Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Publications

When Learning Draws Us In Like Magnets, Our Heart and Brain Connect To Animate Our Worldviews In Practice

In Canada, eight percent of Aboriginal workers have completed a university degree, which is substantially less than non-Aboriginal workers at 21%. The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre's Pedagogy of Professions and Practitioners Animation Theme Bundle researchers believe education and a flourishing population of Aboriginal professionals will erase this inequality.

It is their conclusion, as discussed in these three related documents, that there is a need for a national and provincial dialogue about creating a national strategy for Aboriginal peoples in the professions. Redefining success is essential to the constitutional vision of a just society, which includes the honour of the Crown in fulfilling aboriginal and treaty rights. A national strategy should acknowledge that professional education:

• is an ongoing process aimed at offering quality education for all while respecting diversity and the different needs and abilities, characteristics, and learning expectations of students and communities, thus eliminating all forms of discrimination;
• addresses the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples while arresting social inequity and poverty levels, as these two challenges are major obstacles to the implementation of inclusive educational policies and trans-systemic curriculum; and
• promotes training and workplace environments that are culturally safe, conducive to effective learning, healthy and protective, gender-responsive, and count Aboriginal learners and Elders as active participants in the formulation of policies and protocols for practice. Aboriginal Elders should actively create and sustain a self-regulating College of Elders in each Aboriginal and Treaty territory so that society may increase the understanding of Indigenous knowledge, heritage, and culture in professional education.

Top