Aboriginal Learning|Autochtones

Reclaiming the Learning Spirit: Learning from our ExperiencePublications

Reclaiming the Learning Spirit:
Learning from our Experience

This report is a summary of the Reclaiming the Learning Spirit: Learning from Our Experience roundtable, which took place at the Saskatoon Inn in Saskatoon, Sask. on March 12-14, 2008. The event was a collaboration between the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre (AbLKC) and the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre (ALKC), which are initiatives funded by the Canadian Council on Learning. The idea of a co-sponsored event that aimed at improving the learning environment for adult Aboriginal learners was wholeheartedly embraced by both knowledge centres.

 

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The philosophical underpinnings of the roundtable are rooted in the 1996 Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal Peoples. This landmark report envisioned a new relationship between Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people based on mutual respect, equality and responsibility.

Inspired by this, the Reclaiming the Learning Spirit: Learning from Our Experience roundtable invited more than 50 experts, including adult learners and practitioners from across the country, to come together to discuss strategies for success. Instead of using a deficit model which would emphasize the challenges faced by Aboriginal communities (who have historically shown low educational levels and economic status), the roundtable highlighted successful learning strategies for adult Aboriginal learners.

Successful learning strategies consistently share common features

They are:

  • community-based;
  • holistic;
  • strength-based;
  • transformative; and
  • anti-colonization

Effective efforts to improve learning invariably focus on developing anti-racism strategies, formulating an anti-colonization curriculum, and eliminating poverty.

Purpose

The purpose of the Reclaiming the Learning Spirit: Learning from Our Experience roundtable was to share stories of transformation, hope and success as a means of better informing educational institutions that serve adult Aboriginal learners.

The goal was to form an action plan that identified affirming practices and approaches for adult learning programs aimed at Aboriginal learners.

 
Program

The program for the roundtable was designed to elicit discussion around four presentations:

  • Acknowledging the Past and Present —Aboriginal Education: Redefining Educational Problems and Solutions by Dr. Verna St. Denis, University of Saskatchewan. Dr. St. Denis is a Cree/Métis scholar who specializes in anti-racist approaches in education. Her presentation provided an examination of the history of Eurocentric education for Aboriginal Peoples, its effects, and the legacy of this history.
  • Vision and Possibility: Adult Aboriginal Education and Inner-City Community Development , by Dr. Jim Silver, University of Winnipeg. Dr. Silver is chair of the Department of Politics, and co-director of Urban and Inner-city Studies program at the University of Winnipeg. His area of interest is inner-city, poverty-related, community development issues. His work has involved collaborative research with communities to create solutions for overcoming racism, poverty, and disenfranchisement.
  • Acting on the Vision: Aboriginal Adult Learners in Post-Secondary Education by Brenda Ireland. Ms. Ireland is an intercultural educator and project manager with extensive experience in social, community, and education development with an emphasis on Aboriginal communities and organizations. Her presentation offered a real-life, on-the-ground glimpse into programs offered to Aboriginal learners. Her presentation provided stories of the challenges faced by Aboriginal learners and their teachers.
  • Reclaiming Learning Spirit: "Re-Awakening the Learning Spirit in Literacy Programming" by Ningwakwe (Priscilla) George. Ningwakwe is a former teacher in the educational system in Toronto, as well as community-based programs. She is a Deer Clan Anishnawbe Kwe from the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation in Southern Ontario. She helped to start provincial and national Aboriginal literacy associations. Her address traced her own learning as an adult educator.

The text of these presentations is contained in this report.

 
Discussions

Throughout the roundtable event, participants were invited to discuss the presentations by reflecting on the following questions:

  • What learning philosophies and theories (anti-oppressive etc.) can we draw upon to produce positive results?
  • What practices produce positive learning outcomes?
  • What are the key systemic challenges/barriers facing institutions and training programs serving Aboriginal adult learners?
  • What are the key challenges/barriers facing adult learners?
  • What strategies (policies and procedures) would have to be implemented to address the challenges of adult learners and to ensure that the educational and cultural needs of these learners and their communities are nurtured?

A synthesis of these discussions can be found on page 109 of this report.

 
Action Plan

The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre and the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre are extremely pleased with the Reclaiming the Learning Spirit: Learning from Our Experience roundtable. The roundtable effectively laid the groundwork for an action plan to develop adult learning programs aimed at Aboriginal learners, based on effective strategies that are affirming and transformative. By standing shoulder to shoulder, the knowledge centres created an event grounded in real-life experiences that was inspired by a vision to see the learning spirit of Aboriginal Peoples reclaimed.

 

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 report, collaborative project, Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, March 2008, roundtable report, successful strategies, holistic, anti-colonization  Le rapport, la table ronde, projet de collaboration, le Centre du savoir sur l'apprentissage chez les Autochtones, le Centre du savoir sur l'apprentissage chez les adultes, cette activité, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan en mars 2008, les stratégies efficaces,  holistiques, anticolonisation The report highlights successful learning strategies for Aboriginal adult learners that are community-based, holistic, strength-based, transformative, and anti-colonization. Le rapport met en évidence les stratégies d'apprentissage efficaces pour les apprenants adultes autochtones.  Ces stratégies sont communautaires, holistiques et  basées sur les forces, ont un pouvoir de transformation et sont anticolonisation.