedagogy: Non-formal instruction; circle?

• Colonial:

•Curriculum: European content: 3Rs (Reading, Writing, Arithmetic)—Print literacy and numeracy & “bogus vocational” training•Pedagogy: Formal; schooling;

11/02/2020 26


•Contemporary:•Curriculum: Partial indigenous content: 3Rs; Print Literacy, Numeracy and partial Digital Literacy•Pedagogy: Mainly formal

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND PEDAGOGIES

• Indigenous knowledge represents the local and culturally specific knowledge of a people that is dynamic, adapting over time and place (Battiste 2005). The knowledges of Indigenous peoples are derived from their ways of living, knowing, and being in this world. Indigenous knowledge emerges from the values, beliefs, and practices associated with their world views (Barnhardt and Kawagley 2005) (cited in Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 205)

• Indigenous pedagogies are culturally grounded ways of knowing and learning [and methods of instruction] steeped in Indigenous knowledge (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020).

• Indigenous knowledge and pedagogies have always been at the heart of educational approaches. Children acquire knowledge and skills through looking, listening, and experiential learning (Miller 1996). They come to understand who they are and their place in this world through the stories inscribed in landscape and other narrative texts in their live (Hare 2005). Learning takes place in meaningful contexts such as on the land, in specific places, or within celebration and ceremony. Family and community members are teachers and caregivers to children, and ancestral language are the mode of communication for transmitting our knowledge through the generations. The many sources of Indigenous knowledge not only prepare children for a sustainable lifestyle, they also serve to enrich families, communities, and nations (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 208)

APPLY

• 1. Examine the remaining slides and use your understanding of the information to:

• 2. Respond to this statement: “Education got us into this mess, and education will get us out of it,” stated Chief Wilton Littlechild, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation

Commission (TRC), during its closing ceremonies last month (Northern Journal, July 9, 2015).

• 3. Submit your one paragraph written response for 1 bonus mark

11/02/2020 29


• RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION: MIS-EDUCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS•Disengaging/disempowering Indigenous Peoples: Residential

Schools:• Pursued the strategies of divesting Indigenous peoples of their

indigenous cultures and separation from the core of industrial capitalist economy. • Evidence: scarce school materials; substandard teachers and

facilities; scarcely any opportunities to advance beyond early elementary grades; segregated schools (Wotherspoon and Satzewich 2000; Barman et al 1986; Miller 1999, TRC Report 2016).

30


•RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION: MIS-EDUCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS•Useless Education vs. Dangerous Education (Adu-

Febiri 1999):• The colonial education system, particularly residential school, was not

only useless but also dangerous education for Indigenous peoples:• Few employment opportunities outside farming.• Abuses, violence, alcoholism, suicide, epidemics and death

associated with residential schools (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 204-205)

• Human Factor Decay (Adu-Febiri, 2017)

• Despite the semblances of human capital production, the main agenda [impact? Outcome?] of the colonial education were cultural genocide and human factor decay.

31


•POST-RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION: MIS-EDUCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS CONTINUES

• Indigenous disengagement/disempowerment continues: Integrated Schools• In contemporary Canada many Indigenous students attend

integrated schools but they continue to be marginalized. Integrated school though could be inclusive, doesn’t mean equity schools. In reality it operated in the framework of disempowered inclusion of Indigenous students.

11/02/2020 32


•POST-RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION: MIS-EDUCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS CONTINUES•Human Capital production Focus: Knowledge and skills for

economic production/distribution for the sake of profit•The focus of integrated school has been human capital

production, de facto mainstream western cultural transmission, and the impartation of standardized western scientific knowledge.

• Human factor development, indigenous cultures and knowledge systems, and pedagogies are not adequately included and are virtually absent from the integrated schools.



• While pre-colonial Indigenous education focused on the development of Human Factor Competency (HFC),• Major components of Indigenous education was the development

of spiritual capital, emotional capital, cultural capital, moral capital, and aesthetic capital;

• Residential and post-residential education neglected the development of the HFC of Indigenous peoples. Rather, they focused on Human Capital development

11/02/2020 34


• POST-RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION: MIS-EDUCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS CONTINUES

• Neglect of the Human Factor Competency (HFC):• Human Factor Competency (HFC) is essentially about one’s cultural,

mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual connections with other people, family, community, nation, country, our common humanity, the physical environment, and the cosmos (Adu-Febiri 2011).

• Specifically, the human factor (HF) is a complex interaction of knowledge, skills, abilities and principles that transform human capacity and transform human conduct for the betterment or debasement of the individual, community and society (Adu-Febiri 2003).

11/02/2020 35



• Neglect of HFC:

• Distilling from earlier definitions of the HFC (Adjibolosoo, 1995; Adu-Febiri, 2000, 2001, 2003/2004 and 2011), HFC constitutes peoples’ thinking skills and humanitarian abilities that inspire and facilitate their acquisition and application of appropriate resources to connect with our common humanity and the environment emotionally, morally and spiritually to make a sustainable difference in society. In essence, HFC is an essential dimension of what Adjibolosoo (1995, p. 33) conceptualizes as “the appropriate human qualities and/or characteristics (i.e., the HF). Human Factor Decay (HFD) is the decline or loss or lack of those human qualities and/or characteristics (Adjibolosoo 1995). Senyo Adjibolosoo (1995, pp. 33 and 36), defines the HF as

• a spectrum of personality characteristics that enable social, economic, and political institutions to function and remain functional over time. These [personality characteristics] include human capital, spiritual capital, moral capital, aesthetic capital, human abilities, and human potential.



• Neglect of HFC:

• HFC is the capacity to apply appropriate knowledge, skills, abilities and principles to effectively identify and solve problems that work against productivity, profitability, social justice, equity, cultural development, and environmental preservation (Adu-Febiri 2003).• This capacity is about one’s cultural, mental, emotional, moral, and

spiritual connections with other people, family, community, nation, the environment, and the cosmos, country, our common humanity, the physical environment, and the cosmos (Adu-Febiri 2011).



• Impact of the Neglect of HFC: HUMAN FACTOR DECAY AND/OR UNDERDEVELOPMENT (Adjibolosoo 1995):

• Long years under Euro-Canadian domination and subjugation have depreciated Indigenous Peoples’ human capital, cultural capital, spiritual capital, moral capital, aesthetic capital, human abilities and potential to emancipate themselves from internal colonialism, better their conditions, and enhance their opportunities.

• This human factor deterioration is very much the neglect [intentional?] of colonial education to develop the human factor competency of Indigenous people contrary to its declared intention.

11/02/2020 38



• The neglect of Human Factor development: Why?

• Education for Indigenous people in contemporary Canada is primarily a socio-political enterprise intended to ensure that they are politically contained through integration into mainstream society (Wotherspoon and Satzewich 2000: 122).

•No wonder the school system, generally, has done very little to remove the barriers Indigenous peoples encounter in the educational system of contemporary Canada.

11/02/2020 39



• Language/Cultural and structural Barriers to successful Indigenous Education:

• Indigenous students encounter several barriers in the Canadian education system: language and cultural differences, teachers who are insensitive to Aboriginal concerns, Eurocentric curricula and materials (Burnaby 1982: 20).

• The legacies of residential schooling are still very evident and will undoubtedly persist into the future, and as a result Indigenous learners continue to face many challenges and barriers in the educational system (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 217-218)

11/02/2020 40



•Structural barriers:• 1. Include lack of adequate support and services for

Indigenous students in virtually all areas of education (Federation of Saskatchewan Indians 1973; Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020)

• 2. Stigmatization of Indigenous people attaining higher western academic education in some First Nations communities.


• POST-RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION: MIS-EDUCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS CONTINUES• Constructed Failure:• Under these conditions, it is questionable how successful even the most

well-equipped Euro-Canadian schools could be in integrating Indigenous students and provide them with the motivation and skills that would help them succeed in education and life (Wotherspoon and Satzewich 2000: 127).

• EVIDENCE OF CONSTRUCTED FAILURE:

• In effect, like the residential schools, the integrated school system has failed Indigenous students:• High dropout [push out?] rates• Underachievement and under-attainment• Painful experiences (“tears in academia”).

11/02/2020 42



•Higher Education as the Gateway for Liberation:

•Yet, higher education is the gateway to Indigenous peoples’ freedom in the post-industrial Canadian and global economy. Indigenous people cannot therefore afford to abandon the pursuit of higher educational credentials.

•Hence the Indigenous efforts to take charge of Indigenous education in Canada.

11/02/2020 43



• Indigenous Control of Indigenous Education

• It entails Indigenous input into educational decision-making processes and development and implementation of curricula, pedagogy and language experiences that reflect rather than deny Indigenous heritage (Wotherspoon and Satzewich2000).

11/02/2020 45

•INDIGENOUS-INITIATED AND -DIRECTED EDUCATION

INDIGENOUS-INITIATED AND -DIRECTED EDUCATION

•“Indian control of Indian Education”.

•Proposed by the National Indian Brotherhood in 1972.•The Federal Government quickly agreed to the proposal and signed an agreement to adopt a policy to that effect.

11/02/2020 46


•Following this policy, Band-controlled schooling expanded rapidly:

•1970: Only Blue Quills in Alberta•1971: Rae-Edzo in Northwest Territories•1975: 53 schools•1976-1986; 299•1990: Additional 22•By 1990, 300 out of 379 Indigenous schools

were band-controlled (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada 1990: 19)


• ABORIGINAL HEAD START (AHS) PROGRAM:

• This educational intervention program begun in 1995 to enable on-reserve and urban Aboriginal communities to design and deliver pre-educational programming for children. AHS now operated in over 450 Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada. The program takes a holistic approach to helping families prepare young Indigenous children (up to six years of age) for schooling by nurturing their emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual development (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 216)

INDIGENOUS-INITIATED AND -DIRECTED EDUCATION• The national Accord on Indigenous Education

• Today, Indigenous people across Canada are increasingly asserting that the responsibility with all Canadians to create space for Indigenous knowledge in formal learning settings. They note that if education in Canada is to benefit all students, this will require all Canadians opening their minds as well as their hearts to the different ways that knowledge is constructed, shared, and valued. This vision was articulated in the national Accord on Indigenous Education (Archibald et al, 2010)…the Accord asserts that Indigenous knowledge systems should be central to education policy, curriculum and pedagogy, and that will be of benefit to all Canadians (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 215).

• The TRC “Calls to Action” also make explicit the role of Indigenous knowledge in teaching and learning—for all learners—from early childhood through post-secondary education. As a response, undergraduate students at the University of Winnipeg and Lake-head University take a course on Indigenous knowledge as part of their program requirements. Many professional programs, including nursing, law, education, and social work, also now require course instruction emphasizing the legacy and impact of residential schooling and the importance of developing cross-cultural competencies (Hare and Davidson, 2020, in Starblanket & Long with Dickason 2020, p. 215)…More recent innovations by post-secondary institutions to implement the “Calls to Action” include a complement of massive open online courses (MOOCs), which are free courses offered by UBC, University of Toronto, and University of Alberta (Ibid.)


• DOES/WILL “INDIAN CONTROL OF INDIAN EDUCATION” WORK FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN CANADA?

•1. Students’ responses.

•2. Application of relevant sociological paradigms.

•3. Official Indigenous responses.

11/02/2020 50

APPLY

1. Review the remaining slides.

2. Answer these two questions: a) Why do you agree/disagree that the strategies the

sociological and Indigenous paradigms propose would make or are making “Indigenous control of Indigenous education” in contemporary Canada a successful facilitator of Indigenous peoples’ accessibility to wealth, power, privilege, and prestige?

b) What alternative solution strategies do you think will work better and why?

3. Write your answers to these questions and submit them to the prof in class on Thursday for 1 bonus marks.

11/02/2020 51

11/02/2020 52

•2. Application of relevant sociological paradigms:

•HOPELESS?

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• It won’t work: Assimilation is unstoppable!

• Will fail because it cannot withstand the powerful forces of “assimilation”.

• The challenges of this kind of education will eventually choke it to extinction:• Inadequate funding and Shortage of very well trained teachers.• Parity issues; local cultures vs. training for broader labor-market

integration.• Disunity: Exclusion of non-status Indians and urban Natives.

• Educational integration in the mainstream is what will work for Indigenous people.• Hence the new trend of Indigenous communities establishing

educational partnerships with Provincial School Boards

11/02/2020 53

SOCIAL CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• It won’t Work: Reinforces the Split Labor Market

•Because in a post-industrial capitalist economy non-mainstream knowledge and skills attract low wages at best; at worst unemployment—reinforces the split labor market inequality, reserved army of labor, and lower/underclass status of Indigenous peoples.

•Education in a non-capitalist system is what will work for Indigenous and lower class Canadians.

11/02/2020 54

INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

•It Depends: An end in itself or a means to an end?

• It will work against those who define Indigenous controlled education as an end in itself.

•It will work for Indigenous people who define this kind of education as a transition to education in mainstream integrated schools.

11/02/2020 55

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• It won’t work for Indigenous Women: Androcentrism

•Because of the dominance of western patriarchy in Indigenous communities, Indigenous controlled education will work against Indigenous women. The curriculum and pedagogy are androcentric.

• It is the reinvention of pre-contact Indigenous education with curriculum and pedagogy that were virtually egalitarian which will work for Indigenous women.

11/02/2020 56

POSTSTRUCTURALIST PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• It won’t Work: Structural problem culturalized

• It won’t work because it culturalizes a structural problem instead of eliminating the hegemonic educational structure. • Educational marginalization of Indigenous people is a reflection of

centered power, that is, the structural intersection of class, gender, and racial inequality in Canadian nation-state building. Indigenous controlled education focuses on culture which is a peripheral issue relative to state constructed structural unequal class, gender, and race relations.

• Education will work for Indigenous people only in a society without racial, class, gender and other forms of structural or power inequalities.

57

POSTCOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

•It won’t work: Western imperialism

•It won’t work because it still operates within the western imperialist cultural, ideological and discourse constraints.

•Will work when Indigenous people achieve substantive self-government.

11/02/2020 58

11/02/2020 59

•HOPE

INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• It is working! Statistics show:

• This approach to education works for Indigenous students despite its challenges:

• Evidence of Success:

• “More native students are remaining in school longer and achieving higher levels of education” (Wotherspoon and Satzewich 2000: 130).

• “…while only 46 per cent of Aboriginals completed high school [in BC] last year [2003], that’s still 13 percentage higher than in 1996-97” (Vancouver Sun Feb 7, 2004).

• Despite low rates of high school completion by Aboriginal students, STP previously reported that the proportion of 2001/02 Aboriginal high school graduates who enrolled in B.C. public post-secondary education within five years of B.C. high school graduation (69%) is nearly equal to the rate for non-Aboriginal graduates (72%) (http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/student_transitions/documents/STP)

• The university dropout rates are the same for both groups (3%), the dropout rate from urban colleges is twice as high for Aboriginal students (18%) as it is for non-Aboriginal students (9%), and Aboriginal students in small colleges do not drop out to the extent that non-Aboriginal students do (16% versus 19%) (ibid.).

http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/student_transitions/documents/STP

POSTMODERNIST PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

•It will work: Multiculturalism Policy

•It will work for Indigenous people because it fits into the multiculturalism policy and programs in Canada that reflects egalitarian cultural pluralism.

11/02/2020 61

HUMAN FACTOR PERSPECTIVE ON “Indian Control of Indian Education”

• It Will Work if the Focus is on Human Factor Competency Development.

• “When we are no longer able to change a [structural] situation, we are challenged to change ourselves” (Victor Frankl).

• When we change ourselves we increase our leverage/capacity to change the socio-structural and cultural conditions that constrain our freedom and access to other valued resources (Senyo Adjibolisoo and Francis Adu-Febiri)

11/02/2020 62

THE HUMAN FACTOR

• “Thinking Skills” (Adu-Febiri 2002 and 2014) and “The Humanitarian Qualities of People” (Dr. Benjamin Carson, February 8, 2013)

• HFC constitutes peoples’ thinking skills and humanitarian abilities that inspire and facilitate their acquisition and application of appropriate resources to connect with our common humanity and the environment emotionally, morally and spiritually to make a sustainable difference in society (Adu-Febiri 2014).

11/02/2020 63


• In the short term what will work is if Indigenous students attending mainstream integrated schools use the indigenous resources of friendship centers, healing circles, tutorial services, language emersion, sun dances, potlatches and other rituals/ceremonies to develop cultural capital, emotional capital, spiritual capital, moral capital, and aesthetic capital to support the human capital they acquire from mainstream education.

• In other words, “Indian control of Indian Education” will work for Indigenous communities if it develops the thinking skills/capacities—synthetic thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking and design thinking as well as the humanitarian qualities of Indigenous students.

11/02/2020 64


• In the long run what will work for Indigenous peoples is a decolonized social institutions, organizations and communities that support equitable and wholistic education in Canada. That is, an education system that focuses not only on the human capital and cultural capital of Indigenous peoples, but also on the development of their physical, mental, moral, emotional, spiritual and aesthetic capacities.

• In other words, education that uses equitable curricula and pedagogies to produce people with high human factor competency index (Adu-Febiri, 2014). That is, “smart people who care about other people” (Dr. Benjamin Carson, February 2013)

11/02/2020 65

•CHANGE:•Be a Changemaker; be a Gamechanger

• Watch the two videos and use what you learned to propose a design for a 21st century education in Canada that would work for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples

EDUCATION that matters in the

21st century and beyond

•http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says

_schools_kill_creativity

•http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_

bring_on_the_revolution

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution

CONCLUSIONS

• “When we are no longer able to change a [structural] situation, we are challenged to change ourselves” (Victor Frankl)

•Because of the slow pace of structural changes in Canada’s political economy and education, Indigenous peoples in Canada are challenged to change themselves to survive and thrive in an entrenched settler colony. Human Factor Competency (HFC) education would facilitate this change process.

11/02/2020 68

CONCLUSIONS

• Education is supposed to facilitate the acquisition and application of human factor competency among students. However, Indigenous education since the introduction of colonial education has rather produced human factor decay/deficiency.

• Colonial education ensured that students could not only equally participate socially or economically in the dominant society, but also prevented them from returning to their traditional ways of life (Hare and Barman 2000: 333).

• For education to work for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, it should re-focus on the development of human factor competency (HFC): the capacity to acquire and apply appropriate knowledge, skills, abilities and principles to effectively facilitate productivity, profitability, social justice, equity, cultural development, and environmental preservation (Adu-Febiri 2003).• `That is, smart people who care deeply about the well-being of other people and our

common humanity.

11/02/2020 69

REFERENCES

• Adjibolosoo, S. 1995. The Human Factor in Developing Africa. Wesport, Connecticut: Praeger.

• Adu-Febiri, Francis. 2017. Reclaiming, Restoring, and Regenerating Indigenous Lifeworlds: Human Factor Competency Perspective. The Journal of Gleanings From Academic Outliers. 6(1), pp. 1-32.

• Adu-Febiri, Francis. 2014. Educated for a World that Does Not Exist: Issue in Africa’s Education. Review of Human Factor Studies, 20(1): 30-72.

• Adu-Febiri, Francis. 2003. Putting the Human Factor to Work in African Tourism: A Human Factor Competency Model. In Victor N. Muzvidziwa and Paul Gundani (eds.). Management and the Human Factor: Lessons for Africa. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications.

• Adu-Febiri, Francis. 2002. Thinking Skills in Education: Ideal and Real Academic Cultures. CTD, National University of Singapore.

• Barman, J., Y. Hebert, and D. McCaskill. 1986. “The Legacy of the Past: An Overview.” In Barman et al (eds.). Education in Canada. Volume I: The Legacy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press: 1-22.

13/02/2020 70

REFERENCES

• Burnaby, B. 1982. Language in Education Among Canadian Native Peoples: Toronto: OISE Press.

• Cannon, Martin J. and Sunseri, Lina. 2018. Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada. A Reader. Second Edition. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

• Hare, Jan and Jean Barman. 2000. Aboriginal Education: Is there a Way Ahead? In David Long and Olive P. Dickason (eds.). Visions of the Heart: Canadian Aboriginal Issues. Toronto: Harcourt.

• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. 1990. Basic Departmental data. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.

• Miller, J.R. 1996/1999. Skyscrapers Hides the Heavens: A History of White-Indian Relations in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

• Starblanket, Gina & Long, David with Olive Patricia Dickason. 2020. Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Fith Edition. Don Mills, Ontario. Oxford University Press.

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report, 2016.

• Wotherspoon, Terry and Vic Satzewich. 2000. First Nations: Race, Class, and Gender Relations. Regina: Canadian Press Research Center.

11/02/2020 71

the marginal indigenous educational status in canada

Documents