Table of Contents Editorial
Tips on Writing an Educational Research Article for Brock Education 1 Julian Kitchen
Articles
Keeping First Nations in Their Place–The Myth of “First Nations Control of First Nations 4 Education”: A Commentary
Ron Phillips
Colour-Blind: Discursive Repertoires Teachers Used to Story Racism and Aboriginality in 16 Urban Prairie Schools
Tyler McCreary
An Ethnography of Two Teachers’ Antiracist and Critical Multicultural Practices 34 Dolana Mogadame
Rethinking Literacy Education in New Times: Multimodality, Multiliteracies, & 53 New Literacies
Jennifer Rowsell, Maureen Walsh
Community Action-Based Field Work: Training Counselors to Become Social Agents 63 in Schools and Communities
Adonay Antonio Montes, Laurie Schroeder
Examining My Assessment Literacy Instruction Practices with Teacher Candidates 84 Mary Rice
Book Review
Songs in Their Heads: Music and Its Meaning in Children’s Lives (2nd
ed.). 98 Patricia Shehan Campbell
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Editorial:
Tips on Writing an Educational Research Article for
Brock Education
Julian Kitchen
Editor
Brock University
I read numerous manuscripts as the editor of an educational journal. Some arrive on my desk highly polished and almost ready for publication. Others have many fine qualities yet fall short in certain respects. A few are quite rough, but show promise or are very timely. Finally, there are the manuscripts that do not grab my attention and seem to be of limited interest to readers of this journal of educational practice and research.
Writing is an arduous process. Successful authors must be determined and persistent to craft and re-craft their work based on critical feedback from trusted colleagues and, later, by anonymous peer reviewers. Once this process is complete, there are then reams of suggestions and corrections from journal editors.
As a fellow academic who faces the same challenges when I submit manuscripts to peer reviewed journals, I try to make this process as meaningful as possible. I begin by finding suitable reviewers who understand the field of study and can offer constructive comments. I then help authors make sense of conflicting interpretations and assessments by reviewers: What must be done? What are merely suggestions? How does one structure an argument? Also, with much help from Assistant Editor Catherine Longboat (formerly Editorial Assistant), I work with authors to improve flow and tighten meaning. While editing an academic journal is a tremendous amount of work, I take great satisfaction in knowing that I have helped authors write better scholarly articles.
What are my tips for writing an educational research article for Brock Education? Below I highlight some of the qualities that appeal to me as a reader and editor. I draw on the six articles in this issue to illustrate.
First, capture my interest in the first few paragraphs. Too often papers begin “In this paper, I...” or “This is a study of X.” While these are direct and to the point, they are BORING. Imagine that I am browsing through on-line academic articles while sipping coffee on a Sunday
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interesting problem, or a clever analogy. “Keeping First Nations in Their Place - The Myth of ‘First Nations Control of First Nations Education’” is one article that would make me sit up and smell the coffee. The title immediately grabs my interest by challenging the status quo in First Nations education. The opening paragraphs make clear that this is academic and personal. Ron Phillips begins by recalling the school experiences of members of his extended family before challenging the differences in quality and funding between provincial and federally controlled schools. While this is more of a critical essay than a research paper, the reviewers and I were drawn to the authenticity and power of the writing. In the way he explains why he cares so passionately, Phillips conveys why I should care deeply about disparities in educational opportunities for Aboriginal people. Agree or disagree, you will be engaged.
Second, tell me why your topic of great interest or importance at the moment. As an editor, I am more likely to work with a manuscript because when has something urgent and important to share with the world. When I received the original manuscript for “Colour-blind: Discursive Repertoires Teachers Used to Story Racism and Aboriginality in Urban Prairie Schools”, I knew that this was a manuscript that I wanted to publish. Many of us engaged in equity work suspect that teaches often have unexamined prejudices concerning students who are different. Through interviews with teachers it became evident to author Tyler McCreary that notions of colour-blindness held by teachers often hide unexamined prejudices that informed their teaching. Now, after significant changes in response to feedback by reviewers and editors, McCreary’s article makes a significant contribution to understanding teachers’ assumptions about students from other cultures, particularly Aboriginal students. He also articulates how improved critical race analysis can improve teaching.
Third, convey a sense of wonder and engagement about the topic and the research. I think that you will be immediately drawn into “An Analysis of Two Critical Educators’ Practice: Research Concerns and Questions.” Author Dolana Mogadime is intensely curious about the ways in which race and cultural background influence the classroom practice of teachers. As readers, we are invited to join Mogadime on her journey into classrooms to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which two teachers of colour draw on “their insider knowledge as representatives of their communities to provide emancipatory pedagogy” and critique the “Eurocentric knowledge basis in the curriculum.” Mogadime’s sense of wonder draws us into the stories of classroom practice and into inquiring about what it means to be critical educators from diverse communities.
Fourth, tell me how your work relates to the larger field of study. This need not be the entire field of education, but it should be an important subsection. Give me a broad sense of your area, as I may have a general interest rather than a special interest. What are the important issues related to the topic of your research? How does your research fit? What are you offering that is
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new and interesting? As a generalist, I found “Rethinking Literacy Education in New Times: Multimodality, Multiliteracies, and New Literacies” to be a highly engaging review of new technologies for classroom literacy learning. Through their discussion of the differences between literacy with digital texts compared with print-based texts, Jennifer Rowsell and Maureen Walsh helped me develop a much stronger understanding of a field that has both intrigued and intimidated me. The thoughtful and engaging way in which they “demonstrate the potential of new technologies for classroom literacy learning” better prepares me for the rewards and challenges of teaching in new times.
Fifth, provide a thorough analysis of the research findings. Often manuscripts arrive with detailed data or stories but very short sections on analysis and conclusions. If you engaged in deep and meaningful research, then there must be something important to say about what it means and how it can inform our understanding of education. The findings are not self-evident. They need to be drawn out by you so that I can make the connections and be more likely to incorporate the lessons learned into my work as an educator and researcher. “Community Action-Based Field Work: Training Counselors to Become Social Agents in Schools and Communities” exemplifies this quality. After providing readers with a detailed account of their research with counsellors, Adonay Montes and Laurie Shroeder engage in a detailed critical analysis of themes that emerge from their research. Through this analysis, they develop an understanding that issues of social justice require “the deconstruction of popular myths about poverty and the oppressed as well as consideration of methods designed to break the cycle of oppression and poverty.” As importantly, they identify specific skills that can be developed n a school counseling program to increase the mindfulness and empathy of counselors work with diverse student populations.
Sixth, write well. Good writing looks effortless, but is the result of countless revisions and edits. For complex ideas to become clear and understandable, the author must carefully select the words and phrasings that bring these ideas to life. In “Examining My Assessment Literacy Instruction Practices with Teacher Candidates,” Mary Rice does a fine job of presenting clearly and cleanly some very complex ideas. But it did not start out this way. The reviewers were confused at times by elements of the original manuscript: brilliant interesting ideas intertwined in complex and, sometimes, confusing ways. In revising the paper, Rice maintained much of the complexity of her original work on using assessment literacy instruction in a course on developing second language literacy. In the final version, the many layers of complexity in her thinking are clearly presented in a model of narrative inquiry and self-study as methods for understanding teaching and teacher education.
Keeping First Nations in Their Place – The Myth of
“First Nations Control of First Nations Education”:
A Commentary
Ron Phillips
Nipissing UniversityAbstract
The federal government of Canada has constitutional responsibility for First Nations education. There is no evidence that the federal government has attempted to develop a comprehensive First Nations education system. Most studies have found serious flaws in the current realities faced by First Nations children attending First Nations-controlled schools throughout Canada (e.g., low levels of academic achievement, lack of second-level specialist support, inadequate school facilities, and low teacher pay). These difficulties are not found in provincial schools in which the federal government supports First Nations students. Despite its poor track record in First Nations education, the federal government remains convinced that it knows what is best for First Nations children attending First Nations schools across Canada. First Nations educational involvement, knowledge and expertise are not really considered. The idea of "First Nations control of First Nations education" is really meaningless. This paper critiques the current education system and makes recommendations.
Keywords: Canadian education, First Nations education, Canadian constitution
Ron Phillips, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Education (Educational Psychology & Special Education, Teaching Methods) at Nipissing University. He has been involved in First Nations education for over 30 years. His research interests include First Nations education/special education and Canada’s place in international education.
Email: [email protected]
Note:
The federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) has recently changed its name to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC). However, the documents used in this paper were sourced prior to the name change.
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Introduction
My daughters who are First Nation (i.e., Cree) were truly fortunate. They attended provincial schools in Winnipeg. Many of their cousins were also fortunate to attend provincial schools situated near their home reserves (i.e., First Nations) or in urban centres. These students attended schools which had a solid curriculum, well-qualified teachers and administrators, as well as a variety of academic and administrative supports and services such as reading and math programs, consultants, and specialists.
Essentially, their educational experience was the norm in Canadian public schools. Their schools were part of a comprehensive system of delivering educational programs and services. Their schools were supported by a school division/board with specialists, consultants, administrators and by a provincial/territorial department of education with additional specialists, consultants, and administrators. These schools also operated under the authority of an Education Act with educational policies and regulations.
However, my daughters also have many cousins who attended First Nations controlled schools on First Nations across Canada. These First Nations controlled schools are not part of a similar system of educational supports and services.
Current Status of First Nations Schools
Federal ministers and senior bureaucrats of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) have acknowledged that the benefit of the provincial education is not available for schools on First Nations. Christine Cram, Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnership, INAC, speaking to the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples (2010a) described the current education reality faced by First Nation students as “… ,we have a single school model; we do not have a system of education” (p. 9). The Hon. Jim Prentice, a former Minister of INAC, had similar thoughts as he described First Nations education as:
There is, in fact, no education system for the First Nations … there are no national norms, no determined courses, no teaching certificate required. All the other children in the country benefit from the legal protection afforded to them in the field of
education. The only children deprived of this security are First
Nations children on reserves. (First Nations Education Council, 2009, p. 29)
Most studies and reports on the state of education on First Nations across Canada indicate that something is seriously wrong. Many schools are in a state of disrepair (Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, 2009; Winnipeg Free Press, 2010; Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, 2011). Teachers and administrators in First Nations schools have a high turnover rate of teachers and principals (Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, 2011; Steeves, Carr-Stewart, & Marshall, 2011).
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Mathematics, Science, Social Studies) from 1998/99 to 2000/01. The students attended either a First Nations controlled school, a provincial school with a tuition agreement between the First Nation and a provincial school, or a combination of the two due to movement between the two types of schools. The results indicated that students in all grades who attended First Nations schools on reserves scored lower in all categories and years than First Nations students who attended a provincial school.
In northwestern Ontario, First Nation educators in twenty-two communities were concerned about the achievement levels in their schools (Brown, 2005). They hired a psychologist to assess 1,800 students in Grades 1, 3, 5, and 7 twice in a school year. The Canadian Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) were used to assess the students. The CTBS assesses students in reading, vocabulary, and mathematics. The results indicated that more than 86% of the students were at least two grades behind.
These test results are unique. They are not from the federal government. It is difficult to obtain academic achievement information from First Nation schools because the federal government does not include First Nations schools in any testing program. These 515 schools, 119,000 students and $1.3 billion (Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, 2010a, p. 3) are excluded from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme of International Student Assessment (Statistics Canada, 2007, p. 2) which assesses students and educational systems in the ten provinces and three territories. Statistics Canada gathers only enrolment and graduation rates information from these schools.
The refusal and/or inability of the federal government to collect and disseminate First Nations education information does not bode well for the future. The federal government does not have a “starting point” to make changes. If you want to change something, first you must measure it. Presently, baseline information is lacking. We have guesstimates (i.e., students two years plus behind) but nothing concrete because the schools and students are not measured in any meaningful manner.
Separate and Unequal Systems
First of all, I must emphasize that I am not saying that my nieces and nephews who attend the federally funded schools of First Nations are the cause incapable of academic success. They are intelligent children. However, many of the schools and the administrative structures under which the schools operate are financially deficient and lack the tools to effectively measure success. What we have is really two very separate and very unequal school systems; one operated by the provincial governments and one operated by the federal government and INAC.
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This failure to provide the provincial level of funding support was acknowledged by Senator Hubley, speaking at the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples (2010a) as he spoke “My second question has to do with the differential funding between on-reserve and off-reserve schools. There are different levels of support. In some cases, it can be thousands of dollars difference per student” (p. 20). At a later committee hearing, Senator Raine (Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples (2010b) questioned INAC’s paying:
more to the provincial education department than it would pay if the student were on-reserve. I do not understand how we are to deliver decent elementary school education if we do not have equivalent or even more funding for them (p. 14).
At another meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples the unequal financial treatment of First Nations controlled schools by INAC officials was highlighted. Cindy Fisher, President of the Ontario Native Education Counseling Association spoke of her experiences as a Director of Education for Pic River First Nation. She was blunt in her assessment of the current financial situation faced by First Nations schools in her statement “First Nations schools are not equitably funded” (Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, 2010c, p. 9). She then explained that her First Nations school received $8,156 per student from the federal government. However, if their students travelled down the highway fifteen to twenty minutes away to the provincial school in Marathon, the federal government would give the provincial school division $15,211.53 per student. For high school students, the amount would increase to $17,131.88 per student.
A recent report on Pikangikum First Nation (Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, 2011) puts the financial disparity between the federal and provincial governments into another perspective. From 2002/03 to 2010/11 provincial funding per student increased from $7,201 to $10,730 or $49%. Federal government support increased only by 16% during the same period due to a freeze of 2% per year.
However, despite these financial differences INAC continues to require the First Nation schools “to follow provincial curricula” (Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, 2010a, p. 7). The requirement of equivalency with the provincial education programs and services is part of the funding agreements between the federal government and First Nations. The First Nations and Tribal Councils are expected to:
Ensure that registered Indian students ordinarily resident on reserve or on lands belonging to Her Majesty in Right of Canada and other students for whose education the Minister accepts funding responsibility have access to kindergarten, elementary and secondary level education programs and services comparable to the programs and services required to be
provided in public schools generally in the province in which the service is being provided and to ensure that the service is delivered to a standard sufficient to enable students to transfer within the school systems of the Province without academic disadvantage.
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Marshall, Carr-Stewart, & Steeves (2010) compared second level resources and services available from a provincial school division and the nearby First Nations Yorkton Tribal Council in Saskatchewan. Their conclusion noted, “funding for second-level services lags significantly behind resource commitments in provincially-operated school divisions” (p.12). Their findings also indicated that when First Nations schools were transferred to First Nations control the transfer “did not include second-level services or an educational system similar to that established by provincial school boards to support those in the daily operation of the school (p. 1).
A later study (Steeves, Carr-Stewart, & Marshall, 2011) on the Yorkton Tribal Council’s second-level education services echoed similar concerns. For example, a focus group of First Nation education leaders “commented that the Yorkton Tribal Council was doing the best they could in the situation, but that funding was not there for second level positions” (p. 4). The school administrators’ focus group discussed the inadequate funding and “expressed frustration with the slowness and conditionality of funding from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada” (p. 4).
First Nations not only encounter difficulties in securing adequate education funding, programs, services, and teachers, they are also confronted with financial difficulties to maintain school facilities. The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (2009) found that 49% of First Nations schools were in good condition. Concern was noted because 21% of all of the schools have not been inspected, ten schools were closed, and twenty-five schools were reported in poor condition. The report found that “among Canadian jurisdictions considered, INAC is unique in not factoring enrolment into operational funding level decisions” (p. 57).
INAC has not explained the reasons for having two systems for First Nations education. Provincial schools are able to receive support from school divisions/boards (second tier) and the provincial departments of education (third tier). First Nations are often expected to purchase the services of curriculum developers, subject area specialists/consultants, and psychologists from private contractors. Schools are often left with a report with recommendations but no funds for implementation (Mamow-Sha-gi-kay-win: North-South Partnership for Children in Remote First Nation Communities, 2007).
INAC has also not explained how it is possible to provide the same level of educational services with less than provincial funding. It is simply not possible. The First Nations schools, teachers, and administrators do their best with what they have, yet it is simply not good enough. It is difficult to provide the provincial level of educational services when there has not been equal level of support such as funding and support services compared to the provincial school system. Think about how your neighborhood school would manage without the educational supports such as consultants, specialists and administrative support from the school division/board and provincial departments of education.
Lack of Control and Respect
This idea of First Nations “control” of First Nation education is meaningless. INAC remains firmly in control with no accountability. The First Nations are kept in their place. Goddard (1997) has referred to “the oxymoron of band control” (p. 220) as First Nations have no input in developing the funding formula for their schools.
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Control of Indian Education (NIB/AFN, 1972). In 1972, the Honourable Jean Chretien as Minister of Indian Affairs approved the document and committed the government to implementing it (INAC, 1972). A key concept of the document was that First Nation parents have the right to be involved in decisions affecting the education of their children. However, from the 1970s into the 2000s, INAC has signed tuition agreements with provincial school divisions without the input of First Nations (INAC, 2005, Wilke, 2008).
This failure to consult and respect First Nations input goes against the very ideas and underlying principles of “First Nations Control of First Nations Education”. First Nations need to be consulted. Their input is invaluable to service their students. However, INAC rarely consults with First Nations. In BC, Terry McNeil, the Chiefs Committee on Education representative for BC complained about the treatment First Nations leadership receive from INAC officials. He complained. “INAC shows a disregard to information we put forward, they don’t correspond with us properly and they won’t meet with us in a way that supports their renewal mandate” (Schumacher, 2008, p. 1). Even when consultations occur, the end result may be different than what the First Nations had agreed as the AFN found when “after using a joint AFN/INAC Working Group to develop new guidelines during the fall of 2006, INAC, at the end of the process, made final changes unilaterally without further consultation” (AFN, undated, p.1).
These examples clearly indicate that INAC officials still believe that they have the answers. This is especially surprising since by all accounts, research, and reports, the state of First Nation education across Canada is in crisis. INAC insists that First Nations follow the provincial curriculum, however, it does not provide provincial levels of funding to the First Nations.
Reports from the Auditor General of Canada on INAC paint a picture of incompetence. How is it possible for a government department not to know its mandate and responsibilities? The incompetence goes back for years. For example, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (1986) noted the difficulty of obtaining education data and statistics on First Nations students. This caused difficulties in determining effectiveness of programs and schools and “made it virtually impossible to measure progress in such areas as educational achievement of Indian students” (p. 18). In 2000, Office of the Auditor General of Canada (2000) highlighted that investigators “could not find a formal articulation of the Department’s role or responsibilities in education” (p. 4-11) and that “actual education costs are not known to the Department” (pp. 4-17). The Auditor-General estimated that it would take 20 years to “reach parity in academic achievement with other Canadians” (p. 5).
Four years later, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (2004) found that INAC remained in the dark regarding education costs and effectiveness. The report found that “the Department does not know whether funding for First Nations is sufficient to meet the education standards it has set and whether the results are in line with the resources provided” (p. 1). Not surprisingly, the report estimated that it would now take 27 - 28 years to close the education gap between First Nations students on reserves and the rest of the Canadian population.
Recommendations
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School Divisions, and the Federal Government). The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Affairs and Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians (2008) announced that:
The Government of Canada has also dedicated new investments to allow for the sharing of expertise through tripartite agreements with First Nations and provincial government. By working in partnership, we can all ensure that those involved in the delivery of First Nations education are helping First Nations students succeed in Band-operated schools and in provincial schools.…Partnerships will be pursued at an aggregate level –
preferably at the level of a provincial government, involving groups of First Nations and engaging regional education organizations, where they exist. (p. 2)
It is interesting that INAC has no problems with finding and providing funding for these arrangements but has difficulties funding and supporting similar programs for a First Nations organization. Finally, it is time for INAC to finally admit that they do not have the answers and that maybe, just maybe, the First Nations might just have the expertise and ability to develop programs which will be successful.
I don’t want to sound totally negative. There have been a number of successes in First Nations education. These success stories include: Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre (MFNERC) in Manitoba; First Nations Schools Association/First Nations Education Steering Council (FNSA/FNESC) in British Columbia; and, the First Nations Education Council (FNEC) in Quebec. Each of these organizations is providing essential educational support to their schools. They have developed extensive plans and proposals. However, they each have difficulties securing long-term funding.
The current situation did not occur overnight. There is plenty of blame to spread around. INAC ministers and bureaucrats appear to have forgotten the concepts, principles, and the realities behind the “Indian Control of Indian Education” document. First Nations parents and their elected representatives have the right to be involved in decisions involving their children. At this point in time, over thirty-nine years have elapsed since “Indian Control of Indian Education”. You would have thought that a comprehensive system of delivering educational services has not been developed, implemented, and maintained for First Nations students across Canada.
A First Nations education law must be developed and passed. Why is it acceptable that First Nation students on reserves are the only students in Canada who are not protected by an education law. Federal policies, guidelines and directives in First Nations education do not have the force of law. First Nations students are at the whim of unqualified federal bureaucrats who “do not claim to have huge expertise in post-secondary or kindergarten to Grade 12 education” (Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, 2010a, p. 9) and who are driven by a focus of restricting education service costs rather than developing educational programs and services.
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The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and provincial First Nations organizations and officials appear to be more concerned with politics rather than the nuts and bolts issues that affect local communities. They are also often very timid in their criticisms of the federal government due to quiet threats of possible funding cuts or redistribution of funds. What is needed is a cadre of qualified consultants, specialists, and administrators to develop a comprehensive system of educational programs and services who are maintained and monitored by AFN and other First Nations organizations. These specialists could also be used to provide professional support and research to First Nations schools and communities.
AFN and the federal government must begin working with First Nations and universities to develop programs to train specialists and administrators in all areas of First Nation education. Currently, there are many teacher training programs in place across Canada. However, the next level of consultants, specialists, and administrators requires additional funding and support.
INAC must also provide a sustainable and stable funding base for First Nations education. Many First Nations have complained about sudden and arbitrary changes in government policy which results in reduced funding and thus reduced services and programs in First Nations schools. Such actions cause havoc in planning and make the schools and school officials look incompetent.
First Nation parents throughout Canada must begin to demand accountability from their elected officials and many organizations.They must also demand that their schools are properly funded and have comprehensive systems of educational support.
The argument that this is not the time to implement real change in First Nation education due to the current economic uncertainty does not stand up to scrutiny. Adequate funding of First Nations education did not occur when there was plenty of money flowing into the federal coffers. It is simply and never has been a priority of the federal government.
I know that the federal government may respond to this commentary by issuing statements about the amounts of funding First Nations receive for education, new initiatives and programs, and a commitment to “Indian Control”. However, it is all meaningless twaddle. A great amount of “First Nations” funding never hits the reserve. Many conferences, businesses, and consultants depend on this funding. The Ministers of Indian Affairs (both Liberal and Conservative) have been consistent in their incompetency and complacency. I am tired of hearing speeches. It is time for action.
If Ministers and federal bureaucrats actually believe that their efforts have created a fully functioning, comprehensive, and provincial equitable education system, then I would ask them to send their children/grandchildren to a northern First Nations “controlled” school for a year or two. These children would experience the “provincial” level of education services that the schools are supposed to provide. This is simply not going to happen.
Somehow I can’t see the Minister and INAC officials sending their offspring to schools that have these types of problems:
We need way more books, paper, and stuff like that.
There’s no erasers, no pencils.
We need to improve the stuff in the science room.
I would like to see the broken computers fixed.
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We need newer books.
Resources are needed.
We need skill development programs for all grades.
We require more library and resource materials.
Lacking textbooks, videos, computers, etc.
My teacher buys us books.
The students share books, we don’t have enough readers for the whole class.
There are no funds and no helpers for after school activities.
(Stewart, 2006, p. 2001)
The Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs must acknowledge their department’s past short-comings and failures and begin to actually work with First Nations to develop a comprehensive system of education for First Nations. Consider the provincial systems and curricula but do not be bound by them. First Nations have their own thoughts about what must be included in the curricula. INAC also must get itself away from two ideas: 1) they know what’s best; and 2) the province knows second best. A change in the mindset of federal politicians and bureaucrats must occur to radically transform their thinking and accept that First Nation parents and educators know what is best for their children.
I believe that it is time for the Minister of Indian Affairs (recently renamed Aboriginal Affairs) to sit down with representatives from First Nations, First Nations educational organizations, parents, and students to actually develop an educational system that is comprehensive and reflects what is important for First Nations. INAC officials who attend must come with blank paper. They are there to take notes and to listen. They are not there to direct the discussions.
The Future
I don’t know what type of education system First Nations leaders, parents, and teachers would develop for their children. However, it has to be better than what has occurred under the watch of the numerous Ministers of Indian Affairs. This is an opportunity for Canada to actually work together with First Nations to develop an educational system from top to bottom to reflect what First Nations want, not a poor reflection of the provincial systems. It’s time for real “First Nations Control of First Nations Education”.
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References
Assembly of First Nations (undated). Fact sheet: Special education program. Retrieved from www.afneducation.ca/files/SEP%20Fact%final.doc
Alberta Learning. (2003). Participation and results for First Nations students. Grades 3, 6, and 9 achievement tests, 1998/1999 to 2000/2001. Tests written in English. Edmonton, AB: Author.
Brown, L. (2005, April 25). Ontario’s forgotten children: Making the grade.
Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/GTA/NativeEducation/article/108027
Daily News (Nanaimo), (2008). First Nations school funding must improve. Retrieved from http://www. canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/opinion/story.html
?id=6d659b8a-3f28-4773-9ded-990b5dd1ff99
First Nations Education Council. (2009). Paper on First Nations education funding, February. Wendake, QC: First Nations Education Council.
Frontier School Division (2008). Invoice 6642, Frontier School Division to Barren Lands First Nation. Oct. 17, 2008. Winnipeg, MB: Author.
Goddard, J.,T. (1997). Reversing the spirit of delegitimation. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 17(2), 215-225.
Government of Canada (2004). Canada/First Nations funding agreement: National model for use with First Nations and Tribal Councils for 2005/2006. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Grand Council of Treaty #3, Health Care crisis (2006). First Nations Special Education
Update, September 2006. How important are our children? INAC doesn’t seem to care. Retrieved on 05/02/2008 page 2
http://www.treaty3.ca/education-crisis/
Hull, J. (2005). Comparison of Federal and Provincial Funding for Elementary-Secondary Education in First Nations Schools in Canada, 2003/04: Summary of Regional Findings (Draft). Winnipeg, MB: Prologica Research Inc.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. [INAC]. (1972). Minister’s address to the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. Regina, Saskatchewan, June 23, 1972. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada [INAC] (2005). Comprehensive funding agreement for use with tuition recipients provincial school divisions for 2005-2006. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Mamow-Sha-gi-kay-win: North-South Partnership for Children in Remote First Nation
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Marshall, J., Carr-Stewart, S., & Steeves, L. (2010). Case study: A comparison of resources available for second-level education services in Saskatchewan First Nations schools and a Saskatchewan school division. Paper presented at the Centre of the Study of Living Standards Sessions at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Economics Association, Quebec City, Quebec, May 28-30, 2010. Session 1. Improving the human capital of Canada’s Aboriginal People, Friday, May 28, 2010, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Affairs and Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians (2008). Letter from Minister Chuck Strah, July 24, 2008.
National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations [NIB/AFN]. (1972). Indian control of Indian education: Policy paper presented to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Ottawa, ON: Assembly of First Nations.
Office of the Auditor General of Canada (1986). Excerpts from the 1986 Auditor General Report on INAC/DIAND role in managing elementary and secondary education.
Retrieved from
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internat/English/parl_oag_198611_11_e_4202.html
Office of the Auditor General of Canada. (2004). Report of the Auditor General of Canada – November - Chapter 5. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada – Education program and post-secondary student support. Retrieved from
http;///www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/20041105ce.html
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Colour-Blind:
Discursive Repertoires Teachers Used to
Story Racism and Aboriginality in Urban Prairie Schools
Tyler McCreary
York UniversityAbstract
This qualitative study explores how teachers' constructions of racism consistently minimized its pervasiveness in the school. Teachers constructed racism as individual not systemic, construed it as a phenomenon of places outside the school, and attributed responsibility for addressing racism to other people, particularly Aboriginal populations. Based on written responses from 95 Canadian Prairie teachers from two schools, this research examines the discourses teachers employed to narrate racism, particularly with relation to Aboriginal students. While there were some differences between inner city and suburban teachers, teachers from both environments followed discursive repertoires that absolved themselves of responsibility for addressing racism and maintained the colour-blind image of education. Interrogating these discursive repertoires exposes the systems of denial that block meaningful action upon racialized inequalities and prevent the development of a truly inclusive educational environment. This underlines the need for expanded anti-racist professional development to support critical racial reflexivity among in-service teachers.
Keywords: racism in education; critical whiteness studies; in-service teachers; Aboriginal education
Tyler McCreary is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at York University.
Email: [email protected]
Introduction
Understanding how school teachers construct racial problems, and how they can successfully renegotiate problematic constructions, remains vital in the effort to create inclusive schools. While it is acknowledged that Aboriginal students are over-represented among school drop-outs, the explanations put forward for this phenomenon remain troubling. For example, many of the authors in Aboriginal Education: Current Crisis and Future Alternatives attribute low Aboriginal education attainment to structural determinants within the Aboriginal community (Aman, 2009; Beavon, Wingert, & White, 2009; Spence & White, 2009; White, Spence, & Maxim, 2009). There is little consideration of what occurs in schools, and particularly the roles played by teachers. A number of educators have published reflections on their own pedagogic negotiations of whiteness and Aboriginality, and the barriers that established racial mythologies present in the classroom (Caoutte & Taylor, 2007; Frideres, 2007; Northcott, 2007; St. Denis & Schick, 2003). However, few empirical studies have examined how teachers within the school relate to Aboriginal student experiences of racism. In this paper, I use a study of 95 teachers to explore how Canadian urban Prairie educators’ represented racism in the school.
In conducting open-ended survey research on teachers’ constructions of racism, I sought to examine the degree to which the myth of institutional colour-blindness circulated through teachers’ narrations of racism. This discourse of colour-blindness contributed to evading an analysis of power and silencing Aboriginal students’ racialized experiences. This research contributes to developing an understanding of both the racial cognizance of practicing educators and the need for expanded anti-racist training for in-service teachers.
Literature Review
Off-reserve Aboriginal students continue to face distinctive struggles in Canada with predominantly non-Aboriginal teaching forces. To intellectually frame this study, I draw upon three bodies of scholarship. First, quantitative studies on Aboriginal education highlight the gap between the demographics of the Prairie school-aged population and the demographics of the region's graduating classes and teaching staffs. Second, research on teachers' relationships with marginalized students and teachers' representations of racism in education begin to elucidate how teachers maintain racialized inequities. Third, the critical race scholarship contextualizes teachers' limitations within the broader racialization of settler society. Understanding the powerful invisibility vested in whiteness helps explain the simultaneous puissance of race alongside the normative belief in colour-blindness in education.
In the Canadian Prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Aboriginal people constitute the largest school-aged racially marginalized population (Siggner & Costa, 2005, p. 16; O’Donnell & Ballardin, 2006, p. 43). Their marginalization remains pronounced, as off-reserve Aboriginal students lag behind the non-Aboriginal population in terms of educational attainment (Siggner & Costa, 2005, p. 27). Nationally in 2001, 48 percent of the Aboriginal population aged 20 to 24 living in non-reserve areas had not completed high school, in contrast to only 26 percent of the general population (Turcotte & Zhao, 2004, p. 12).
Despite the fact that there have been increases in the number of racialized educators in Canada, there remains a distinct and growing gap between the diversity of the student population and the racial composition of the Canadian teaching force (Ryan, Pollock, & Antonelli, 2009). As a result, many racialized students struggle to connect to their teachers. In a study of Aboriginal high school students and drop-outs in inner city Winnipeg, less than half of participants, and only one in four female students, responded positively when asked to describe how Aboriginal students got along with teachers (Silver, Mallett, Greene, & Simard, 2002, p. 17).
support Aboriginal students. Teachers’ lack of care towards American Indian students has been repeatedly cited as a contributing factor to their high drop-out rates (Bowker, 1992, 1993; Reyhner, 1992). Research on perceptions of racism in education in Canada by Carr and Klassen (1997) and in the States by Kailin (1999) has indicated the majority of white teachers deny the reality of racism. The literature further suggests these discourses of denial are often strongest in schools serving predominantly white students (Gaine, 2000; Lewis, 2001). Carol Schick (2000, 2002) exposed how pre-service teachers, while upholding a normative moral whiteness, maintain a colour-blind image of education. Similarly, Comeau (2007) highlighted how Prairie teachers in Saskatchewan construct Aboriginal culture as the problem in anti-racist education, and thus reinscribe whiteness as the normalized moral centre.
As critical race scholars have repeatedly described, whiteness possesses the powerful status of an unmarked centre (e.g., Dyer, 1988; hooks, 1992). Kobayashi and Peake (2000, p. 393) explain whiteness operates “as the normative, ordinary power to enjoy social privilege by controlling dominant values and institutions and, in particular, by occupying space within a segregated social landscape.” This dominance continues to be veiled in the vestments of innocence, bestowing whiteness the status of powerful invisibility (Milligan & McCreary, 2011). Within a settler society, coercive land transfers and the imposition of colonial regimes of racial rule served to construct white entitlement to both space and sociopolitical authority (Adams 1999; Cardinal 1969; Monture-Angus 1995). The institutional architecture of racism, operating through a broad set of social processes, continues to systemically reproduce these established inequalities (Essed & Goldberg, 2002; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Kobayashi & Peake, 2000). This history and these processes have become so normalized that they are rendered invisible to those who benefit from them.
Notions of a colour-blind Canadian liberal meritocracy, where equality of opportunity is imagined to already exist, function to mask the reality of structural inequalities and systemic biases that privilege whiteness (Backhouse, 1999). The meritocratic myth serves to perpetuate the belief that privilege is earned and disadvantage deserved, and operates as a form of epistemic violence that denies the racialized experiences of marginalized community members (Larocque, 1991; Schick, 2000; Schick & St. Denis, 2005b). The seemingly plausible deniability of the import to race leads to the reduction of racism to individual prejudice. But while race is a fiction, it is one made meaningful through the historic construction of disadvantage and entitlement and the maintenance of these inequities into the present. Claiming colour-blindness evades recognizing and engaging with the systems of power that racialization has produced (Frankenberg, 1993; Olsson, 1996). Portraying racism as an aberration within, not a defining characteristic of, contemporary society silences established racializations and reimagines Canada as an anti-racist state (Montgomery, 2005).
While whiteness, like other racial categories, is a social construction, whiteness studies stresses the need to name whiteness in order to expose its puissance as a social fiction that continues to shape Canadian institutions. Bringing the literature on whiteness into expanded conversation with the discussion of teachers' relationships to Aboriginal education, my research highlights the need for expanded professional support to help in-service teachers develop and maintain a critical race cognizance. Race matters; teachers need to understand how to become change agents to create more inclusive schools.
Research Methodology
a significant concentration of Aboriginal people in deprived centrally-located neighbourhoods (Peters & Starchenko, 2004). To access the racial constructions that teachers circulated in and across different school settings, this research was conducted at a middle-class suburban and an inner city school. For purposes of anonymity I refer to the schools as suburban “Sunnydale” (SS) and inner city “Central” (IC). Sunnydale hosted only a handful of Aboriginal students, and was considered a high achievement or academic setting. In contrast, approximately 25-30 percent of the students at Central were Aboriginal, and the school had been working to develop programming to meet the inner city community’s needs. These two schools provided nodes to access different and similar discourses circulating among teachers in predominantly white as well as racially diverse school settings.
Primary data was collected through an open-ended survey that solicited teachers’ perceptions of racism, drawing from the methodology used from Kailin (1999). The questions asked respondents to describe any incidents of racism that they had experienced, witnessed, or heard about in the school, how they responded, and their thoughts in reflection. Teachers received the surveys with time to complete them on a professional development day. Participation was voluntary, but the institutional support for this exercise helped provide a high response rate. From a teacher population of approximately 175 faculty between these two schools, 95 teachers (69 from Central and 26 from Sunnydale) participated in the survey.
Using discourse analysis, I examined the practices of constructing knowledge about race, racism, schools, and teaching. Drawing upon work in social psychology, this analysis used a nuanced reading of the texts to understand the particular ways in which racial truths were constructed and mobilized. I particularly attended to the discursive practices of positioning subjects and invoking social categories such as race (Wood & Kroger, 2000). Social category memberships like race tend to be enduring, embedded as part of a broader social knowledge that is drawn on as a discursive resource within the context of individual narrations (Wetherell & Potter, 1992). Analysis of patterns in discourse highlighted the existence of standard discursive repertoires. While aspects of these repertoires were unique to teaching, they reflected larger societal discourses that served to furnish commonsense understandings. Relying upon, often unspoken, vital elements of context, participants drew upon this shared commonsense to construct meaning in accordance with dominant ideological frames (Billig, 1999). Particularly, this research illustrates how normalized societal mythologies of colour-blindness informed the standard discursive repertoires teachers followed in storying their responses to racism.
Results
Teachers used a range of terms to refer to Aboriginal people. This extended from encompassing terms such as “Native”, an increasingly dated term, and “Aboriginal”, which includes Indian, Métis, and Inuit peoples, to terms such as “First Nations” and “Indian”, which reference the particular populations governed by the Indian Act. However, these terms are somewhat blurry, as the regulation of status under the Indian Act has never included the full population of people that identify as Indians or First Nations (Lawrence, 2004). Teachers used the terms “Aboriginal”, “Native”, “First Nations”, and “Indian” interchangeably to represent the predominant racialized ‘Other’ on the Prairies.
Within the surveys, whiteness operated as both an unspoken norm and an explicitly invoked category. This explicit naming included the referring to people as “white”, Caucasian”, or “European”. However, with the prevalent myth of colour-blindness, for some teachers the very act of acknowledging or naming race, particularly whiteness, represented an instance of racism. This was particularly evident in teachers' disavowal of racially marginalized students' attempts to pronounce the whiteness of the school, which I will return to in the Discussion section.
In their survey responses, teachers varied from narrating individual examples of racism in the school to storying recurrent patterns through which race emerged as an issue in education. However, a number of distinct themes or repertoires emerged. I have labeled these repertoires: individualizing racism, invoking the race card, casting racism as internalized, displacing racism, and recognizing school segregation. In tabulating responses to provide a general picture of the survey data, I counted the number of teachers whose writing deployed a particular discursive repertoire rather than the number of individual instances of racism cited in the surveys (Table 1). Each discursive repertoire involves a teacher using a distinctive frame or trope in their writing; however, these repertoires were not mutually exclusive. In fact, the majority of the teachers’ writing included more than one repertoire, and thus the total of the percentages does not add up to 100 percent.
Table 1:Urban Prairie Teachers' Representations of Racism
Individualized Race Card Internalized Displaced Segregated
Inner City Central 38 26 12 18 4
Suburban
Sunnydale 13 7 1 0 12
Total 51 33 13 18 16
Percentage of
Central Surveys 55% 38% 17% 26% 6%
Percentage of
Sunnydale Surveys 50% 27% 4% 0% 46%
Percentage of Total
Surveys 54% 35% 14% 19% 17%
The final three repertoires were even more sharply divided between the geography of inner city and suburban school environments. This repertoire of casting racism as internalized appeared in 17 percent of inner city surveys. This involved situating racism as a problem internalized within how racialized people view themselves. Another 26 percent of inner city teachers used tropes that displaced racism. In these surveys, teachers employed rhetorical contrasts to minimize racism in inner city schools in comparison to other environments. Finally, in Sunnydale, 46 percent of survey respondents addressed racism in terms of the segregated school environment evidenced by the racially divided student population.
Discussion
Through the surveys, teachers repeatedly constructed racism as individual not systemic, construed it as a phenomenon of other places and not their school, and attributed responsibility for racism to other people, particularly Aboriginal populations. In discussing the survey results, I follow the order of the repertoires outlined above, discussing individualizing racism, invoking the race card, casting racism as internalized, displacing racism, and recognizingschool segregation. Using a close reading of particular survey texts, I seek to unravel the weave of identities that give texture to teachers' narrations. I critically review the frames teachers used to represent racism, and how the commonsense of educational colour-blindness screened institutional aspects of racism from view. This analysis highlights howteachers created and preserved space for normalized (white) teacher and school identities. Through silencing the cultural domination of whiteness, teachers maintained the image of the school as a colour-blind space largely antithetical to racism. Critically reading these discursive repertoires exposes how normalized systems of denial block meaningful action upon racialized inequalities. This research highlights the need to expand anti-racist professional development programming that promotes critical racial reflexivity among in-service teachers to create a truly inclusive educational and societal environment.
Individualizing Racism
A focus on individual acts of racism was a prevalent characteristic of the teachers’ narratives. Teachers frequently portrayed the problem of racism as produced by prejudiced individuals purveying stereotypes and plying inappropriate slurs. In both the suburban and inner city schools, teachers regularly exposed the stereotyping of Aboriginal people by students. Through emphasizing individual prejudice, teachers highlighted certain pervasive and problematic beliefs but silenced the systemic racism that permeates our society and educational institutions. Racism infiltrated the school through individual bodies, but the fabric of the institution and teaching was not systemically implicated in racism. This frame resonated with a commonsense understanding of racism as the exception rather than the norm in Canada.
Teachers from both schools regularly reported the presence of racial stereotypes in students' comments and writing, particularly in regard to Aboriginal people. Teachers described how student stereotypes categorically portrayed Aboriginal people as violent, criminal, gangsters, as lazy and unfairly privileged, and as poor, drunk, and implicitly inferior. In the narratives, teachers positioned themselves as combating such beliefs through counterpoising history, disputing the generalizability of stereotypes, humanizing Aboriginal people, or simply policing inappropriate comments.
The following inner city teacher, for instance, described encountering the irrational racist beliefs of some students in class and countering it with a pedagogy of historical truth.
situation. I tried to teach them the facts by showing historical truths that countered their stereotypes. (IC-08)
In contrast to the irrationality of the students’ beliefs, the teacher situated her/himself as the bearer of not only truth but also sanity in her/his attempts to imbue knowledge. The repeated contrasts of facts and truth with stereotypes and beliefs located the teacher within the main of a civilized scientific society, and placed the students as occupying a deviant social location. Thus, the narrative confined racism to a few aberrant individuals, and positioned the “historical truths” purveyed through Western education as the counter to it. Absent from the narrative was any mention of the debates within education over how curricular versions of history may themselves be enmeshed in colonial logics (e.g., Willinsky, 1998).
Teachers’ brief discussions of slurs and jibes often similarly effaced the complex power relations that contour experiences of race, instead portraying an even field of prejudiced exchanges. For example, one teacher wrote that “[t]he bathroom cubicles probably sport the most racism, in [the] form of slurs such as 'whitey' or 'white chick' to 'fuckin indian' and 'fuckin whitey'” (IC-70). Here, absent an analysis of social power, racism was depicted as the simple exchange of racially targeted volleys. Another teacher listed evidence of racial issues in the schools, paralleling “racist graffiti in the boys washroom directed at native students; [and] similar graffiti directed at Caucasian students” (IC-26). The discussion of bathroom graffiti in the inner city school consistently depicted racism as equally emerging from and victimizing both white and Aboriginal students. Thus, whiteness was disassociated from cultural and institutional power, and constructed as just another identity category caught in the racial conflict. Neglecting the institutional context and defining racism as individual prejudicial acts, these teachers conveyed an image of racism as resulting from injurious individual beliefs. While teachers at times exposed useful frames and techniques with which to engage racism, these interventions occurred within the context of addressing flagrant prejudice among individual students and neglected the need for institutional change.
Invoking the Race Card
Racially marginalized community members, however, asserted the presence of racism within the institution as well as the students. Teachers from both schools dismissed these accusations of racism, framing student or parent efforts to “pull the race card” as an attempt to leverage race to escape punishment or receive preferential treatment. The race card, predominantly mentioned in relation to Aboriginal students although occasionally also involving Black students, was never cast as correctly identifying teacher prejudice. Teachers mitigated student and parent claims of teacher bias by drawing upon the discourse of colour-blindness, asserting the fairness of their treatment of all students. Through this construction, teachers conveyed the racial problem as originating in the propensity of marginalized people to wrongly portray themselves as victims of prejudice.
Portraying the problem of school racism as originating from Aboriginal people, their behaviour, and their accusations, the following inner city teacher clearly positioned her/himself as innocent and the allegations of prejudice as fallacious.
The only "incident" I recall was from an aboriginal student who was confronted with smoking in an inapprop. location started in on the teacher that he was being picked on by "you white guys” ‘cause he was an indian. He became quite hostile and loud then when I went over and said “none [sic] was to be smoking here I don't care if you were green its [sic] because you shouldt [sic] be smoking so put it out”. He put out his smoke and marched away. At this point there were 3 teachers involved. (IC-14)
