(2012). Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the Tribal College Classroom. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, v2 n4 p341-345 Nov. The college classroom at a tribal college offers a dynamic perspective on the discussion of traditional ecological knowledge. It provides a unique view because it is one of the very few settings in higher education where the majority of students in the class are American Indian. It is here where traditional ecological knowledge should become tangible, practical, and embraced. It is evident when students talk about their culture and spiritual practices. It is shown when they relate stories that their grandparents have passed down to them over the years. It is evident when they share their experiences of spending time in the forest and interacting with the land as if it was their best friend. My experience as a non-native instructor at the College of Menominee Nation in northern Wisconsin over the past 10 years has provided me with not only an appreciation for traditional ecological knowledge, but actually an understanding for how it is essential in the global study of environmental… [Direct]
(2012). Outdoor Learning in Aotearoa New Zealand: Voices Past, Present, and Future. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, v12 n3 p221-235. Many of the principles and practices that have influenced outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand find their genesis in the United Kingdom and North America. In recent times, many of these foundational assumptions have been called into question. This paper highlights how emerging "local" voices are questioning and reframing how outdoor education is conceptualised and practiced. In large part this is due to a sense of distinctiveness borne from the bicultural foundations that underpin governance and policy-making. This paper explores how outdoor educators are developing pedagogies that acknowledge the particularities of our context, particularly the bicultural foundation of Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper highlights how social and cultural influences shape educational policy and how outdoor educators are responding, both theoretically and practically, to meet the needs of learners in an increasingly diverse society. (Contains 11 notes.)… [Direct]
(2014). Ecosystem Pen Pals: Using Place-Based Marine Science and Culture to Connect Students. Journal of Geoscience Education, v62 n1 p41-48 Feb. The marine environment provides a unique context for students to explore both natural and cultural connections. This paper reports preliminary findings on Ecosystem Pen Pals, an ocean literacy program for 4th and 5th graders focused on using a pen pal model for integrating traditional ecological knowledge into marine science. Surveys with open-ended response and differential rating scales on student and teacher perceptions are used to share findings from the preliminary pen pal program. Results demonstrate increased respect and appreciation amongst students for their local environment and culture, as well as new interest in the marine environment. Changes in student perceptions are shown as a result of the new connections made amongst Pacific Rim students from different ecosystems and cultural communities, including Hawaii and the Washington coast. This project was developed as a pilot program to support expository writing skills, understanding of traditional learning systems, and… [PDF]
(2013). The Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities: Professional Learning and Research. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, v39 n4 p457-458. The vast proportion of Australia's Indigenous students are represented persistently as well below the national benchmarks for literacy and numeracy. Recent national school-based research and development projects, funded by the Australian Government's "Closing the Gap" strategy, have again targeted improving Indigenous students' literacy and numeracy performance. This paper reports on the "Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities" project or PALLIC (2011-2013). It targets new knowledge about what works for Indigenous students learning to read and involves research and development in 48 nominated schools with medium to high Indigenous student enrollments in Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia. The paper describes PALLIC's four professional development modules as well as research into three key questions accompanying the PALLIC project…. [Direct]
(2015). An Insight into a School's Readiness to Implement a CAPS Related Indigenous Knowledge Curriculum for Meteorological Sciences. Universal Journal of Educational Research, v3 n11 p906-916. This paper looks at those aspects of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) that are socially and culturally relevant in South Africa for teaching meteorological science concepts in a grade 9 geography class room using dialogical argumentation as an instructional model (DAIM). Focusing on the Western Cape Province, and using a quasi-experimental research design model, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative (mixed methods) to collect data in a public secondary school in Cape Town, in the Western Cape Province. The study employed a dialogical instructional model (DAIM) with an experimental group of learners exposed to the DAIM intervention, and recorded differences like: responses to the DAIM method of teaching/learning; learner performance (scores in the post MLT test); depth of learners' understanding about weather/meteorological concepts; their perceptions/attitudes towards Geography–between this group and a control group which had no intervention. Learners from the two groups… [PDF]
(2015). Patterns of Indigenous Learning: An Ethnographic Study on How Kindergartners Learn in Mana, Fiji. FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education, v2 n1 Article 4 p33-46. Technology has greatly impacted educational systems around the world, even in the most geographically isolated places. This study utilizes an ethnographic approach to examine the patterns of learning in a kindergarten in Mana, Fiji. Data comprised of interviews, observations and examination of related artifacts. The results provide baseline data for a larger study examining the evolution of learning patterns after iPads were introduced to the Mana school. Data were examined through two frameworks: Multiple Intelligence and 21st Century Skills during the baseline study; the same two frameworks will be utilized in the next round of data analysis. A comparative analysis will finally be conducted after the summer of 2015. Approval and support from three Fijian ministries was acquired for this study…. [PDF]
(2015). Lessons from the Field: Cultivating Nurturing Environments in Higher Education. Review of Higher Education, v38 n3 p333-358 Spr. This article explores how a scholarly learning journey, as a student and faculty member, brings one back to an understanding of the value of knowledge gained in one's home community, and provides insight on how to foster settings for others to cultivate knowledge…. [Direct]
(2014). Supporting Bilingual Learners and Their Families: Key Understandings for Pre-Service Teachers and the Institutions That Prepare Them. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, v8 n1 p102-111. An essential component of successful schooling in linguistically and culturally diverse settings is the active involvement of parents and community members. This is made possible when teachers honor families' languages and cultural traditions and build upon them. Teacher preparation programs play a critical role in helping preservice teachers reject deficit views and recognize that issues of status, power, and economic circumstances all play a role in shaping outcomes for students. Part of the asset orientation that must be fostered in new teachers is the understanding that primary or home language development contributes to both the academic success of children and the well-being of linguistically and culturally diverse communities as a whole. The article provides specific examples of understandings that preparation programs can instill in new teachers so that they come to see community outreach as essential to creating a positive and supportive school environment for all learners…. [Direct]
(2010). Weeding out or Developing Capacity? Challenges for Aboriginal Teacher Education. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, v56 n2 p104-123 Sum. Teacher education is critical to the development of Aboriginal teachers able to ensure success among Aboriginal learners and contribute to the preservation and renewal of Aboriginal communities. In a series of talking circles, six beginning Aboriginal teachers discussed their teacher preparation and their first years of practice. They expressed concerns about teacher training programs that they regarded as assimilationist and a need for teacher education that helps Aboriginal teachers examine their individual and cultural identities in order to become effective teachers. Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) is used as a discursive framework for critiquing existing approaches and offering culturally responsive alternatives…. [Direct]
(2014). Ya??tm√≠n Cqw?lqwilt Nixw, Ul Nixw, Ul Nixw, "I Need to Speak More, and More, and More": Okanagan-Colville (Interior Salish) Indigenous Second-Language Learners Share Our Filmed Narratives. Language Documentation & Conservation, v8 p136-167. way', iskw√≠st, "my name is", S?√≠mla?xw, and I am from Penticton BC, Canada. kn sqilxw. I am a Syilx (Okanagan, Interior Salish) adult language learner. My cohort and I are midway in our language transformation to become proficient speakers. Our names are Pras√°t, S?√≠mla?xw, C'?r?tups, X?wn√°mx?wnam, Sta?qw√°lqs, and our Elder, S?amt√≠c'a?. We created an adult immersion house, deep in Syilx territory, and lived and studied together for five months. We combined intensive curricular study, cutting-edge second-language acquisition techniques, filmed assessments, and immersion with our Elder. We emerged transformed–we are n'l?qwcin, "clear speakers", speaking at an intermediate level. There has been very little written about assessment of Indigenous language teaching methods or Indigenous language speaking ability, and much less written about filmed learning and assessment. Three films were created in our language, nqilxwcn, and placed on YouTube. The films give primacy… [Direct]
(2014). Supporting Educational Success for Aboriginal Students: Identifying Key Influences. McGill Journal of Education, v49 n1 p155-181. The academic difficulties experienced by many Aboriginal (First Nations, M√©tis, Inuit) students in Canada have been well-documented. Indicators such as school persistence and post-secondary enrollment are typically far lower for Aboriginal students as a group compared to non-Aboriginal students. Identifying facilitators of success is key to improving the academic experiences of Aboriginal students. Accordingly, the objective of the current study was to identify influential factors related to the educational success of Aboriginal students, from the perspective of students and teachers, through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's (1995) "Bioecological Model." The insights of participants spoke to the importance of relationships, self-concept and academic expectations, the relevance of the school curriculum, and academic aspirations as factors influencing educational success…. [Direct]
(2016). "Stay with Your Words": Indigenous Youth, Local Policy, and the Work of Language Fortification. Education Policy Analysis Archives, v24 n52 May. This article focuses on the work of cultural and language maintenance and fortification with Indigenous youth populations. Here, the idea of work represents two strands of thought: first, research that is partnered with Indigenous youth-serving institutions and that prioritizes Indigenous youth perspectives; and second, the work of cultural and linguistic engagement that is often taken for granted as part of the sociocultural fabric of Indigenous communities where youth are active participants. By highlighting a study with Pueblo Indian youth in the southwestern United States, we aim to build on the counter-narrative frameworks of other educational scholars and community-based researchers in order to offer alternative approaches towards understanding how Indigenous youth can and do participate in representing themselves as cultural and language agents of change. Arriving at this realization requires several key steps, including deconstructing dominant assumptions, holding ourselves… [PDF]
(2014). Let's Do It First and Talk about It Later: Rethinking Post-Secondary Science Teaching for Aboriginal Learners. in education, v19 n3 p137-151 Spr. As an oral culture, Aboriginal ways of knowing and learning come through practice and practical application first, rather than through theory or text. For Aboriginal students, the Western methodological approach to learning theory first, poses a counterintuitive near insurmountable roadblock, particularly in science. This paper presents the results of two successful pilot course offerings of an introductory chemistry course in a First Nations' Transition Program; a course that engaged Aboriginal students in a creative, hands-on, practical way. The medicine wheel, in the context of the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter), is used as the frame to teach chemistry concepts from an Aboriginal cultural lens and beginning with hands-on methodology to establish context and develop experience before bridging to Western theory…. [PDF]
(2012). Culture Writes the Script: On the Centrality of Context in Indigenous Evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, n135 p59-74 Fall. Context grounds all aspects of indigenous evaluation. From an indigenous evaluation framework (IEF), programs are understood within their relationship to place, setting, and community, and evaluations are planned, undertaken, and validated in relation to cultural context. This chapter describes and explains fundamental elements of IEF epistemology and method and gives several examples of these elements from evaluations in American Indian communities. IEF underscores the importance of putting context ahead of method choice and suggests that context exerts an even greater impact than previously recognized. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)… [Direct]
(2012). Repeating Patterns: Strategies to Assist Young Students to Generalise the Mathematical Structure. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, v37 n3 p111-120 Sep. This paper focuses on very young students' ability to engage in repeating pattern tasks and identifying strategies that assist them to ascertain the structure of the pattern. It describes results of a study which is part of the Early Years Generalising Project (EYGP) and involves Australian students in Years 1 to 4 (ages 5-10). This paper reports on the results from the early years' cohort (Year 1 and 2 students). Clinical interviews were used to collect data concerning students' ability to determine elements in different positions when two units of a repeating pattern were shown. This meant that students were required to identify the multiplicative structure of the pattern. Results indicate there are particular strategies that assist students to predict these elements, and there appears to be a hierarchy of pattern activities that help students to understand the structure of repeating patterns. (Contains 9 tables.)… [Direct]