Indigenous Inquiry & Research

Who am I?

Indigenous Knowledge & Pedagogy

Purpose

• Literature review Prepared for the National Working Group on Education and the Minister of Indian Affairs

Purpose

• To describe and evaluate significant work done on Indigenous knowledge and Pedagogy in First Nations Education so policy makers can understand the context of First Nations reforms
• Explains the ethics of and the criteria for understanding and researching Indigenous knowledge and for integrating it into the classroom

Literature Review Design

• Part I: Indigenous Knowledge: The Cognitive Other Part II: Indigenous Knowledge & Knowing Part III: Theory of Knowledge & Learning Processes

Puzzling Oxymoron

• "Literature Review" is a Eurocentric form of representing knowlege
• Indigenous knowledge is typically embedded in the cumulative experiences and teachings of Indigenous peoples

Untitled Slide

• The task is to sensitize Canadian educators to colonial and neo-colonial practices that continue to marginalize & racialize Aboriginal students and to the unique rights and relationships Aboriginal people have in their homeland

My Purpose

“Today the Aboriginal people and the other Canadians stand on opposite shores of a wide river of mistrust and understanding. Each continues to search through the mist for a clear reflection in the waters along the opposite shore…” (22)
Rod Robinson, Nishga First Nations

My Purpose

• Explore the way in which non-Indigenous educators can integrate Indigenous knowledge (beyond culture) into their approach to teaching and learnig

Knowledge & Pedagogy

Knowledge

Knowledge

• Indigenous ways of knowing have always existed-> the heritage of indigenous people is a complete knowledge system with its own concepts of epistemology and its own scientific and logical validity (8) Epistemology: found in theories, philosophies, histories, ceremonies and stories as ways of knowing Knowledge is a living process to be absorbed and understood

Knowledge

• Epistemology: found in theories, philosophies, histories, ceremonies and stories as ways of knowing Knowledge is a living process to be absorbed and understood

Knowledge

• Knowledge has a sacred purpose (it is not secular- it is a process that is derived from Creation… and stories of creation and the psychological connectedness to their cosmology Indigenous people's Ways of knowing and learning are diverse Knowledge is a resourceful capacity of being that creates the context and texture of life (it is not what some possess and others do not) 15

Knowledge

• Defies categorization: knowledge is an adaptable, dynamic system based on skills, abilities, and problem-solving techniques that change over time depending on environmental conditions (11) Indigenous knowledge is tied to land- particular landscapes, landforms and biomes where ceremonies are held, stories recited, medicines gathers and transfers of knowledge authenticated (13)

Challenge: Knowledge

• Eurocentric scholars have taken three main approaches to Indigenous knowledge: Reduce to taxonomic categories Reduce to quantifiable, observable, empirical elements Assume Indigenous knowledge has no validity except in a spiritual realm (10)

Challenge: Knowledge

• Canadian law recognizes Indigenous knowledge as art rather than science (13)

Pedagogy

Pedagogy

• Canadian law recognizes Indigenous knowledge as art rather than science (13)
• Pedagogy: found in talking or sharing circles and dialogues, participant observations, experiential learning, modeling, meditation, prayer, ceremonies or stories telling as ways of knowing and learning

Untitled Slide

Pedagogy

• Experiential knowledge: Indigenous pedagogy values a person’s ability to learn independently by observing, listening and participating with minimum intervention or instruction 15 (pattern of seeing and doing, without asking questions) Every child is unique in his or her learning capacities, earning styles and knowledge bases

Pedagogy

• Language is by far the most significant predictor in the survival of Indigenous knowledge (17) Where Aboriginal languages, heritages, and communities are respected, supported and connected to elders and education, educational successes among Aboriginal students can be found

Pedagogy

• Learning by observing & doing Engaging in authentic experiences Receiving individualized instruction Learning through enjoyment & engagement (18)

Pedagogy: Challenge

• “As teachers begin to confront new pedagogical schemes of learning, they will need to decolonize education, a process that includes raising the collective voice of Indigenous peoples, exposing the injustices in our colonial history, deconstructing the past by critically examining the social, political, economic and emotional reasons for silencing Aboriginal voices in Canadian history, legitimizing the voices and experiences of Aboriginal people in the curriculum, recognizing it as a dynamic context of knowledge and knowing, and communicating the emotional journey such explorations will generate.” (20)

Pedagogy: Challenge

• There is a focus on reducing the distance between Eurocentric thinking and Aboriginal ways of knowing… we need to also engage in decolonizing minds and hearts (22)

Building Connections

Moving toward Action

• We need to examine the culture of schools to see what counts as knowledge and truth and what does not (16)… we need to study what, or whom, the curriculum and pedagogy represses, excludes, or disqualifies Cash’s slides about whose knowledge? How do we know...

knowledge

• cash's slide

Moving toward Action

• Teachers need to experiment with teaching opportunities to connect with multiple ways of knowing students have and multiple intelligences (15) Educators must be made aware of the existing interpretative monopoly of Eurocentric education and learn how education in Canada has been laced with racism (10)

Moving toward Action

• Respect Indigenous languages (18) Educational reforms need to redefine literacy to affirm Aboriginal languages and consciousness as essential to Aboriginal learning and identity (18)

Moving toward Action

• Central purpose of integrating Indigenous knowledge into Canadian schools is to balance the education system and make it a transforming and capacity building place for First Nations students. Learning about Indigenous knowledge enables communities and students to feel authentic, connected, and prepared. (29) The educational structures will only change if we are willing to first do the inner work and engage directly with Indigenous knowledge and consciousness (29)

Moving toward Action

• As educators, we must acknowledge that Canadian schools teach a silent curriculum of Eurocentric knowledge by the ways teachers behave and the manner in which they teach (30) Educators must consciously nurture Indigenous knowledge, dignity, integrity by making changes in school philosophy, pedagogy and practice. 30

Personal Consideration

Untitled Slide

Provocations

• In forcing assimilation and acculturation to Eurocentric knowledge, modern governments and education systems have displaced Indigenous knowledge…Indigenous knowledge is now seen as an educational remedy that will empower Aboriginal students if applications of their Indigenous knowledge, heritage, and languages are integregrated into the Canadian educational system (9)

Provocations

• How do educators move beyond the treatment of Indigenous knowledge as multicultural and cross-cultural education so that they do not continue to marginalize and racialize Aboriginal students and the unique relationship Aboriginal people have in their homeland? (9)

quote

• “The long term ecological history of the land is a cloth woven from the threads of stories and ceremonies provided by many different members of the community” (19)

Provocations

• How can we respectively blend Indigenous epistemology and pedagogy with Euro-Canadian epistemology and pedagogy to create an innovative Canadian education system? What is already being done? Revised Curriculum (Integration of First People’s Principles of Learning; Mandate for First Nations’ cultural content)

Provocations

• How do we create spaces in education for making meaning and achieving respect for Indigenous knowledge? (29)

Task of Indigenous Academics

• Affirm and activate the holistic paradigm of Indigenous knowledge to reveal the wealth and richness of Indigenous languages, worldview, teachings and experiences Using analyses and methodologies to decolonize themselves, their communites and their institutions. Q: What then, is the role of non-Indigenous academics?

Conclusion

Conclusion

“The autumn seed lingers on among Indigenous peoples, and it will emerge in the spring to nourish nations, languages, heritages and communities. Indigenous knowledge is that autumn seed. Within the mind and spirit of every child, it lies inherent and latent. The autumn seed requires only a nourishing education system and direct experience with the good road to unfold its ancient wisdom and teachings.” (29)