“I Had a Rough Past But Things Are Getting Better for Sure”: Aboriginal Youth and Schooling

• In Event: Roundtable Session 104
  In Roundtable Session: Ontario’s Urban Aboriginal Education Pilot Projects: To Know Is Not Enough to Decolonize Our Schools

Abstract

Purposes: Complicating a narrow definition of learning premised on the acquisition of and capacity to replicate knowledge and the mastery of skills, the notion of student well-being advanced here relies on a complex understanding of what it means to learn. For Aboriginal students, an emphasis on academics in the absence of attention to the whole of their being is alienating and contributes in substantive ways to disengagement and dissatisfaction with schooling (Deyhle, 1998). In contrast, a focus on well-being positions Aboriginal students as multifaceted beings who thrive when provided with positive nurturing relationships.
Theoretical framework: Grounded in the perspectives and experiences of research participants, and drawing on indigenous approaches to education (Battiste, 1995, 2000; Archibald, 2008; Hampton; 1995) we argue for a focus on Aboriginal Student well-being. Because it advances Aboriginal philosophies and practices of Education (Ermine, 1995; Alfred, 2008; Cajete, 1995; Graveline, 2003), and addresses colonial histories and legacies (Battiste, 1998), well-being contributes to decolonizing and indigenizing education. As Eber Hampton (1995) argues Indian education must enhance Aboriginal consciousness of what it means to be an Indian, thus empowering and enriching individual and collective lives.
Methods of inquiry: Aboriginal students bring complex histories/identities/experiences into classrooms and schools where to a large extent teachers (and the broader school communities) are ill prepared to address these students’ needs, desires, histories, identities and experiences. While we recognize students’ individual subjectivities our data suggests that Aboriginal students often share common experiences. Listening to the stories Aboriginal students told about their school experiences and to their experiences with Pilot Project activities, it is clear that coming to know their Aboriginality made success possible by creating well-being for those participating in this project.
Data sources: Drawing on research completed in collaboration with Aboriginal Educators in the TDSB our data includes interviews and Talking Circles with Aboriginal students, observation notes from pilot project events, interviews with teachers, parents and school administrators and writing completed by Aboriginal students.
Results: As the project progressed we became increasingly conscious of the multiple ways in which Urban Aboriginal youth are forming and performing their Aboriginality and the significant ways in which the affirmation of their Aboriginality contributed to “better” experiences in schools. In combination affirmation of identity, learning from and about the history of colonialism, access to traditional teachings, support that extended beyond the boundaries of the school day had a positive impact on students’ experience of schooling.
Scholarly significance: In contrast to the literature that documents the marginalization and alienation Aboriginal students experience in institutions of formal schooling (Mackay and Myles, 1995; Battiste, 1998; Schissel, B., & Wotherspoon, T. 2003) our work offers possibilities for providing Aboriginal students with positive and affirming experiences of schooling and portrays Aboriginal students comfortably claiming space and belonging in their school environment.

Authors

• Susan Dion, York University

• Catherine Pawis, Toronto District School Board