EDU 211

EDU 211September 26/October 1 Lecture: Contemporary Issues in Aboriginal EducationDr. Evelyn Steinhauer

Contemporary Issues in Aboriginal Education

It is impossible to make sense of the issues that trouble the relationship today without a clear understanding of the past. We simply cannot understand the depth of these issues or make sense of the current debate without a solid grasp of the shared history of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people on this continent. (RCAP. 1996, Ch. 3)

Lecture OverviewHealth & Social Wellness; Income Levels & PovertyAcademic AchievementOff-reserve school experiences

Health and Social Wellness

The social, economic and cultural plights in Aboriginal communities result from the residential school system, loss of lands, access to resources, and suppression of Aboriginal cultures and languages, all of which took a toll on health and well-being.

The Canadian Council on Learning (2007)Redefining How Success is Measured in First Nations, Inuit and Mtis Learning

Health and Social WellnessThe lingering effects that oppression still brings to bear on Aboriginal peoples in Canada are widespread: substandard living conditions health problems suicide addiction incarceration poor academic achievement high rates of unemployment

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Health and Social WellnessAboriginal Children: are 1.5 times more likely to die before one year of age have higher incidences of hospitalization for lung infections and injuryhave unacceptably higher rates of child welfare apprehension (as high as 8 to 1 in some provinces)are more likely to live in foster homes outside their community than their non-Aboriginal peers

Health and Social Wellnessas much as 50 percent of discrepancy in early childhood outcomes is attributable to socioeconomic status. average income for First Nations families is one third of that for non-Aboriginal Canadiansnearly half of Aboriginal children live below the poverty lineacademic achievement for First Nations people falls well below acceptable levels

Health and Social WellnessInadequate access to housing, food, clean water and services, and other indicators of poverty contribute to early school leaving, suicide, substance abuse and incarceration rates that far exceed the proportions for Canadians in general. Not only current generation who are affected

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Education levels & Achievement On - reserve First Nations students enrolled and graduating from Grade 12

Source: Indian Affairs and Northern Development (2005a). Basic Departmental Data: 2004. Caledon Institute of Social Policy. YearEnrolment in graduating yearGraduatesPercent graduating of those enrolled in Grade 121996-975,4851,78535.51997-985,9311,97533.31998-996,0131,93932.21999-006,4602,07232.12000-017,0572,11229.92001-026,6981,95329.22002-036,7111,94529.0

Academic AchievementSome of the factors contributing to this low level of academic achievement are that Aboriginals in Canada have the lowest income and thus the highest rates of poverty, the highest rate of drop-outs from formal education, and the lowest health indicators of any group. (Council of Ministers of Education, 2004)

Some Education StatisticsIn 2006, 50% of the First Nations people aged 25 to 64 living on reserve had not completed high school, compared to 30% of off-reserve First Nations people. (Statistics Canada, 2006). The highest level of educational attainment of about one in four (24%) of First Nations people living off reserve was a high school diploma, compared with 15% of their counterparts living on reserve. (Statistics Canada, 2006). 69% of all Canadians attained a post-secondary education in 2006 compared to 36% of Registered Indians. (Statistics Canada, 2006) Graduation rates for First Nations steadily declined from 33.9% in 1995 to 29.6% in 2002 (INAC, 2004, p. 40)

According to Statistics Canada (2009) the median income of First Nations people in 2005 was $14,517, about $11,000 lower than the figure for the non-Aboriginal population ($25,955), a disparity similar to what it was in 2000. A comparison of median incomes for First Nations people living on reserve ($11,224) with those who live off reserve ($17,464) reveals a considerable difference also of $6,240.

The High Cost of Low Achievementfew people recognize the full extent to which low educational attainment affects society (Hankivsky, 2008, p. 5). reduced lifetime earningspoor healthincreased unemploymentdelinquency, crimesubstance abuseearly childbearingeconomic dependencyreduced quality of lifeincreased incidence of marital instability

There are also intangible consequences: High school dropouts experience lessened social growth (impaired relationships with teachers, peers, or parents)a reduced sense of control over their lifeless personal satisfactionless of a sense of control over life circumstanceslow self-esteem and emotional disturbancesreduced social capital(Hankivsky, 2008, p. 65)

There is a positive correlation between educational attainment and overall health. graduates are more aware of the factors of a healthy lifestyle and make fewer visits to physicians.average 45-year-old college graduate in better health than average 25 year old high school dropout (Levin et al, 2007) differences in life expectancy also attributed to educational attainment

Vicious Cycle Hankivsky (2008) identifies low education as the key factor in explaining the relatively weak performance of Aboriginal Canadians in the labour market (p. 38).

The Answer? A Meaningful EducationAny nations health and vitality is linked directly to its ability to provide meaningful educational opportunities to its people. Our future as a nation and as First Nations will depend considerably on our citizens educational achievements and successes. Healthy and sustainable First Nations communities depend on the quality of education programs. (INAC, 2002, p. 2) Ministers National Working Group on Education

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Parental School Choice InFirst Nations Communities:Is There Really A Choice? Steinhauer (2007) Parental School Choice In First Nations Communities: Is There Really A Choice? Steinhauer (2007)

Do you know what it is like to feel you are of no value to society and those around you? To know that people came to help you but not to work with you for you knew that they knew you had nothing to offer . . . ?Chief Dan George

The off-reserve schooling experience: FindingsIn an effort to better understand how First Nations parents made decisions about where their children would be schooled, I asked the parents who had been selected for interviews the following question:How did you chose the school that you would send your children to when you had the option of the on-reserve school or the off-reserve provincial schools? (p. 107)

Parents ResponsesThroughout their schooling process, parents wanted their children to have the best education possiblegraduate from high school eventually become self-supporting feel happy and secure be proud of who they wereembrace their Native heritage (p. 107)

many were not happy with the public school systemyet they considered it their best option if they wanted their children to graduate from high schoolthey did not have much faith in the reserve school system and were convinced that the public schools provided a better education 75% of the children from both Saddle Lake and Goodfish Lake attend school off-reserve

the majority of the people from these two communities have serious questions and doubts about their own schoolsmost also repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the public school systems as wellfavor the public system because numbers suggested that their children would have a better chance of graduating in these schools offered few other reasons in support of this choice

Parents seemed to recognize that sending their children off-reserve came with a price and that they were making a trade-off (Marleen)Parents hoped that their childrens schooling experience would be more than intellectual or mental exercisesthat it would meet the needs of the whole child, which includes the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs (Pamela) (p. 107-108)

When we live on reserve, we have only two choices: We send our kids to the provincial schools that we have tuition agreements with, or we keep them on reserve. But what kind of choices are those? (p. 108)But there is guilt sometimes for not supporting our own schools (p. 109)What choice do we have if we want our children to graduate? 109

endless stories about their own negative experiences in the public schools (p. 109)if the school offered good academic programming, parents and extended family would be able to offer emotional and spiritual support children needed to make it through the system (Kristine) (p. 110)providing their children with access to the same curriculum that other students in Alberta were using was the most important criterion that guided their decisions about where to send their children to school (p. 110)

Native parents are forced to make school choices based on factors that would receive minimal weighting, if any at all, in non-First Nations parents school-choice decision making. (p. 111)

Some participants used the term trade-off to define the situation that they faced in having to give up the positive aspects normally expected from a school experience, such as caring, cultural acceptance, and valuing, to try to increase their childrens academic achievement. (p. 112)

Trade-offs Some of the trade-offs reported included: Unfair TreatmentLow Teacher ExpectationsRacismLoss of Opportunities for Cultural Teachings.

Overall, participants reported that Native children do not feel valued or cared about in these public school systems.(p. 112)

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A. Unfair Treatmentmost Native children are not treated fairly within the public school systems (p. 112)

Indicators of unfair treatment:the Special Needs categorizationthe Blame-the-Native-Student Syndromethe Time Spent in Detention, and the Academic Program Streaming of Native Students

Special Needs Categorizationspecial education or special needs came up repeatedly hidden practices could be termed unprofessional, unethical, or even illegalSeveral parents gave examples of requests to test their children

up to 50% of our children that go off-reserve are labeled as having some type of learning deficiencies, whereas in the reserve schools this number is well below 12% (Florence)

Placing children in special-needs classes is not a thing of the past! The only difference between now and then is that the schools now need signed permission forms. They still always want to test Native kids.Right away they wanted to test her. Something was wrong with her I wouldnt give them my permission, and they kept on bugging me and phoning me... So they did all their tests and stuff. There wasnt any problem after I got this fancy paper from whoever assessed her. There was nothing wrong with her!

Williams (2000) explained that these discrepancies may be attributed to the fact that additional funds for which First Nations students are eligible are usually based on disability, deficiency and deprivation (p.144), which suggests that making a case for special-needs funding for these children would mean amplifying the negative aspects of some First Nations students and thus further entrenching the negative stereotypes (p.144).

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Williams: one of our greatest challenges has been to help teachers and administrators to curb their first impulse to push First Nations students out of the school as quickly as possible and to direct them towards other resources (p.143).

The way I see it, Native children get penalized just for being Native. Sometimes I think the school really does believe that Native kids are not capable of much, and that their coming to school is just a waste of everyones time. I believe we are an inconvenience to them. Maybe this is why they place so many negative labels on us. They dont expect much from us (Leah)

Blame-the-Native-Student SyndromeNative kids get blamed for everything. I remember every time there was a fight, ... it was an automatic in-school suspension. Well, I remember one year, this was a really large fight that happened up town, and in fact there were three fights at the same time. The Indian kids got a home suspension, and the White kids only got half a day in school. I remember asking about it, because ... I wanted to know for myself, because I saw that as unfair, so I asked, What is the fairness in that?

unfair treatment, whether intentional or unintentional, is very harmful to Aboriginal studentsstudents react by fighting or developing unruly and uncooperative attitudescome to be seen as trouble makersSimply existmany carry on the tradition of active resistance to white-controlled school system with its colonial assumptions of Euro-Canadian cultural superioritySilver, Mallett, Greene, and Simard (2002)

Streaming Students children were almost always steered away from an academic directionFear of authority inhibits resistance (Georges case)Being pushed into low-level courses seems to be the norm for Aboriginal studentsschool assumes they are incapable of handling advanced courses and they dont aspire to universityI didnt think about going to college or university, because I just felt it was for the rich kids, and no one ever suggested that it might be a possibility. (Dakota)

In her study Wilson (1992) found that being pushed intolow-level courses seemed to be the norm for Aboriginal students, because the school assumes that they are incapable of handling the advanced courses and that theydo not aspire to attending university anyway.

A classic example came from a student who wanted to enroll in a computer class. A teacher advisor suggested that he take a mechanics course instead because there will always be broken down cars to repair on the reserve but I doubt that there will be computers to work with. (p.52)

Educators are always trying to find ways to increase high school graduation rates among Native students, but its a simple answer. Just respect us, encourage us, listen to us, learn a little about us. Then maybe you will begin seeing more Native students graduating from high school. (Kristine)

B. Low Teacher ExpectationsResearch has revealed that, generally, non-Native teaching staff have lower expectations of Aboriginal students than they do of non-Aboriginal students (Goulet, 2001, Makokis, 2000; Silver etal., 2002; Taylor, 1995; Wilson, 1992). From my observations and my discussions with the participants in this study as well as with other Aboriginal parents and youths, there appears to be a general consensus that academic expectations of Native children are low within the public school system.

In his study Goulet (2001) discovered that many non-Native teachers have low prejudicial beliefs about the Aboriginal students they teach. Goulet concluded that many non-Native teachers believe that Native students are unable to compete with their non-Aboriginal peers. The teachers in these studies believed that [Native] students had inadequate home life and so did not possess the skills necessary for success in school (p.69).

one prominent factor that contributed to student withdrawal was belief that their teachers did not care and that they had very low expectations of them (Makokis, 2000)significance of teachers expectations directly linked to academic achievement & unfair treatmentBernices story

C. RacismThe fear washes through my veins Contaminating the deep red blood. It travels through my body, Further, deeper. The rage heats my skin Igniting a blazing fire. It burns my brown skin, Heating, hurting The sadness flows through me Touching my heart in the most sensitive places It brings tears to my eyes As the wall of racism, Slams against my face.

(Canadian Race Relations Foundation, 2007, p.16)

All participants in this study identified the theme of racism as one of the most serious points of consideration in making school choices for their children. All parents expected that their children would be on the receiving end of racism, and, in fact, at least two of the parents wanted to actively prepare their children to face this issue. These two parents wanted their children to grow up experiencing racism, believing that it would better prepare them for the real world.

Learning to cope becomes the means of survival (Steinhauer, 1999)students who are negatively affected by racism are less likely to attend school regularly and are likely to drop out of school earlier than other groups of studentschildren were often quite vicious engaging in games at the expense of Indian children

In my own off-reserve school experience, beginning in Grade three, I remember children often being quite vicious and often engaging in games at the expense of Indian children. On particular game was known as Indian germs. It was a game of tag which began with a white student touching an Indian kid, then playing tag with those germs for the entire recess. Of course Indian children were not included in the game. Although it was hurtful at the time we learned to cope by playing in other parts of the playground or school. Gradually learning how to cope became the means of survival

Internalized RacismI found a lot of the Native kids to be more negative, but rightly so, because they were treated wrong. When you are treated wrong, when you are oppressed, you are automatically going to be defensive toward things. Racism, experienced on a consistent basis, becomes internalized, and we [the Native students] begin to hate one another. It can have very damaging effects. (Leah)

Silver etal. (2002) refer to this as internalized racism

They teach us that Native students are anything but good, so we internalize this. We begin to believe that we are in fact no good, trouble makers, incapable of real work, and in order to survive, we begin rejecting, and beating up each other. I hate to admit this, but I was guilty of rejecting my own Native peers as well. I am so ashamed of myself now that I recognize this. (Leah)

Calliou (1995) Racism is an issue that many people would rather not have to deal with, even Native people Racism creates imbalance and disharmonyDiscussing the issue can be emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally challenging and exhaustingMost people would rather not face the issue Racism has to be namedemotion will emerge from the underground of denial within individuals, lunch rooms, classrooms, textbooks, media, or school groundsimportant to do so if we want to have the public, affirmative spaces that we like to think our Canadian classrooms are

[Racism] ....it is there, and it is a significant part of the explanation for why so many Aboriginal students are not thriving in the school system. And we believe that if non-Aboriginal teachers and administrators were to grapple openly with the problemname it, describe it, come to accept and to understand its prevalencethey would eliminate much of it. But racism is such an ugly word that when an Aboriginal person says something is racist, the tendency is to retreat, to go on the defensive, to deny the racism.

Going to school with mostly non-Native kids, I always tried so hard to be like them. After a while it was so tiring. I was ashamed of being Indian. There [First Nations School] I could be myself; there I could be an Indian Kristine.

Indians get everything for freeAll First Nations students, including myself have heard the resentful accusations that our education is paid for at the public expense (i.e. their pocketbook; the accuser is seemingly oblivious of the fiduciary responsibly of treaties and agreements between the nations within and the colonial government of the settler Nations. (Calliou, 1995, p.49)

Cultural DivideNinety percent of Native children in this country will, at one time or another, be taught by a non-Native teacher, and many of these children will receive most of their education from non-Native teachers. The Native students self-image, perception of Native/non-Native interactions, and chance of graduating will all be influenced by their non-Native teachers (Taylor, 1995, p.224).

Racial Stigmatism(Curwen Doige, 2003, pp.153154)stereotyping and discrimination that still exists in our schools stigmatizes Aboriginal students.personhood is devaluedindividual disconnects from the attributes that assist development of self-respect, confidence, and the ability to trust oneself and othersinsidious tool of disenfranchisement: not only is the student told that he or she is unacceptable, the student now feels inferior and rejected The affective, spiritual part of the student has been jeopardized. ... Not respecting, cherishing, valuing the spirit of the Aboriginal student deeply affects the process of the individuals being in becoming a unique person responsible for his/her own life and actions in the context of significant group situation.

D. Loss Of Cultural Learning OpportunitiesA regret that several parents had about sending their children off-reserve to a public school was that their children were rarely, if ever, exposed to anything that had to do with their Cree culture and language.

[Cree Classes] I didnt take the courses for two reasons: firstly, because these classes were always scheduled when I had my core courses; and secondly, because I believed these classes were not very beneficial. Learning Cree words is not the same as learning the Cree language. No one can learn to speak Cree that way; and besides, learning Cree was not my priority at that time. My priority was getting a high school diploma. (Leah)

Goddard (2002):locally developed curricula considered different from- less intellectually significant than regular curriculamessage confirmed when students see their teachers using their language and cultural classes as prep classesClasses tucked away in farthest reaches of schoolCree courses:Not valued by teachers or studentsDesigned for non-academic routeIneffective at teaching fluencyNative and, therefore, not as good as

Curwen Doige (2003)Traditions are only one aspect of the ever-changing dynamic within a culture. to focus on traditional dress, food music, ceremonies, and artifacts freezes a culture in time and perpetuates stereotypes. Artifacts are static. People and their values, beliefs, feelings, and thoughts are dynamic, and these define the culture. Spiritual ideas and traditions like sweetgrass and sweatlodge must be understood from the perspective of Aboriginal epistemology. Otherwise, the identifying values of Aboriginal people are treated as fixed as well.

Concluding RemarksOne might ask: Why do these First Nations parents, who are fully aware of the unfair treatment to which their children are subjected within these public school systems, continue to make the decision to educate their children in public school?

Do they not love their children? If they sincerely care about their childrens future and well-being, why do they subject them to the unfair treatment that they know continues to exist in these schools?

Parents make the choices they do, not because they want to torture their children, but rather, they make these choices because they LOVE their children.

SummationWe have covered:Health & Social Wellness; Income Levels & PovertyAcademic AchievementOff-reserve school experiencesAdditional contemporary issues include:LanguageCultureJurisdiction over educationMy next lecture will examine the history of Aboriginal education.