Sioux Lookout District Education Directors and District Education Planning Committee Focus Group –...

Sioux Lookout District Education Directors and District Education Planning Committee Focus Group February 2 nd 2010 Sioux Lookout, Ontario Facilitator: Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. Chippewa of Georgina Island FN

Thought to Ponder We cannot talk about being an intelligent person without knowledge of and access to all the levels of our intelligence capacity the intelligence of the body, the mind, heart and spirit. The intelligence of the mind, for instance, does not operate to its fullest creative, discriminating, and encompassing potential without its active partnership with the intelligence of the heart. FN Centre, Regional Health Survey, 2005

Fund for Year One FNSSP has developed a work plan for the funding available for Year 1 that includes a broad spectrum of commitments which need to be prioritized by KERC if they are to be met by the March 2010 deadline.

Work Plan to-dateincludes Review of School Success Plans and the Process for School Evaluations Adapt school review tool if necessary Develop Indicators of success* Complete 5 school reviews before the end of March Deliver training at the community level on the success planning process

Work Plan continued Support communities that are ready to implement their school success plans Liaise with EdQualAcctOffice with the goal of developing a northern version of the EQAO test* Complete Canadian Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) in all communities Develop performance measures that will indicate success (some already identified)*

Education Supports Needed Developing of three key components: 1. School success plans 2. Student learning assessments standardized testing based on Provincial standards * 3. Performance measurement: development of performance goals, indicators, and school information systemsbecause if it cant be measured, it is not a goal, it is merely a wish*

First Nation Student Success Program(FNSSP) The goal of the program is to support First Nation educators plan and make improvements in 3 priority areas: Literacy Numeracy And, perhaps most significantly, student retention and graduation

Kwayaciiwin Ed Resource Centre Three Components to discuss today: 1. What is the value of education as a mechanism for the preservation of culture and community inspiration? 2. What does the research tell us? 3. What questions do we need to ask ourselves, our kids, our teachers? 4. Where do we see ourselves in 20 years?

Four Early Questions 1. How valuable an experience do you plan for this session to be? 2. How much risk are you willing to take? 3. How participative do you plan to be? 4. To what extent are you personally invested in the well-being of the whole? Please take 5 minutes to answer each individually, then a few minutes to share your thoughts with your group.

Responses to 3 components 1. All see great value in the immediate move to preserve culture and language as elements of the formal education system, and, are willing to fight for it. 2. Where do we see ourselves in 20 years? This is an important consideration based on the youthful population in our communities. There is a strong desire to see kids speaking the language fluently.

The Value of Education? Gives our people the ability to develop new adaptable, holistic learning models that will help to map the relationships between learning purposes, life experiences and knowledge outcomes across an entire life span; affirm FN, Inuit and Mtis values and beliefs; thereby providing a basis for developing positive new frameworks for measuring learning successes

Value It is estimated that there are 300,000 Aboriginal children and youth who could enter the labour force over the next 15- 20 years, we want to ensure that their entry is positive and rewarding. Education will ensure higher levels of social capital and will provide a culture of trust, participation, collective action, reciprocity, and community health.

Aspirations? The core idea is for us to agree on educational practices, standards and measurements so that not only some students aspire to learn and graduate from level to level, but all learners of all ages are included. This will require changing our (learned) assumptions about what success looks like in the classroom, within the community, and in mainstream society.

A Story Question! What is the story about education, this community, or this organization that you hear yourself telling most often? The one that you are wedded to and maybe even take your identity from? What is your attachment to this story costing you, your children, your future? Take a few minutes and answer these questions individually and then share.

Our story is Education was imposed from the outside not that long ago, and we experienced residential schools. This history had a negative effect, and our parents are still not ready to be involved. We see education as providing access to a good life, but, we want our children to have a stronger identity, speak their language, and be proud of who they are as future leaders and teachers in our communities.

What does the research say? That we understand and recognize that two ways of knowing will foster the necessary conditions for nurturing healthy, sustainable communities. That we must all work together to define and articulate a comprehensive definition of what is meant by learning success and develop, fund and implement an appropriate framework for measuring it.

Research We are and have been developing culturally relevant curriculum, language and cultural programs, and creating educational institutions. We need more research on the positives rather than continuing a focus on the deficits it negates learning outcomes. We need to speak more effectively to our unique pol/soc/econ/spiritual realities

Articulating our Unique Realities 1. The most positive and unique spiritual reality we have as a people is 2. The most positive and unique political reality we have as a people is 3. The most positive and unique social reality we have as a people is 4. The most positive and unique economic reality we have as a people is

Responses to questions The most positive and unique spiritual reality we have as a people is that we have maintained spiritual practices in our communities that embrace both Christian and traditional beliefs. We are respectful of the Church, yet still have respect for and an interest in how our people lived and practiced ceremony and prayer before the period of contact.

Spiritual We have respect for education and school attendance and we relate our childrens education to the spiritual relationship we maintain to the land.

Responses to questions The most positive and unique political reality we have as a people is good chiefs and councils in our territory. We are willing to help each other and help other people. We are doing our healing work We are an exceptionally resilient people.

Responses to questions The most positive and unique social reality we have as a people is our strong sense of family and community. Our belief in our schools. The healing that we are doing in our communities.

Responses to questions The most positive and unique economic reality we have in our communities is that people want to better their lives and know education will help. We continue to be able to live off the land and feed our families. We have a large labour force that we can concentrate on developing.

And, the ultimate effect is The most profound effect these articulated factors are having on the self values and identity of our infants, toddlers, children, youth and adults is

Response to the effects? As we move forward and speak to our values and vision for the future. Our children will have a stronger sense of confidence in who they are, their history going back before the newcomers arrived, and they will have a better sense of identity out of their own language and culture.

Thoughtful question What have I done (or not done) to contribute to the very thing I complain about or want to change? Take a few minutes to answer this question and then share your response with the group. As a group come up with one really good idea on how (I) we can participate in ensuring that the change or impact we want happens within the next (?) years.

Responses to question We have become involved as educators, parents and community members. We are advocating on behalf of our schools. We are increasingly aware of the need to teach our own history, speak our language to our children from birth on. We are open to ways to protect our language and culture for the future.

Research We need more research on the full- spectrum of lifelong learning, from pre- natal, infancy, adulthood through elders. Standardized Assessments do not reflect the purpose or nature of holistic learning. Current data measure learning success within the framework of the formal system and does not reflect experiential or traditional educational activities.

What is Practice? In the Scholastic World Practice means action as opposed to ideas, and denotes what is actually happening in the classroom and stands as the expected or habitual method of teaching, interacting, and learning with our children at every level of academia. Exercise Put your heads together and answer the following questions

What Practice questions do we ask? What educational practices, programs, and human resources are already in place? What works best and at what grade level, why? Does this change as the student moves through the system, why? And, when? What is/would be unique in a FNs education system that might have transferability to the present system?

Responses Stronger cultural influences in each school, and grade will help kids have more confidence in themselves. We need to build pride in who they are and advocate for higher education from birth to graduation. We need to be directive in regards to what we need for our futures, administrators, accountants, HS and language teachers.

Reponses We know that things work well to grade 6, and then there is a transition issue. There is another transition issue from grade 8 to 9, and then from grade 9 on. We see the need to put more attention on the transition periods to ensure that our kids are ready to move from grade to grade and different forms of curriculum.

More Practice Questions If the system is credible at one level, where does it shift? Is this FNs, Federal, or Provincial? What can we do about it? Is this shift academic, or is it expenditure related? How, and how is it not? Why? What cultural recognition and practice does exist for FN students now, and can we focus and build on this today? Is this fully accessible to all (FN) students?

Responses The system is credible in some areas, what is not is the funding that is provided to us and what the government and education authorities accept as credible in regards to cultural and curriculum changes. The entire system needs to be changed, and this is a good time because everything is shifting in education because of computers, technology and new knowledge.

Responses The system is not credible in providing more money to programs that have lower results rather than putting more money into areas that are proving to be developing best practices and where children are succeeding with higher test scores. Cultural programming is accessible to children, but it needs more authority.

What are Standards? An object, quality, measure, or degree of excellence serving as an example or principle or standard to which others conform or should conform or by which the accuracy or quality of others is judged. Exercise Put your heads together and answer the following questions

What Standards Questions do we ask? Did you experience success or failure with the system in place, why? Why Not? Can you articulate that experience and pin it to the wall for examination? What was the point of your frustration and at what level of the academic process did it occur for you? Then, and now? How committed are you to ensuring alignment within the education system for your children today, and for the future?

Standards responses Many of the present advocates for education did not have an opportunity to acquire a higher education, although some have acquired a degree later in life. Research shows that many Native people go back to school as adult learners and graduate with teaching and administrative degrees. We all need to see education as life long.

Standards responses The thing that helped some of the community members get a higher education was fear of failure or in the positive a determination to succeed. For some it was the support of a mentor or individual that they wanted to please. The motivator was at other times the desire to have a better life or choices.

More Standards Questions Does the (known or unknown) parenting a child receives have anything to do with the standards by which the child is judged in any area? Why? Why Not? Does the worldview of the family and community get reflected in the standard assessment for living/learning well in the scholastic worldview they now inhabit? Why? Why Not?

Standards continued What about those students who are deemed special/complex needs or gifted by the current assessment tools? Do those tools apply to Aboriginal students now? What about application of the phrase good enough? When it is used, what comes to your mind? What does it actually mean in social and psychological terms? How can this be re-stated?

Responses The schools do not now recognize or make special consideration for special needs or gifted children, so we lose them, The suggestion is to create a peer mentoring program to match the special needs and gifted and create a support for the special students, and a task for the gifted students that will give them a place to use their talents and need for success.

Responses We need to re-state many things for the building of confidence and pride in our students, and this means acknowledging the students and rewarding their efforts with incentive pieces congratulating them regularly, actively listening to them, providing peer-to-peer programs, including tutoring, financial incentives where possible for attendance, grades.

Who is responsible for each element (credibility, fairness, appropriateness, trust and continuity, responsibility) and how can these people (parents, teachers, students, elders) be more fully engaged and held accountable? How committed are you? To what degree do we expect this and how do we implement it throughout the entire system and at each grade level? Standards continued

Current Research and Approaches As provinces and territories move to implement Canada-wide testing of students, the goals of education embodied in such testing are defined by non-Aboriginal authorities. Some Aboriginal parents and communities may share these goals, but it should not be assumed that they will place them above their own goals for the education of their children. Self-determination in education should give Aboriginal peoples clear authority to create curriculum and set the standards to accomplish their education goals. (RCAP, 1996)

Accepted community well-being indicators 1. Housing conditions strong link between good housing and well-being. 2. Social well-being and learning land, community, language, traditional skills. 3. The residential school system talking about and healing impacts from the past. 4. Family Living arrangements one parent home, adoption, no parent present, or forced boarding for early teens.

Accepted community well-being indicators 5. Health and learning diabetes, suicide, hunger, obesity, consistent recreation. 6. Low-income families food safety, clothing allowances, books, recreation. 7. Learning and employment role modeling, productivity, more choices. 8.Demographics and geography where people live, access to knowledge, adult learning by internet, access to training.

What are Measurements? The concept of measurement follows the concept of indicator. An indicator is defined as a statistic that helps to quantify the achievement of a desired outcome graduation. A measurement reflects how the indicator will be quantified in defined units. Exercise Put your heads together and answer the following questions

What Measurements Questions do we ask? What are some examples of successful students outside of standardized indicators such as; gets As, does not miss classes, or passes required tests. What makes these students successful? When we share those examples, what stands out as the most common traits? Can we quantify those characteristics to more effectively encourage our youth?

Responses Students who walk with confidence and care for their own appearance. Those that can speak up and share their ideas in a good way in classes, in public. Those students who speak their own language as well as they speak English. Those students who are respectful of others, including the elders and leaders.

Responses The demonstrating of respect is an important trait in our young people. We can build on and support this characteristic by being verbally encouraging, speaking up ourselves as examples, going into classes to speak to culture, language and traditions, and creating incentives and peer mentoring programs that reward leadership behaviour and helps to build confidence.

More Measurement questions The fact that Native science is not fragmented into specialized compartments does not mean that it is not based on rational thinking, and that it cannot be measured. Knowledge that plants provide valuable medicines; when they are harvested; how they use decoys; and how they are to be replenished are measureable outcomes.

Another thought to ponder Gregory Cajete (Tewa Scientist) suggests that Indigenous scientific and cultural knowledge of local environments and pedagogy (teaching) of place offer many opportunities for comparative research into how traditional Indigenous ways of learning and knowing can expand our understanding of basic educational processes for all students.

Measuresget creative! Can we include the amount of sleep a child receives on a nightly basis as a measurement of success during their day? What about the receiving of a healthy diet? Is an obese child an indicator? What about their experience of love? Can we develop a method, delivered with incentive that asks some fundamental questions about a childs life experience?

Responses We have to consider the influences on a childs life outside of the school setting. How a child does in school is directly related to how they live when they are not in school. Parental influence and community conditions are very relevant to the results. Part of the measurement process must be the health and well-being of children.

Responses We can measure how much a child sleeps, they need 10 hours from ages 0-18 to be effective learners. We can measure the nutritional needs of a child by asking some non-invasive questions about food intake, we may need to reinstate food programs to ensure effective learning. Recreation is a consideration for health.

More Measurements to think about? Who are the most significant partners necessary to filling the data gaps and meeting the challenges of producing, advocating, and implementing new practices, standards and measurements in Aboriginal learning and progress? What is your contribution and commitment to ensuring that these partners are brought on board today?

Responses The participation of the Chief and Council as full partners is very important. If they do not actively show their support, the rest of the community does not participate either. Leadership is important. The parents and the teachers are also important to the success of defining these measurements and implementing them.

What we now have that works We, have the bestbecause We, have the most effectivebecause We, have the mostbecause We, have the greatestbecause We, have the onlybecause We, have the smartestbecause We, have the most unusualbecause We, have the most interestingbecause

What would it take? To, implement an on-the-land cultural component into your present curriculum on-reserve, off-reserve? To, implement a language nest or immersion for your k-3/4 grade students? To, implement a something fabulous happened in our community today program in your school, community, or local press?

What would it take? To, establish a mentoring program (peer to peer?) at your school, in your community? To, participate in at least one field trip per academic term with your child or someone elses, (role modeling)? To, provide one hour per month to tutor or have an open door to one student? To, bring in one elder or political representative to speak to your class?

Closing Thoughts Real change in ourselves, and in our interactions with others is difficult to achieve and sustain: This is not intended to be discouraging it is intended to be real. At the end of the day, building and sustaining a positive community culture can be of enormous personal and professional benefit to teachers, students and parents. As Anne Lieberman says: When everyone works together to transform themselves and their schools, they rediscover why they came into teaching and life in the first place and why they have persisted. (Lieberman & Miller 1999: 90)

Sioux Lookout District Education Directors and District Education Planning Committee Focus Group –...

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