Aboriginal Teacher Education as Cultural Brokerage: A University/First Nations Partnership to Prepare Nishnawbe Aski Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Indigenist Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper examines a teacher education partnership between a Canadian university and the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council to develop a community-based teacher education program in Northwestern Ontario. The program attempts to shift the educational practice by immersing teacher candidates in a Two Worlds Orientation that includes the unique Anishinabek understanding of such concepts as land, healing, justice, circular time, language, parenting, and consensus building. A Two Worlds Orientation includes Western educational principles to the extent that they can be co-opted for purposes which support and strengthen the cultural practices of the communities. This paper assesses the program effectiveness program and offers recommendations for enhancing engagement with language, culture and land-based learning to prepare Aboriginal students to live in both worlds.

Authors

• Julian D. Kitchen, Brock University

• John H. Hodson, Lakehead University