Introduction
While prevalent international policies involve human rights and equality of individuals of state or nation members in many, if not all government and non-government organizations, even the so-called first world countries have to battle their evils within. This can be said of education policies in Canada which for decades have tried to address the education of the majority and minority groups, in vain.
History books and research have indicated that indigenous peoples had a highly developed system of education in which the natural environment, the family, and the community were the classroom. Upon the arrival of the Europeans, the Aboriginal people lost control of all the major areas of their lives. The European oppressors perpetrated cultural genocide through assimilation. One of the key tactics of assimilation was education.
This paper discusses the issues related to native Indians in Canada experience in Canadian education, discuss the strategies the group and the educational community have used to ameliorate their situation, present reaction to these strategies and identify the current issues this group is dealing with in education.
Discussion
Canada’s Aboriginal people are identified in the Canadian Constitution as one of the founding peoples of Canada, along with the English and French. While the constitution framers tried to accommodate both French and English cultures, they ignored the cultures of the Native Peoples of Canada, assuming that they would be assimilated into French or English Canada (Sears, Clarke & Hughes, 1999).
Education has not been benign or beneficial for Aboriginal peoples. Through ill-conceived federal government policies, Aboriginal people have been subjected to a combination of unquestionably powerful but profoundly debilitating forces of assimilation and colonization. Through various systems of education, the Aboriginal view and people were attacked (Battiste, 1998, p. 5).
Traditional Aboriginal Education
The British North American Act (1867) and the Indian Traditional Aboriginal Education Act (1876) gave the federal government in Canada jurisdiction over Native Education, a domain that is normally a provincial responsibility (Brady p. 350).
For several thousand years before the arrival of the Europeans to the new world, the Aboriginal people of Canada had a highly developed system of education in which the community and natural environment were the classrooms (Kirkness, 1998, p. 1). It was a system of education founded on the cornerstones of community and spirituality of which culture was the duty and responsibility of the parents, elders, and members of the community as a whole. They teach younger people and ensure they lead a good life (Neegan, 2005, p.4). As Kirkness (1998) notes, grandmothers, in the aboriginal tradition, played a major role in the education of children. Young children played but at the same time contributed to the household work. Learning began first by observing and later by doing (Neegan, 2005, p. 5). In this learning by observing, Kirkness (1998) notes that the children’s connection to the natural world, the grandmother’s teachings, and the fact that children were contributing members of the household were all important factors in Aboriginal culture that contributed to the education and the lives of Aboriginal children (Neegan, 2005, p. 5) Aboriginal people stressed an approach to education that relied on watching, listening and learning (Neegan, 2005). Central to the teaching was the belief in the sacred, the Great Spirit. (Kirkness, 1998, p.1).
In Aboriginal culture and education, each skill has a social-economic, spiritual and historical context. Most importantly, traditional Aboriginal education had links to economic conditions. Learning was for the living and survival (Neegan, 2005). The traditional education of Aboriginal children was mainly an informal, experiential process providing young people with the skills, attitudes, and knowledge they needed to function in everyday life (Neegan, 2005). According to Lafrance, this type of learning ensured cultural continuity and survival of the mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being of each individual. (Neegan, 2005).
Traditional education was largely an informal process that provided the young people with specific skills, attitudes, and knowledge they need to function in everyday life in the context of a spiritual world view according to Kirkness (1998).
Early Native Education: 1600–1900s
The coming of the Europeans gave way to forced assimilation for the Indigenous people of Canada to European ways as Canada’s natives moved from a position of autonomy to one of loss of control in all of the major areas of their lives (Atleo. p. 5). Education became a principal vehicle of cultural assimilation (Atleo, 1991). Educational practices during this time intentionally denied and ignored the value of native culture in an unsuccessful attempt to assimilate American Indians into the Euro-Canadian society (Atleo, 1991). Europeans assumed the superiority of their culture over that of the aboriginal people with an out of this world view that for the Indians to survive, they would have to be assimilated into the European social order (Atleo, 1991) The European assumed that the native student had nothing to offer, no mental ability, no previous mental training, any feelings, language, arts and customs worthy of preserving and nurturing. Native wisdom, values, knowledge, customs, and traditions formed in thousands of years were destroyed and denied (Atleo, 1991). The French and English employed the following methods of education policy: 1. Education in the mission field, 2. Education on reserves and 3. Education in boarding schools. Likewise, the French also sought to educate the Indian elite in France (Alteo, 1991).
This early native education policy failed the native student as educators like Mother de incarnation attributed the failure of native education to the “savage” nature of the student (Atleo, 2001). In reality, the Eurocentric education generally administered by the church imposed on the natives was futile. The Traditional Aboriginal Education was linked to the survival of the family and the community of which learning was geared to the knowledge necessary for daily lives. The system, expectedly, produced its first set of disenfranchised young adults who were unable to function neither in the new European reality nor in the aboriginal community.
Residential Schooling (1860-1960)
After the confederation, Indian self-government was abolished and finance and all social services, including education, were placed under the control of the Canadian Federal government. The federal control of education meant that the way the values of European education had been imposed on Aboriginal students was recognized as the legitimate approach for creating Canada (Curwen-Doige, 1999). The federal government sanctioned the Protestant and Catholic churches with complete control of Aboriginal education. Funded by the federal government and operated by the Protestant and Catholic Church, Residential Schools became the dominant institution in Aboriginal education across Canada. (Neegan, p.6) where aboriginal children were subjected to persistent violence, powerlessness, exploitation, and cultural imperialism only to become impoverished and devastated in the cognitive and physical aftermath of schooling (Marie Battiste, 1998, p. 5).
According to researchers, the residential school strategy had little to do with respect for and valuing of developing aboriginal literacy of students as the emphasis was on assimilating aboriginal children into Euro-Canadian Society (Curwen Doige, 1999, p.5) Residential schools as instruments of assimilation served four purposes:
- Separation of children from families imparting significant trauma and inhibited traditional aboriginal education and literacy. The practice forcibly divided the young and old and creating a serious generation gap resulting in trauma (Neegan, 2005, p 7).
- Impart the ways of the Euro-Canadians where natives were not allowed to speak anything other than English or French. As Lafrance put it, “Language is the transmission of culture, a culture cannot survive without it,” (quoted from Neegan, 2005, p.7). The culture was also assimilated through clothing and hairstyle.
- Provide trade training as children are disconnected from their knowledge, voices, and historical experiences.
- Eradicate the native culture of which Battiste (1998), offered that the residential school system was geared intentionally towards displacement and elimination of indigenous culture. A case in point was that during summer, aboriginal children were required to attend a bible school, forcing their parents to abandon the family’s traditional summer hunt for caribou and moose (Neegan, 2005, p.6). The impact of residential schools is still being felt by natives in Canada with the presence of the devastating effects of residential schools. On May 10, 2006, the Government of Canada announced the approval of an Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement providing lump-sum payment to former students who lived at one of the listed residential schools. An estimated 80, 000 natives alive attended residential schools (IRSRC, 2007).
It was found out that the curriculum and practices of residential schools were an attack on Aboriginal culture. There had been efforts made to replace Aboriginal culture with an alternative lifestyle and way of life as it was wrongly implied that everything the parents taught their children was wrong and their worldview invalid (Neegan, 2005 p.7).
Educational goals gave weight to European science and technology, social, political pressures, propaganda about cultural superiority and took its toll upon some aspects of the native belief system. Natives were made to believe that the Euro-Canadian education system was the only system for them and that the Euro-Canadian Education system was the only system for them (Atleo, 1991, p.5).
Until the 1970’s the problem of education policy remained unchanged (Alteo, 1991, p.4) and even the closing of residential schools has not resulted in ending Eurocentric schooling of Aboriginals.
Cognitive Imperialism: 1970 to present
Cognitive imperialism is a form of manipulation used to discredit other knowledge bases and values and seeks to validate one source of knowledge and empower it through public education resulting in the disconnection of recipients of information from their knowledge, voices, and historical experiences. Cultural minorities in Canada have been led to believe that their poverty and powerlessness are the results of their lower cultural and racial status and origins (Battiste, 1998, p 6).
In 1973, after years of church and government intervention for Aboriginal education, the federal government accepted the Indian control of Indian education policy paper in principle as national policy and acknowledged the right of parental responsibility for Indian education (Curwen, Doigie, 2001, p 6).
However, the Policy of Indian Control of Indian Education did not unfold as was expected. Two factors have been at play to negatively affect the process: First, the manipulation of Indian Affairs to simply administer the schools as they had in the past, and Second was the Indian peoples’ insecurity in taking control and failing to design an education based on their culture, way of life and world view (Kirkness, 1998, p. 3). Scholars such as Battiste and Neegan argue that the colonial education system of the past continues to function. The students’ feelings and the exclusion of Aboriginal education are symptomatic of the unequal power relations between non-Aboriginals and Aboriginals that continue to exist in Canada (Neegan, 2005, p. 9). Provincial governments, argued Battiste, have failed to revamp school curricula to represent students they teach. She noted that over half of the Aboriginal students in Canada are in provincial schools yet little has been done to modify the curriculum in these schools.
According to Battiste (1998), Canadians assume that the federal government’s acceptance of the policy of native control of Native Education ended colonial education. As an example, the Mikmaq band was the first First Nation band to assume jurisdiction over its education, and yet, as part of the negotiations with the federal government, the band is required to follow the provincial curriculum as its foundation for teaching in its schools. Thus, the elements of colonization-dominance, control, and subordination continue in Aboriginal education despite the proposed self-governance in education matters. Battiste (1998) uses the term cognitive imperialism to describe this new form of dominance and control of the education of Aboriginal peoples, a form of cognitive manipulation that validates one source of knowledge and empowers it through public control of education funding.
Recent federal negotiations with first nation’s governments to encourage them to assume control of their education ushered in another era of cognitive imperialism with the requirement in the funding contribution agreements that require first nations to accept provincial curricula (Battiste, 1998, p. 5).
Despite the awareness among first nation’s educators that the curriculum is culturally biased and inadequate in meeting the natives’ needs, little has been done to preserve, protect and promote the rights and freedoms of Aboriginal people to use, practice, and develop Aboriginal languages and knowledge in Canada through education (Battiste, 1998, p 5).
In Toronto alone, over 50% of the Aboriginal students drop out or become disengaged from the school system while 17% of non-Aboriginals did not have a high school diploma in 2000, of which Aboriginals count for 45% (Neegan, 2005, p 10). Disenfranchisement is revealed in school performance (Doige, 1999, p 10).
Scholar George Burns argued that schools’ authorities view Aboriginal peoples as stereotypes rather than distinct people with a distinct heritage, a rich history, and with their philosophies. It was proposed that aboriginal students should be given the chance and access to higher education at an early age (Neegan, 2005, p. 10).
Studies have shown that next to parents, teachers play the most important role in the formation of a student’s attitude and predisposition, therefore, teachers’ expectations of a student determine to a great extent how well that student will learn (Neegan, 2005, p.10).
What next?
According to Neegan (2005), school administrators should focus their attention on modifying the curriculum being taught to Aborigins. The curriculum needs to be changed to accommodate the view of Aboriginal children and that policy-makers must consider all the positive contributions that indigenous people have made historically and in the past. This includes the languages, food, practices, and medicines of native peoples. Likewise, when students cannot identify what is being taught, there is nothing for them to do but to disengage (Neegan, 2005, p. 11).
The children of the Earth School in Winnipeg have been provided the right idea and practice as the 3 R’s were converted to rediscovering, respect and recovering the culture and traditions of the people. This lead and research Aboriginal/tribal pedagogies must be followed so that the curriculum will accurately incorporate traditions and cultures into what and how natives are taught. In other words, the existing system must be overhauled and educators must seek more appropriate materials and strategies for teaching (Kirkness, 1998 and Neegan, 2005).
Conclusion
To properly address the needs of Indian Canadians when it comes to relevant education of the young, it is necessary to overhaul the whole process that would involve not only educators, the students, and policy-makers but the whole Indian community as well.
History has shown us that for more than a millennium, the Aborigines of Canada have not only been deprived but robbed of their rights to live the life that they have deemed best for them, and instead, rammed with a new culture and lifestyle that put down their own, unfortunately, and basically, through education.
The national and federal government, educators, and policy-makers must be committed to meeting the rights of Aboriginal peoples by spearheading efforts to recover what has been lost in the past in cultural assimilation.
Curriculum reform to address the specific need of indigenous peoples – including languages schools use, daily and seasonal practices and activities, as well as way of living need to be collaborated with indigenous elders and the whole Indian community to effectively revive what had been lost.
Aboriginal worldviews and ways of learning should be fostered both in the classroom and community-based learning with material support and expertise that can be shared from effective and prevalent educational practices. Assimilation must be focussed on the Aboriginal viewpoint and not from outsiders.
References
Doige, Lynda A Curwen (2001). “Literacy in aboriginal education: An historical perspective.” Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25(2), 117-128.
Kirkness, Verna J. (1998). “Our peoples’ education: Cut the shackles; cut the crap; cut the mustard.” Canadian Journal of Native Education, 22(1), 10-15.
Battiste, Marie (1998). “Enabling the autumn seed: Toward a decolonized approach to aboriginal knowledge, language, and education.” Canadian Journal of Native Education, 22(1), 16-27.
Atleo, E. (1991, September 25). Native Education: The Next 100 Years. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED356129).
Neegan, E (2005). Excuse me: who are the first peoples of Canada? A historical analysis of aboriginal education in Canada then and now. International Journal of Inclusive Education. 9(1). 3-15.
Sears, Clarke & Hughes. (1999). “Canadian citizenship education: The pluralist ideal and citizenship education for a post-modern state.” Civic Education Across Countries: Twenty-four National Case Studies from the IEA Civic Education Project. 112-135.
Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada. (2007). “Residential Schools Settlement.” Web.