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Walking to work one morning in Igloolik, high-school teacher Hugh Dale-Harris was surprised to come across a throng of people running in the opposite direction of the school—a group that included many of his own students. Once he reached Ataguttaaluk High School he found his classroom empty save for a few students.
After asking around he solved his mystery: earlier that morning news had spread that a pod of beluga whales had been sighted near the shore of the small Inuit community, which is located just south of Baffin Island. The whale sighting had sent a good portion of Igloolik’s 1,000 or so residents rushing and clambering on to boats to take part in the hunt; an integral part of Inuit culture and the local community’s annual tradition.
Story #1 Measuring what matters
Story #2 Case Study: Kihew Waciston Cree Immersion School
Story #3 Case Study: Partnering With Parents and Communities in Education
That incident in the fall of 1998 proved pivotal for Dale-Harris, an Ottawa-based teacher who had decided to try out some of his new teaching skills in the North. “It reminded me how learning that happens in the classroom can sometimes be so disconnected from what is happening in the outside world.”
Then 27 and fresh out of teachers’ college, Dale-Harris was quickly confronted with the fact that a traditional curriculum rooted in Western teachings held little relevance for his students.
“I knew I had to take them out of the classroom and into the community as much as possible,” the now 38-year-old explains. “I had to rethink a lot of things and change some of my expectations. Not expect less, just expect different things—or in some cases the same things, but done in very different ways.”
Different approaches to learning are at the heart of The State of Aboriginal Learning In Canada: A Holistic Approach to Measuring Success, a new report from the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). The result of a multi-year initiative to redefine how Aboriginal learning in Canada is measured, the report makes a persuasive argument for a new approach to looking at and measuring learning in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities across Canada.
The evidence-based picture it presents is of a lifelong learning process that reaches far beyond school walls to encompass learning that takes place in the home, the community, the workplace and on the land (such as learning from tradition, culture or spirituality).
For the approximately 1.1 million First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada learning is a holistic, lifelong process that is not confined to the classroom, but rather is connected to the land, inter-generational contact and personal experience.
Connecting her personal experience and the experiences of her people to her formal education played a major role in the university success of Darrah Beaver. The 32-year-old Maliseet woman from the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution, something she’s put to good use in her job at the Assembly of First Nations as an advocate for quality education on reserves. But her post-secondary experience was not without its struggles.
For example, in one course she was required to read Aristotle’s views on crime and punishment. But the material did not resonate with her at all, until she linked it to a First Nations view of restorative justice.
“I knew that consensus building is a big part of who we are,” she explains, noting that she realized that Aristotle’s views had influenced the traditional great thinkers in her own community. Her breakthrough moment came when she began asking herself in every class: “How does it impact my people? How does it reflect my experiences? And how can I use it?”
Coming from a reserve with a population of 1,200 people, she initially felt overwhelmed at Carleton University where a lecture might be attended by some 400 students. As the first in her immediate family to attend post-secondary education Beaver could not ask her family for academic support, unlike many of her Canadian peers. What’s more, during a two-year period in her studies four of her relatives passed away.
“You’re as close to your extended family as to your immediate family,” she explains, noting that she had to return home for each funeral. “I struggled with a lot of grief when I was trying to focus on school.”
The value of inter-generational connections for Aboriginal learners is also the focus of a new initiative at Saskatchewan’s Rossignol High School which boasts a largely Métis student body.
The school is in Ile-à-la-Crosse—the second-oldest community in Saskatchewan—and is run by Vince Ahenakew, a local boy who grew up to be a school principal. Faced with a range of problems common to any high school, Ahenakew decided on an unorthodox solution: he invited two Elders (a male and a female) into the school on a weekly basis to participate in assemblies and talk with his students about everything from suicide to drug and alcohol abuse and the benefits of staying in school. The Elders also pay regular visits to the town’s elementary school.
CCL’s report found that these connections with Elders are commonplace in many Aboriginal communities in Canada. In fact, four in 10 Aboriginal youth living off-reserve interacted with Elders at least one hour a week outside the classroom, which is one of the key ways of learning about culture and traditions.
“They’re good role models and the kids respond to them,” says Ahenakew. “They have all this knowledge and we don’t tap into it—we’re banging our heads and they have the answer.”
Elders mingle with students and teachers, sharing their experience and expertise which Ahenakew says is already reaping benefits.
“It’s starting to happen. A couple of students were leery at first, but they are now coming to see the elders. That’s what we wanted; we wanted to bridge that gap.”
Bridging a gap between Western teaching methods and Aboriginal ways of learning proved more of a challenge for Dale-Harris during his trip to Nunavut in 1998. After the whale-sighting episode, Dale-Harris—who has a strong background in outdoor experiential learning—asked parents to sign a waiver allowing him to take his students out of the classroom to fish, camp and hunt for seal.
Following this change in approach he says he witnessed changes in his students, as they gained self-confidence, a sense of community and respect for each other.
“What is education for?” Dale-Harris, who returned to teach Ataguttaaluk High School on a short-term contract in 2007, says. “There are lots of different answers. One answer is to prepare students for society and to have a role in the community. That’s almost as valuable, if not more, than anything else.”