University of Regina Open Journals
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Filling in the Gaps: Lessons Learned From Preservice Teachers’ Partnerships With First Nations Students
No full textIn this paper, I report on a school-university collaborative research project that examined ways to merge the out-of-school literacy resources with school literacy practices for First Nations students in a small city in Western Canada. The project involved three interconnected groups of research participants: (a) a teacher researcher study group; (b) students from the participating teachers’ classes; (c) preservice teachers who were partnered with the students in literacy partnerships. Grounded in a “funds of knowledge” perspective, and utilizing ethnographic research methods, this qualitative study explored how students’ linguistic and cultural resources from home and community networks were utilized to reshape school literacy practices through their involvement in the Heritage Fair Program. This paper focuses on select lessons the preservice teachers learned through their partnerships with the First Nations students. Study findings suggest that the collaboration increased preservice teachers’ understanding of how Aboriginal culture could contribute to more successful teaching practices
An Investigation of the Role of Legends and Storytelling in Early Childhood Practices in a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Early Childhood Facility
No full textThrough the course of Indigenous history, cultural and spiritual knowledge remains, in many places as faint as the smoke rising from the embers of last night’s fire; in other places, with enough flame to ignite another log. In spite of the genocidal acts portrayed through colonialism’s experimentation through religious doctrine, residential school, legislation, treaties broken and unbroken, reservations, and spiritual disregard, the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island remain living, breathing and believing that their history is alive through the oral stories of their beginnings and endings. Indigenous education can only be defined through the culture of the people themselves. Historical Indigenous education was transferred orally for thousands of years with very little disruption or inconsistencies; therefore distinct meanings and connections were continuously addressed through one’s lifetime through the wisdom of elder’s legends and stories. The investigation of the role of legends and storytelling in an early childhood setting in Kahnawa:ke, Quebec is portrayed through a combination of research literature, classroom observations and personal interviews documented as portraiture. The main finding was that cultural legends and stories familiar to historical, ceremonial and spiritual practices are vital to the cultural foundation of the Haudenosaunee (peoples of the longhouse or the Iroquois) and Kahnawake’hró:non (people of Kahnawa:ke)
Inquiring into the Assessment Education of Preservice Teachers: A Collaborative Self-Study of Teacher Educators
No full textAs professors teaching courses in classroom assessment in a Bachelor of Education program, we engage in collaborative self-study as a means to understand the complexity of our preservice teachers’ learning. Here we describe two of the strategies we use in our teaching: purposefully introducing competing philosophies early in our courses, and guiding our preservice teachers’ to inquire deeply into their assessment histories. We examine our preservice teachers’ differing responses, which range from misunderstanding or resisting to thinking deeply about the course content. We conclude by identifying three protective factors that support us as we work with preservice teachers in the area of assessment education.Keywords: assessment education; preservice teacher education; self-stud
The Gap Between Text and Context: An Analysis of Ontario’s Indigenous Education Policy
No full textThis paper analyzes the 2007 Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework, alongside its 2014 Implementation Plan. Content analysis is used to determine what specific actions are prioritized in each document, first through a quantitative analysis of the various strategies put forth, then a qualitative analysis of what larger purpose these strategies might indicate. The findings suggest a significant shift in the 2014 document away from substantive action and toward data management, specifically in regard to encouraging Indigenous student self-identification. Coming just two years before the 2016 target date for the original plan laid out in the Framework, it seems unlikely that this belated emphasis on self-identification is for the originally stated purpose of establishing baseline data to implement and evaluate specific programs, but could instead be used as a type of symbolic policy, to obscure the absence of substantive change. Conversely, it is suggested that the Ministry of Education should establish a new baseline and strategy, beginning in 2016, to implement specific, targeted programming for Indigenous students.Keywords: Indigenous education; educational policy; content analysis; document analysis; Ontari
Possibilities for Students At-Risk: Schools as Sites for Personal Transformation
No full textThis qualitative study furthers educational theory and research related to resilience and personal transformation. It develops connections between existing educational resilience research and change theories, and it utilizes these bodies of scholarship to propose a theory of personal transformation. Based on interviews with students who were successful in university after either not graduating from high school or graduating from non-academic high school programs, a metaphor of a Mobius strip is developed to hypothesize a theory of transformation as a means of understanding the students’ journeys.Keywords: education; equity in education; resilienc
Learning to Be: Emerging Discourse in Awakening Transformation in Education
No full textThis paper explores the disconnection between knowledge of social and environmental injustices and actions to right them. Through our discussion, we consider possible reasons for this disconnection, whether a lack of knowledge, personal accountability and responsibility, or a fear of being swallowed up in the depths of the suffering in the world. We then critically reflect on our role and the role of education to broach this gap. We adopt O’Sullivan’s (2002) transformative learning theory as a guide and suggest that disruptive dialogues, like the one that has guided this paper, can challenge habits of mind, shift perspectives, and lead to action for a better, more equitable world. Ultimately, we conclude that such conversations are organic and ever changing and are integral to education.Keywords: Social justice; critical discourse; transformation
Thinking Together: A Duoethnographic Inquiry Into the Implementation of a Field Experience Curriculum
No full textThis paper examines the experiences of two colleagues working in close collaboration over several years to create, implement, and assess an innovative and integrative cohort-based, preservice-teacher, field-experience curriculum in a new Bachelor of Education program. Engaging a duoethnographic narrative approach, this paper both inquires into the experiences of the authors and traces the complex interrelational work and personal work that was required to do "good" work together on behalf of preservice students and partners in the "field."Keywords: field experiences; duoethnography; teacher education; curriculumchang
Using Art-Based Ways of Knowing to Explore Leadership and Identity With Native American Deaf Women
No full textDuring a phenomenological narrative study regarding the perspectives of leadership among women who are both Native and Deaf, a portion of the data collection focused on visual art as a means of interpreting what leadership meant to the participants. Participants produced visual imagery to impart their ways of knowing as women who negotiated their paths between two distinct cultures. Themes of identification with indigenous art forms, spirituality, and evolving self-identities were shared, with the participants leading the development of their artistic renderings. The participant-created visual arts highlight the significance of non-verbal modes of inquiry within Indigenous and Deaf populations.Keywords: Indigenous; Native American; Deaf; Women; Art Inquiry; Identit