Decolonizing Mi'kmaw education through cultural practical knowledge

McGill Journal of Education, Fall 2002 by Jeff Orr, John Jerome Paul, Sharon Paul

ABSTRACT. This article shares the stories of three Mi'kmaw teachers who are bringing their Aboriginal cultural practical knowledge into the school landscape through pedagogy and relationality, as they work towards the decolonization of their education system. Our notion of cultural practical knowledge relates to Connelly & Clandinin's personal practical knowledge. It is connected to the Mi'kmaw stories these teachers and their students construct and re-construct together as they work towards understanding and supporting the needs of students through applying teachers' own cultural practical knowledge.

DECOLONISATION DE L'EDUCATION MI'KMAQ PAR LA CONNAISSANCE PRATIQUE CULTURELLE

RESUME. Cet article relate l'histoire de trois professeurs mi'kmaw qui mettent a contribution leurs connaissances pratiques culturelles autochtones dans le paysage scolaire par la pedagogie et la relationalite, tandis qu'ils s'evertuent a decoloniser leur systeme d'education. Notre notion de la connaissance pratique culturelle se rapporte a la connaissance pratique personnelle de Connelly et Clandinin. Elle est line aux recits mi'kmaw que ces enseignants et leurs eleves construisent et reconstruisent ensemble afin de comprendre et de repondre aux besoins des eleves grace a l'application des connaissances pratiques culturelles des enseignants.

When we do not change the basis of the education of Native people, the process started by residential school will still continue. (J. Hookimaw-Witt, 1998, p. 160)

Euro-Canadians have been making decisions about the education of Aboriginal peoples for some considerable time. With these decisions has come an education system that is based on knowledge and values which are usually more European than Aboriginal (Ryan, 1996; Battiste, 1999). This condition is common in a range of educational situations involving racial and ethnic minorities. According to John Ogbu, European dominance of schooling means that, "explanation of the school adjustment and academic performance problems of the minorities are based on a white middle-class cultural model, not the cultural model of the minorities which influence the latter's school orientations and behaviors" (1989, p. 201). But what if the teachers of minority children were not of European descent? What if the worldview of those teaching in an Aboriginal school system was based more on Aboriginal than European ways? What would such a school environment and teacher identity look like?

The difficult journey towards decolonization of Aboriginal education

We want education to provide the setting in which our children can develop the fundamental attitudes and values which have an honored place in Indian tradition and culture. We want the behavior of our children to be shaped by those values which are most esteemed in our culture. (National Indian Brotherhood, 1972, p. 2)

Since the 1969 federal White Paper, which advocated that the provinces take control of Aboriginal affairs, Aboriginal organizations have increasingly mobilized in collective opposition to the centralizing hegemony of Canadian governments, and have strived to regain control of the education of their children. A central policy pillar in this movement was the National Indian Brotherhood's (NIB) Indian Control of Indian Education, (1972) which advocated participation by Aboriginal peoples in the movement towards local control and jurisdiction over education. As Abele, Dittburner, and Graham (2000) tell us, however, the problem of how to define control has been muddled and elusive. While the NIB document spells out a range of areas through which Aboriginal parents and communities can be more fully involved in the education of their children, the education of Aboriginal children still tends to be characterized more by the ways of the dominant white society. The majority of teachers has little to no experience with, and understanding of, the cultural practices of the students they teach; the majority of teachers in Aboriginal schools are white and monocultural. Multicultural teacher educators have shown the limitations which are placed upon the education of minorities by these teachers if they do not overcome the low expectations, limited understanding of family contexts, and cultural ignorance they often have for minority students (Finney & Orr, 1995; FlorioRuane, 2001; Fuller, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 2001; 1995; Sleeter, 1992; 1993).

So despite the fact that Aboriginal peoples may have governance over their own schools, taking control of their schools has not been easy. In many if not most North American schools where Aboriginal students attend, the hidden agenda is still inherently based on "Anglo" or "Franco" language and culture, and serves to assimilate and homogenize students in non-Aboriginal values and knowledge (Tippeconnic III, 2000; Battiste, 1999). While Aboriginal control of education is arguably the most important dimension of schooling for First Nations' peoples, we suggest that the focus on governance - without ensuring that teachers are supportive and respectful of Aboriginal students - will not achieve the desired ends set out by the NIB.