Bitterroot as a metaphor for decolonizing education

Starleigh GrassOctober 25th, 2012

University of British Columbia Okanagan

Recognition of territory

• We are on unceded Okanagan territory• Thank you to the Okanagan Nation for their

ongoing hospitality • Limlempt to Carmella Alexis, Dr. Jeanette

Armstrong, Dr. Bill Cohen, Marlow Sam, Dr. Brent Peacock for their ongoing leadership in academia and for being inspirations in my own life

Properly introducing myself

• Tsilhqot’in – gold • Tletinqox-t’in, Yunesit’in, Tsi Del Del • E-li Jeff – knowledge and land justice• Nita Grass – education as empowerment • Mother/aunt – education as an obligation to

the future

Resistance as an inheritance

• Hardline• Unreasonable • Religious

fundamentalist extremist

• Insolence • Menaces • Troublesome and

disorderly

• Glavin, T. (1992). Nemiah: The Unconquered Country. Vancouver, BC: New Star Books.

Professionally introducing myself • Aboriginal Strategic Plan Implementation Committee • FNESC – EFP10/11, EFP12 • Educational Advisor for McGraw Hill • Professional development facilitator • K-12 humanities teacher in communities with high percentage of

Aboriginal students • Literacy coach – Lillooet Tribal Council • Curriculum development• TA Leyton Schnellert • BCTELA – journal co-editor Pamela Richardson • GAA Jeanette Armstrong, Bill Cohen • Twinkle’s Happy Place

Why bitterroot?

What are we doing here?

5 stages of decolonizationLaenui, P. (2000). Process of decolonization. In M. Baptiste (Ed.) Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. Pp. 150-

160

1) Rediscovery and recovery 2) Mourning 3) Dreaming 4) Commitment 5) Action

Medicine wheelBaptiste, M. (2000). Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

• Mapping colonialism (West)• Diagnosing colonialism (North)• Healing colonized indigenous peoples (East)• Indigenous renaissance (South)

25 Indigenous ProjectsSmith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. New York, New York: Zen Publications.

• Reframing • Envisioning

Non-linear transformative praxisSmith, G. H. (2003). Kau Papa Maori:Theorizing Indigenous transformation of education and schooling.

http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/pih03342.pdf p.13

Resistance

ConscientizationTransformative Action

Awareness is not enough

• In anti-racist education, being aware of racism and different perspectives is not enough. One can be aware, and yet continue to perpetuate oppression.

• Gorski, P. C. (2009). Good intentions are not enough: A decolonizing intercultural education. Intercultural Education 19(6). P515-525. Retrieved fromhttp://www.everettcc.edu/uploadedFiles/Faculty_Staff/TLC/Diversity_Teaching_Lab/intercultural-education.pdf

What are we doing here?

Reframing the roots of inequity in education

Achievement discrepancy

Inequitable distribution

of public resources

Grade 12 50%

PSE growing gap

Association of Colleges and Universities Canada. (2010). National working summit on Aboriginal post-secondary education. Ottawa, Ontario: Association of Colleges and Universities Canada in association with the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. http://www.aucc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/aboriginal-report- summit-aboriginal-pse-2010-12-15-e.pdf

Locating responsibilityKuokkanen, R. (2007). Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of Gift. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

StudentCommuni

ty Outside factors

Institution

Invisibility

• Academia presents Indigenous thought as inferior to Eurocentric thought

• Strips Aboriginal students of their heritage and identity

• Succumb to eurocentric thought, • Youngblood Henderson, J. (2000b). Postcolonial ghost dancing: Diagnosing European colonialism. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Reclaiming

Indigenous Voice and Vision (57-76). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

• or else?

Teaching population

Wilful ignorance Kuokkanen, R. (2007). Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of Gift. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Sanctioned ignoranceRegan, P. (2010). Unsettling the Settler Within. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Liberal individual ideology

• Power blind tolerance discourses which do not explicitly address racism only serve to blame Aboriginal students when it is the institutions that are failing

• There is room in the curriculum for decolonization, but teachers aren’t making it happen

• Orlowski, P. (2008). "That would certainly be spoiling them": Liberal discourses of Social Studies teachers and concerns about Aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Native Education 31 (2). p110-129.

Culture as a means of assimilation?

• Integration of culture into the classroom for the sole purpose of increasing literacy and numeracy achievement in order to better integrate indigenous peoples into the neoliberal market is a neocolonial version of education for assimilation

• Kostogriz, A. (2011). Interrogating the ethics of literacy intervention in indigenous schools. English Teaching: Practice and Critique 10 (2). P24-38.

If these are the roots of inequity, what are the solutions?

And what role do I play in solutions?

IK

Culture

Self determination

and decolonization

Indigenous knowledges are inherently disruptive

• Requires epistemological and pedagogical shift that inherently undermines the privileging of Eurocentric thought

• Experiential, student centered, place based • Mason, R. (2008). Conflicts and Lessons in First Nations Secondary Education: An Analysis of BC First Nations Studies. Canadian Journal of

Native Education 31 (2). pp 130-153.

Cultural integration

• Indigenous knowledge base increases high school completion

• Nazeem, M., Puchala, C., Janus, M. (2011). Does the EDI Equivalently Measure Facets of School Readiness for Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal children? Social Indicators Research, 103, 299-314.

• Being culturally connected increases post secondary completion

• Drywater-Whitekiller, V. (2010). Cultural resilience: Voices of Native American students in college retention. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 30 (1). p1-19.

• Communities with a cultural continuity have lower suicide rates

• Chandler, M. J., & Lalonde, C. (1998). Cultural continuity as a hedge against suicide in Canada's First Nations.Transcultural Psychiatry 35 (2). 191-219.

Community connections

• Make connections to Aboriginal communities • Learn about the histories of Aboriginal

communities • Orlowski, P. (2008). "That would certainly be spoiling them": Liberal discourses of Social Studies teachers and concerns about Aboriginal

students. Canadian Journal of Native Education 31 (2). p110-129.

Self determination and decolonization

• University classroom climate is a strong indicator of drop out rates in post-secondary

• Lindsay, W. G. (2010). Redman in the ivory tower: First Nations students and negative classroom environments in the university setting. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 30 (1). p 143-154.

• Shifting the purpose of education as a means to explicitly to address ongoing injustices shifts classroom climate and teaching attitudes

It is being done

• Self governed Aboriginal post-secondary institutions, developed with the purpose of building capacity to meet the needs of decolonization, have a higher success rate than mainstream institutions

• Stonechild, B. (2006). The New Buffalo: The Struggle for Aboriginal Post-secondary Education in Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press.

It is mandated in this institution

• "UBC has an obligation to assure that an accurate and developed understanding of Aboriginal histories, cultures, and perspectives is integrated into its existing curricula," (2008 UBC Aboriginal Strategic Plan).

How do we hold this institution accountable for these changes?

And what role do I have in this process of change?