Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Learning from place offers an opportunity to provide relevance to mathematics education for Aboriginal students. This study investigates experiences of Grade 9 Aboriginal students as they engage in learning from place through the integration of the technologies of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), digital cameras, and photo book production software. Three research questions will be explored: (1) How does learning from place transform students’ learning of mathematics? (2) What are students’ experiences of engaging in mathematics learning supported by technologies? (3) To what extent are pedagogical strategies of learning from place effective for enhancing student interest, understanding, and sense of relevance in mathematics?

Winnipeg’s inner city is an area with concentrated levels of unemployment and social challenges, and Aboriginal peoples are disproportionately concentrated there. There are a range of educational opportunities for Aboriginal youth in Winnipeg’s North End. Within the literature there has been relatively little attention paid to which Aboriginal students attend which schools, why they attend those schools, as well as their experiences of fitting in and learning in those schools. The proposed study is a participatory research project with local community partners that will make a contribution to knowledge about Aboriginal learning at the high school level in high-poverty urban Canadian neighbourhoods.

Together with community collaborators, the lead researcher will observe the use of critical pedagogy and experiential and place-based educational practices currently in place in three communities in the North: the public school systems of the Yukon (Whitehorse, YT) and Nunavut (Rankin Inlet, NU) Territories and in a Cree Nation reserve school (Whitefish Lake, AB). An interdisciplinary approach will be taken as the lead researcher will interview participants, observe programs, and analyze curricular documents. Knowledge gained through comparative case studies developed from personal narratives, interviews, and focus groups will hopefully assist other educators and community members in providing engaging and culturally relevant education.

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This community-based research involves teachers in the Aboriginal Program of Learning Through the Arts [LTTA] in Aboriginal communities across Canada. It will identify culturally appropriate methodologies to examine the effectiveness of Aboriginal teacher professional development (PD) in arts-based teaching and of the Aboriginal LTTA program. Information will be sought to create understanding of the effects of the teacher PD on Aboriginal teachers and their practices, their sense of commitment to and pride in their own teaching, and their perceptions as to whether arts-based teaching assists Aboriginal students to better understand and embrace their cultural identities.

The proposed project is based on recent research which found that movement and song can be used very effectively to teach beginning reading to young children (Walton et al., 2005). The songs and curriculum materials used in that project did not reflect local Aboriginal culture. The proposed project will involve Aboriginal teachers, musicians, and curriculum developers to write original children’s songs and curricula that are culturally appropriate for Aboriginal children, mostly Secwepemc. The curriculum we develop will be video-based. Body movements and activities with text will also be developed. An experimental project designed to examine the effects of the curriculum will then be carried out (i.e., pre-test/post-test design with a control group). The research and curricula development process will have applications with different Aboriginal groups in Canada.