Open Journals at Memorial University
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It Takes a Community to Educate a Child: A Makkovik Case Study
Get PDFThis study was part of a larger research project examining education success across the Inuit regions of Canada. This case study highlights the insights of students, educators, and parents in considering the factors contributing to the high rate of school graduation and continuation to post-secondary education and training in the community of Makkovik, Labrador. There is additional funding for academic support and cultural programming in the K–12 school, and financial and non-financial support for post-secondary students, as well as those participating in labour market training and business development. Education success in Makkovik can be characterized by a “culture of education” where school attendance is expected, learning supports are provided, and academic success is celebrated
The Process of Universio and Katobolé in the Creation of the World
No full textThe human condition is a highly complex and at the same time impenetrably obscure one, steeped in ignorance and surrounded by mystery. We are involuntarily born into this world and are forced onto a path of having to struggle and toil, searching for meaning and longing for respite from our labours. Perplexity is an indelible mark of life which shrouds all that we do and think. Suffering is a daily affliction that wears us down and weighs heavily on our spirit. The Greek tragedians expressed a powerful and universal truth when they described life as a vale of tears and as inextricably aligned with suffering (SW I: 336-339).1 Schelling reminds us that “ancient art is in no way so simply cheerful and frivolous, as some badly informed romantics have portrayed it in modern times. The pain that lies in it is only a deeper one than those tears, which a trivial sentimentality has the power to evoke” (SW X: 268).2 History is to be understood as a grand tragedy and the world passes through endless episodes of birth and death, seemingly without any definite purpose (SW I: 485-486).3 The fate that the human being must undergo is a daunting one, squeezed in the grip of le malheur de l’existence, as Jean d’Alembert put it, which very often drives one to the brink of despair (SW X: 267; SW XII: 33).4 It is this painful lot that forces the human being to ask the quintessential philosophical questions: why is there something rather than nothing? (SW XIII: 7)5 Why is there reason instead of unreason? (SW X: 252)6 Why was the human being born into such a stark and meaningless existence? The aimless wandering through life bespeaks a seemingly inextinguishable hopelessness and an ineradicable sadness (SW VII: 399).7 If there is any one fundamental condition that is shared by all of humanity Schelling was convinced that it had to be this universal perception of the unholiness of all being.8 Schelling came to see that the human being finds himself originally with the burden of having to accept a tainted and imperfect life
Indigenization in Universities and Its Role in Continuing Settler-Colonialism
No full textFollowing the release of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC): Calls to Action report, many Canadian universities raced to Indigenize their institutions. While the TRC report implicates post-secondary institutions in the work of educating society about the legacy of Indian Residential Schools, many universities have expanded this call to include various efforts aimed at increasing Indigenous presence across their respective campuses. Yet, the consequences of said work do not always match their stated goals. In this essay, the authors discuss a myriad of ways that settler colonialism is carried out within universities, often under the auspice of advancing Indigeneity. They first provide a short history of some of the milestones and key challenges related to advancing Indigeneity in the academy from 1960 to 2015. They then turn their attention to more recent advances and struggles, providing examples of how the avoidance of and/or failure of universities to reflect local Indigenous cultural values and protocols is often justified through the espousal of Indigeneity to neoliberal organizational politics and practices. This section offers critical reflection on advancements in Indigenous education vis a vis a reconciliatory framework that emphasizes Indigenization as a commitment to add Indigenous bodies and their knowledges within existing architectures that simultaneously contribute to their erasure. Through this process the authors expose the kinds of harms experienced by Indigenous peoples and communities. Moving forward, the authors call for a commitment to decolonize outlining key considerations for universities, which emphasize processes of destabilization and redress
Palestinian Zombie: Settler-Colonial Erasure and Paradigms of the Living Dead
No full textThe modern zombie myth is as fascinating as it is often anxiety-inducing to the viewer of horror movies. On the other hand, the zombie is a potent history of racialized physical pain, psychological trauma, alienation, exploitation, dispossession, and displacement in capitalist modernity. In this essay the different figurations of the zombie are followed in a cultural analysis and critique from the plantations of Haiti, to Auschwitz and eventually to the Middle East. Next to that, this essay brings to light the long history of Palestinian dispossession and erasure through the figuration of the zombie when seen through an optics of settler colonialism
Seeking the Wealth of Self
Get PDFMichael George teaches Religion and Culture, and Ethics at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is interested in helping to promote the project of Integrative Bioethics, which he considers to be a possible prototype of collaborative and in-depth interdisciplinary work. As the project is centered in Zagreb, he spends some time in Croatia and South-eastern Europe. He enjoys time with his children and grandchildren
Letter from McShane to Henman
No full textA letter from Philip McShane to Robert Henman handwritten during the last week of June 2020
Decolonizing Social Work Education Through Indigenous Family-Based Research
No full textFamily-based research is an Indigenous methodology that engages the self, family, and relationships as important sites of resistance and resurgence. Grounded in an Indigenous worldview, family-based research invokes a broad concept of family that recognizes both human and non-human relations. Family-based research is explicitly introspective and emphasizes the power of personal, relational, and small-scale change in supporting the broader movement of Indigenous resistance, resurgence, and transformation. Mainstream social work education does not know how to deal with, assess, or value family-based research. Western academia claims to have “made space” for Indigenous research, yet there remain limits to this acceptance. Social work education continues to privilege Western methodologies. In doing so, social work disciplines Indigenous students into pursuing research that supports wWestern theories of knowledge production and Western strategies of change. If social work is truly committed to transforming Canada’s colonial reality, then changes to social work curriculum, assessment, and training standards are needed to support diverse understandings and strategies of Indigenous resistance and resurgence, including Indigenous methodologies such as family-based research. To improve student experience, social work education needs to unpack its ongoing role in colonizing Indigenous students through academic gatekeeping