Angela: A pedagogical story of conversation

Multicultural Education, Spring 2003 by Piquemal, Nathalie A C, Kouritzin, Sandra G

This story is inspired by the recognition that formal schooling has failed, and continues to fail, Aboriginal students (Armstrong, et al., 1990; Royal Commission on Aboriginal People, 1996; Statistics Canada). Many theories explain this failure in terms of the cultural discontinuity and cultural resistance manifest in people's interaction patterns (uses of language, verbal and non-verbal) and their personal and collective belief systems (McAlpine et al., 1996).

In order to ensure that education is "culturally relevant" (Osborne, 1996) for Aboriginal students, it is important for educators to do more than add Aboriginal perspectives, voices, and stories to the curriculum. Indeed, merely to do so may be to appropriate Aboriginal knowledge and subject that knowledge to a Western framework. Rather, it is necessary also to understand ways in which dominant culture teachers' and students' perceptions of culturally-based interaction patterns are different from, and perhaps in dissonance with, those of Aboriginal community members. As teachers, we need to always remember that it is in face-to-face interactions that educational practices most matter (Urion, 1992).

For these reasons, in Autumn, 2000, the two lead authors of this article composed the following story for pedagogical purposes for the courses they taught in the social foundations of education, and early years multi-language development. Concerned with the lack of cultural sensitivity that some of the pre-service teachers in an early years' teacher education program in Western Canada were displaying, the authors used their combined observations as school experiences' supervisors and as coresearchers engaged in a pilot project, in several urban settings in three Western Canadian provinces to compose the story of Angela.

As Murray and Kouritzin (1997) have done, the two lead authors created a composite character who is not representative ofany one classroom many particular school. We invite other teacher educators to engage in discussions around Angela's story, either from the points of view we represent, or from their own points of view.

Angela, a Grade 4 student in Manitoba Public School #113, is not a particularly wellbehaved child. At recess, she sometimes gets into fights, even with her closest friends. During the parent-teacher interviews at school, Angela's mother didn't seem to care about Angela's poor behaviour; she simply stated that it was Angela's difficulty to work out. Angela is often late for school, and sometimes just disappears during class without taking a buddy-which is against the school safety rules. She appears insolent; for example, when her teacher suggested "Angela, would you like to open your book now?" Angela replied "No, thank you."

Although English is not her native tongue, Angela is perfectly able to speak the language. Because she often fails to follow printed instructions, the teacher feels that she does not apply herself in reading. Angela seldom volunteers to answer questions in class, but often needs individual attention from the teacher before beginning her desk work, and several times while completing individual tasks.

After Angela arrived in class late, yet again, and failed to quietly sit cross-legged on the floor to hear a story, her teacher whispered to a colleague in exasperation, "that child is never here, and when she arrives, she expects to be allowed to disobey."

After a hurried hallway consultation with several of her colleagues, Angela's teacher has concluded that Angela's sometimes-hyper behaviour is a result of eating candy at breakfast time. Wanting to help Angela, the teacher decided to make a home visit after school on a Wednesday afternoon, when she knew the parents would be home, because Angela's family didn't have a telephone. Fearing that she might walk in on a "drinking party," she arranged for a school administrator and a social worker to accompany her.

Angela's mother answered the door. Although surprised, she invited the visitors into the front room and listened to their questions about their family life, work habits, eating habits, and home behaviour. Her mother seemed to avoid the questions. Angela's father sat quietly at the kitchen table and did not participate in the group conference. Once in a while he spoke to his wife in language the visitors didn't understand, but he didn't attempt to join the conversation.

After an uncomfortably long silence, Angela's mother started speaking about a ceremony that had taken place several weeks before. "Two White people came that time," she said. "We all sat inside the lodge in a circle. Everybody was quiet as we went through the rituals, but the two White people constantly asked questions about what was happening."

When Angela arrived home, she appeared surprised and confused. Angela, a student of Ojibway ancestry, is failing school. School, an institution of European ancestry, is failing Angela.

In the beginning, it was the intention of the lead authors to analyze this story from a culturally sensitive perspective, and to share the resulting article with practicing teachers and pre-service teachers. Then, one of the lead authors (Piquemal) suggested that the story be discussed in our classes, and that the preservice teachers be invited to co-author the article. This article was therefore distributed to students in the first year of a two-- year after-degree program who were in Piquemal's social foundations course, and to students in the second year of the same program who had been in Kouritzin's social foundations course in year one, and who were also in her multi-language development course at the very end of their second year. This was done during the second year of a new, streamed, two-year after-degree program; therefore the students were all engaged in integrated, collaborative, inquiry-driven programs with 24 weeks of field experiences.