CURRICULUM AS A TACIT PROBLEM OF THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF SCHOOLING: PERSPECTIVES FROM NATIVE STUDENTS, PARENTS AND EURO-CANADIAN TEACHERS
A basic assumption underlying the decentralization of Native schools in Canada is to open the doors to a number of school improvement ventures that would raise the academic standards of Native students. The National Indian Brotherhood (1972) and their theoretical contemporaries and descendants identify Native control of education virtually with school improvement and view it in terms of increasing the levels of academic performance among Native students. The strength of the ideals they espouse following the transition from federally controlled to locally controlled schools can perhaps be gauged not so much by mere devolution of power from federal to Native governments as the espousal of those ideals by the revitalization of the social, educational and economic conditions of schooling in the communities. This study uses participatory research to explore the variety of factors that have threatened school attendance and limited the raising of academic standards of Native children. This paper presents what Native students, their parents and teachers perceive as inhibiting the achievement of success at school. It addresses issues related to the curriculum, student discipline, school attendance, social problems that obstruct schooling, student dropout, school supplies, school maintenance and the problems associated with school governance.
The focus will be on the problems associated with schooling as viewed by community people, teachers and students of Great Lake School. In order to clearly identify these problems, I reviewed documents, interviewed teachers, students and community people, and held workshops to identify and discuss issues to try to answer the following questions: What do community people view as problems of schooling? What do teachers view as shortcomings of Native students?
The Great Lake School Curriculum
This study revealed that a serious problem facing the school is the irrelevance of the curriculum. The Local Education Authority (LEA) members in Great Lake are not knowledgeable about curriculum issues, and therefore, they are not concerned about what teachers teach in school. I asked 35-year old W.E., a former member of the LEA what she thought teachers should teach at school:
I don't know. They're trained and should know what to teach. I'm not a teacher and I don't know anything about teaching so I can't say teachers should teach this or that. I guess they came prepared and know what they're going to do (Interview with Great Lake community member).
While there was a popular belief by community people that their children are not achieving at the same level as children in urban centres such as Winnipeg, they did not seem to know what teachers should do about the curriculum. The views expressed below are typical of the majority of educated community people in regard to the relevance of the curriculum being used by the school. M.C. in his early forties, educated in a residential school stated:
The entire curriculum needs to be changed. Most of the things I learned in school aren't relevant to me. Here I am in the community not using those things I learned. They should change the curriculum and teach things about our culture and our people. When you teach history, for example, and say Christopher Columbus discovered America, Native people will be wondering where their great, great grandfathers were before Christopher Columbus came. Children should know the facts about Native people ((Interview with Great Lake community member).
The views appeared to have generally reinforced community people's perceptions about the irrelevance of the curriculum for their children. A majority of educated people indicated that there is the need for a major modification in the curriculum. Both teachers and the majority of parents specify that unless the curriculum reflects the children's culture, values, customs, and language, education would be meaningless to them.
Indeed, one of the issues that continued to puzzle me throughout my time as principal of the school was teachers' use of mainstream curriculum material to teach Native children. Through my discussions with teachers, I tried to determine what the general attitude was about the use of mainstream Canadian schools' curriculum to teach the students. At first, I thought teachers were not very concerned about the type of curriculum they implemented. However, some classroom teachers indicated they were deeply concerned but lacked any alternatives to replace the mainstream curriculum. One male teacher, M.R., in his early thirties put it this way:
I know that these kids need something relevant to them, but I'm merely using what I found here. To teach Native children we must take into consideration the environment in which they live. The textbooks don't reflect any aspect of the Native culture, and sometimes children don't know what the books are saying when they talk about subway stations in Toronto or the Union Station (Interview with a Euro-Canadian teacher).
The data presented above revealed that non-Native teachers expect some directives from the community level as to what they should teach the students. The views expressed by the majority of teachers convey a notion that when teachers accept positions in the communities, they have a feeling that they could successfully accomplish their tasks. After a short while when they realize their students are not adaptive to their teaching, they begin to have a feeling that something terribly is wrong. As the teacher S.D. stated:
We cannot become members of the community on our own. Often when arriving in the community, we feel overwhelmed by our lack of knowledge of the culture and the language. This leads to feelings of insecurity and loneliness. The things we know and the rules of social behaviour no longer apply and the acceptable rules for the culture is unknown to us. It's like trying to find your way in the dark with no light to guide, or being expected to participate in a game where nobody tells you what to do or what the rules are. Often we make attempts which are misunderstood and we become discouraged and give up (Interview with a Euro-Canadian teacher).
Meanwhile, when I interviewed community people and LEA members, about what type of curriculum they would like teachers to implement in the school, I found a majority of my interview notes representing similar views. As LEA member S.V. stated:
I want our children to learn the same things that students are learning in Thunder Bay, Sudbury or Timmins, or anywhere in Canada. They should know how to read and write English well (Interview with LEA member).
Both school staff and community people came to a common understanding during one of the workshops that the curriculum does not respond to the realities of the community, that is, the curriculum does not recognize the cultural and linguistic milieu of the students. Participants advocate a curriculum that responds to the realities of the community without compromising comparable standards in the province. They suggested that Native language, culture, and history must form an integral part of the children's education.
Teachers felt that they were capable of developing a curriculum for the school. However, they cited problems such as funding and the lack of adequate knowledge of their students' culture as major constraints. Observations and notes recorded from the discussions that occurred at one of the staff meetings confirm the point:
We all agreed that we were willing to lengthen the school day by 30 minutes in order to close the school for the summer holidays by the first week of June. We would then spend about three weeks developing a suitable curriculum for the school. H.S. observed that while it was a good idea to develop a curriculum, we would need some money from the Band office. H.S. also noted that without the input of community people, we couldn't develop a suitable curriculum. She, however, did not believe community people would attend the workshop with the staff for the entire period of three weeks (Field Notes: February 17).
When I contacted the LEA about the staff's proposal, I was told there was no money allocated in the budget for curriculum development. I found the LEA is unable to deal with issues concerning the curriculum because they do not have both the financial and human resources that go into curriculum development.
The sections that follow present results at workshops attended jointly by school staff, LEA, and some community people to discuss problems facing the school.
Perceived Curriculum Goals
Families in the Native reserve of Great Lake are experiencing swift social and economic changes. While many of these changes such as the modernization of community facilities have been advantageous for the development of life in the community, others have been disastrous. In Great Lake today, children grow up against a background of traditional conservatism. The children are struggling to adjust in a society controlled by Euro-Canadian values foreign to the traditional patterns of their own people.
Community people interviewed perceived the main curriculum goals of the school as teaching the Euro-Canadian way of life. They acknowledge schools as being the Euro-Canadian establishment, and believe that it is necessary for their children to learn the Euro-Canadian way in order to be able to survive in the wider society. I asked a prominent member in the community, M.T. (about 50 years old), what he considers the purpose of education for their children.
I want our children to be as competent as those in the South. In the old days, people were not educated, but that didn't mean much to them. Nowadays, you need to be educated to survive. Our children need to become lawyers and doctors if we want self-government. They should be able to understand and interpret treaties and issues concerning land claims, otherwise, they will have no land to live on in the future.
For this respondent and a lot of others like him, education is an essential to self-determination.
Whereas one may think that self-determination may be directly linked to the extent to which Natives are able to assert their identity through their traditions and culture, this study suggests that perceptions about self-determination go beyond culture. In fact, many believe that true self-determination lies in both technological proficiency and traditional pursuits.
Parents identify and value two separate aspects of education, western and traditional, and they indicate that the existing schooling system does not adequately deal with both of them. A 45-year old Band worker, O.P., whom I asked about curriculum goals stated:
Our children should learn English, computer and all those things, and should be able to do all the things others are doing, but they should also learn how to hunt, make fire and the things we learned when we were small. I will go with my father on the trap line and will teach me how to make traps and catch animals. The school should teach them our own things too (Interview with Band worker, Great Lake).
Teachers I talked with were divided in their opinions as to what they saw as the main curriculum for Native children. While some felt that the goal should not be different from mainstream Canadian society, others felt the need for cultural education for the Native child. I asked a teacher, H.S. in her mid 30's what she thought was the purpose of schooling for her students:
I don't distinguish between Native and non-Native children. I believe that the purpose of education for all children is to equip them with the skills necessary to: effectively cope with life situations, make responsible choices and decisions; and make general contributions to the general society.
While the views expressed by the majority of teachers appeared not to distinguish between curriculum goals of schooling for Native and non-Native children some rather contrasting views which stressed cultural education were expressed by some of the teachers. S.D., in her early 30's says of the purpose of education for Native children:
I believe the purpose of education for Native children is to provide them with skills that will enable them to have choices, freedom and independence. Education will provide a larger pool of skills at the local level, thus enable people to be employed in their own community, and not having to look elsewhere for people to provide these services. This will also provide an opportunity for Native people to educate their children in the way that is culturally relevant, as they will have the skills required for teaching, and will not hire non-Natives to do the job.
It was evident from the interviews that some community people and teachers felt that the main function of the school was to bring up children to fit into the mainstream Canadian society without giving up their culture and the notion of being natives. However, some teachers and community members saw the need for western as well as cultural education. As a 32-year old male teacher, H.D. stated:
The purpose of education for Native children is to help them learn about, and survive in their world as it pertains to them. This is also true for any child in any culture. Education can give children thinking and analytical skills that they can use to pass on their own culture to their children and people. In this changing Native culture, education is vital to help children learn skills that will be necessary to cope adequately to change. It will also provide them with skills to use if they choose to live in a non-Native community.
Similarly, a 35-year old parent W.V., educated in a residential school, expressed:
They [children] should learn how to read and write well, and they should also learn their culture. Teachers should help children to preserve their culture by teaching programs of Native culture. Native language should be taught along with history and culture. I was taught the bible to believe in God but I want my children to be taught the culture of our people.