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Fostering Remembrance and Reconciliation Through an Arts-Based Response
No full textThis paper presents the results of study about an urban high school in Ontario that performed a stage play that portrayed the legacy of the Indian residential schools in Canada. We wanted to know the impact this arts-based response had on teachers and students. From the data that we obtained from focus groups, we identify four learning outcomes of the legacy project: reflection on knowledge and identity; fact-finding through the processes of respecting memory; using the arts to remember; and broadening perspectives: remembrance (memory), reconciliation, and memorialization. Our research can assist educators and researchers to implement an arts-based model that honours and respects residential school survivors and their families
Culturally Relevant Physical Education: Educative Conversations with Mi’kmaw Elders and Community Leaders
No full textThis paper presents results from a recently completed inquiry that investigated culturally relevant physical education for Aboriginal students. Employing a decolonizing research methodology (storywork), we engaged seven Mi’kmaw Elders and three Mi’kmaw community physical activity/education leaders in conversations about culturally relevant physical education. Attending to Halas, McCrae, and Carpenter’s (2012) framework for culturally relevant physical education, we share our findings related to Mi’kmaw students and school communities. The results ought to be of notable interest to those who share an interest in culturally relevant pedagogy, physical education, and/or Aboriginal education.
Power, Identity, and the Construction of Knowledge in Education
No full textThis paper explores the social construction of knowledge, identity formation, and the ways in which the education system supports dominant societal ideology. I examine how dominant historical and societal ideologies are deeply cultivated and facilitated through education systems, including forcefully through the residential school system and, in many cases, subtly through post-secondary education. Further, I identify the method in which personal biases, predisposed by dominant social influence, are subconsciously reflected in the classroom through micro-aggressive behaviour. Weber’s (2010) framework of themes provides a comprehensive perspective from which to understand the nature in which identity is influenced by dominant societal ideology. Finally, I analyze the social construction of knowledge, development of identity, and support of dominant ideology through Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and Foucault’s theory of discourse. The discussion then shifts to describe how conscientization and critical reflection can provide a step forward towards diminishing dominant societal ideology within the educational environment and create a path to embracing Freire’s concept of liberating education.Keywords: knowledge; identity; ideology; educatio
“I’m Still Angry!” A Korean Student’s Self-Negotiation in her Canadian Classroom
No full textGrounded in poststructuralist understandings of language and identity and Davies and Harré’s (1990) positioning theory, this paper explores one South Korean student’s educational experiences in her English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom, specifically related to subject positions and identity construction pertaining to language. Using a researcher diary, semi-structured interviews, and dialogue journals with one Korean university student, this paper reports findings from a qualitative study. The findings suggest a critical awareness of the effects of positioning on language learning experiences. The results indicate that although a student may exercise agency to take up or resist subject positions, this positioning is part of a greater discourse, generally outside the control of the student that constructs identity through particular social experiences. The results of this study will be of interest to researchers in the areas of language identity, second language learning, and higher education in the 21st century. Keywords: power; positioning; subject positions; identity; English language; discourse; international student
Editorial
No full textEditorial for this special issue for Faculty of Education, University of Regina graduate students on the theme of power and identity
Teacher Attrition in a Northern Ontario Remote First Nation: A Narrative Re-Storying
No full textIncreasing teacher retention in First Nations communities has been identified in the literature as requiring attention. When attrition rates are high and teacher efficacy, quality of student experience, and overall academic achievement is compromised, efforts to mobilize plans for stability are needed. Through a narrative re-storying approach this paper unpacks the challenges and opportunities related to teacher attrition in one remote First Nation community in Northern Ontario. Although teacher attrition is inevitable, it is necessary to re-envision attrition factors as a plan for retention. Community integrated induction and mentorship programming, and continuous and multi-year contracts are two possible approaches to boost retention. Teacher education is also explored as a long-term approach to address teacher attrition from a system perspective. In all approaches, collaborative effort, engagement, and funding are needed from the federal government, local education authorities, and faculties of education to increase teacher retention in remote First Nation communities
Digital Technology Innovations in Education in Remote First Nations
No full textUsing a critical settler colonialism lens, we explore how digital technologies are being used for new education opportunities and First Nation control of these processes in remote First Nations. Decolonization is about traditional lands and creating the conditions necessary so Indigenous people can live sustainably in their territories (Simpson, 2014; Tuck & Yang, 2012). Remote First Nations across Canada face considerable challenges related to accessing quality adult education programs in their communities. Our study, conducted in partnership with the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute, explores how community members living in remote First Nations in Northwestern Ontario are using digital technologies for informal and formal learning experiences. We conducted an online survey in early 2014, including open-ended questions to ensure the community members’ voices were heard. The critical analysis relates the findings to the ongoing project of decolonization, and in particular, how new educational opportunities supported by digital technology enable community members to remain in their communities if they choose to, close to their traditional land
The Community Strength Model: A Proposal to Invest in Existing Aboriginal Intellectual Capital
No full textIndigenous communities have strengths and wisdom beyond Westernized culture’s recognition and understanding. However, there continues to be significant difference in literacy and life skills between Indigenous and non-Indigenous adults. In this article, I reflect on a project that investigated how technology could best support adult literacy learners in an Australian Indigenous community. The project provided insights into how local people perceive the concept of literacy and the significant role it plays in critical thinking and quality decision making. The aim of my research was to create a set of principles to support adult literacy learners, which could be interpreted and applied on a global level. From this project, a new theoretical framework—the Community Strength Model—emerged. The cyclical model serves as a tool to assist researchers with conceptualizing the collective process of learning within an Indigenous culture, where being true to Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous ways of learning is imperative to successful outcomes. It also provides a structure to facilitate respectful research, which can be adapted for Indigenous communities globally
Becoming Unsettled Again and Again: Thinking With/in and Against Autobiographical Writing
No full textThis theoretical paper takes up pieces of the process of thinking about, and proposing, my PhD research in the context of (my own) treaty personhood identities. Demonstrating tension through autobiographical writing, it aims to disrupt humanist notions of (my) self as stable, rational, and understandable. With some attention to certain post-structural philosophies, especially by engaging in Deleuzian lines of flight, it seeks to continually unsettle the assumption that (my) self can be known fully; that (my) subjectivity can easily be named. Instead, it views identities as plural and shifting, and subjectivity as a process of identity formation that is socially constructed. As well, the process of writing these self-stories further constitutes (my) self, in a relational process with other texts, towards becoming-otherwise again and again