(2011). San Language Development for Education in South Africa: The South African San Institute and the San Language Committees. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, v5 n2 p112-118. This article focuses on the 3 San communities in South Africa: the !Xun, the Khwe, and the [image omitted]Khomani San. The !Xun and Khwe communities are living in Platfontein, near Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The [image omitted]Khomani San community is living in Upington and in the southern Kalahari, which are also in the Northern Cape. This study discusses challenges that San communities in South Africa face in the education system and describes efforts to improve the situation, especially those of the South African San Institute. The language committees established for each language group have also been an important step, as described in the second half of the study, alongside some recommendations for further activities. (Contains 1 footnote.)… [Direct]
(2011). The University of Botswana and the University of Tromso Collaborative Program: Its Relevance to Minority Education and San Youth Capacity-Building. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, v5 n2 p119-125. This article highlights a multidisciplinary collaborative program between the University of Botswana and the University of Tromso, Norway, focusing on San research and capacity-building. After 12 years of operation, this program led, in April 2010, to the creation of a new "Research Center for San Studies" at the University of Botswana. This research center will build on and expand the efforts of the initial collaborative program, which include research and teaching on the cultural, historical, social, economic, and legal situation of the San of southern Africa; capacity-building of San students and researchers; and advocacy. This article provides a brief retrospective of the UBTromso program, with emphasis on the political context of San studies in Botswana and the challenges facing San youth in education systems…. [Direct]
(2023). Science Education and Cultural Diversity: Freire's Concept of Dialogue as Theoretical Lens to Study the Classroom Discourse of Science Teachers. Cultural Studies of Science Education, v18 n1 p95-114 Mar. For a long time within the history of education, it has been assumed that science classrooms are homogeneous spaces, constituted with the prevailing conception that only scientific culture can be represented. At the same time, Latin America is characterized by being a region with enormous biological and cultural diversity, with an invaluable biocultural heritage. Building on an interpretative hermeneutical analysis of science teachers' discourses from Brazil and Colombia, we explore the potential of science education to engage with the cultural diversity in science classrooms through the lens of Freire's concept of dialogue. Developing the concept of intercultural dialogue, we identify the teachers' conceptions about the nature of science (NOS), and how they perceive the relationship between scientific and nonscientific knowledge that students bring with them in the process of science teaching and learning. This approach denotes potential tensions and challenges to incorporating and… [Direct]
(2023). Problematising the Potentials of Music Programs to Address Australia's Youth Justice Policy Problems. Music Education Research, v25 n4 p458-467. Reflecting an international shift from punitive to more rehabilitative responses to youth offending, many Australian youth justice systems are undergoing significant revision and reform. The urgency of these changes are intensified by longstanding inequities pertaining to the gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and documented violations of human rights within Australian youth detention centres. As state and territory jurisdictions strive towards more child-centred practices, music programmes have been seen to provide transformative experiences for incarcerated young people through opportunities to express themselves and form positive relationships with others. In considering the potentials of music programmes to contribute towards such a child-centred youth justice 'solution', this article reports a poststructural policy analysis of Australian youth justice policy texts that "produce" child-centredness in particular ways. Music programmes… [Direct]
(2023). Empowerment and Motivation of Young Aboriginal Mathematics and Science Students in Canada. BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, v15 suppl 2. This article addresses the issues faced by the young Aboriginal students in urban and rural settings, which hinder their achievement in mathematics and science. An effort is made to reveal the techniques and programs that address the under-representation of young Aboriginal students in these subjects at secondary and post-secondary levels. Successful programming is essential to bridge the gap between differing urban and rural cultures and also to make the content material recent and relevant, thus providing a supportive environment. The Aboriginal students can be empowered to learn and be motivated to succeed by improving the linkage between Western and Indigenous thinking, by creating relevant and up-to-date curricula, and by providing adequate support at the family and community level…. [PDF]
(2022). Matauranga Maori, Inquiry and Creative Music-Making in the Primary Music Classroom: A Pakeha Teacher's Journey. Teachers and Curriculum, v22 n2 p99-112. This article draws on a master's study into programme decisions and processes of a Pakeha primary music teacher who sought to include matauranga Maori (Maori knowledge), tikanga Maori (Maori practices) and te ao Maori (a Maori way of seeing the world) in their teaching practice. The study investigated how children are enabled to experience matauranga Maori within an inquiry approach to teaching and learning, through engagement with taonga puoro (singing treasures) and the whakatauki (proverb) of the whakapapa (genealogy) of Maori music as stimuli for creative music-making. Drawing on action research and self-study, I conducted an intervention of eight music lessons with 28 children from Years 3 and 4. Findings emerged from an analysis of student questionnaires, my teacher journal, student reflections, and scores and audio recordings of students' creative music-making. In this article I focus specifically on two aspects of my findings: 1. The way that the teacher-as-learner position… [PDF]
(2022). Outdoor Education in Canadian Public Schools: Connecting Children and Youth to People, Place, and Environment. Environmental Education Research, v28 n10 p1510-1526. The roots and goals of outdoor education (OE) in Canada are often linked to the Canadian summer camp tradition that emerged in the early 1900s which centered around character development, and the environmental movement of the 1950s and 1960s. However, a comprehensive understanding of the philosophies, goals, and activities of modern Canadian OE K-12 programs is unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the underlying philosophies, learning goals, and activities of K-12 OE programs in Canada. Using a descriptive research design, we conducted a web-based survey consisting of closed-and open-ended questions of 100 K-12 programs across Canada. Our findings indicate the programs are grounded in hands-on experiential learning that is holistic and integrates knowledge from a variety of disciplines. Primary learning goals include personal growth, community building, environmental stewardship, and people and place consciousness. OE activities varied but commonly included… [Direct]
(2020). He Hokinga Ki Te Mauri: Strengthening Te Tiriti O Waitangi Public Health Education in Tertiary Education Settings. Teaching in Higher Education, v25 n8 p926-941. Te Tiriti o Waitangi [te Tiriti] articulates the relationship between the government and Maori [Indigenous New Zealanders]. Universities have a responsibility to prepare graduates to work with te Tiriti. The literature on teaching te Tiriti is sparse. In this conceptual paper, we propose "he hokinga ki te mauri" as a framework for teaching te Tiriti. First, te upoko involves using intellectual rationale and covering core te Tiriti curriculum related to issues such as "He Whakaputanga" [the Declaration of Independence] and the texts of te Tiriti. Second, it offers strategies for te ngakau — involving heart and wairua [spirit]. Finally, nga ringa — involves practical application. The authors maintain this novel approach supports teachers to depart from the weighty requirements of advanced technical expertise, providing flexibility to scaffold curriculum. Across the world, working with the ongoing impacts of colonisation gives rise to a range… [Direct]
(2017). Measuring the "Gift": Epistemological and Ontological Differences between the Academy and Indigenous Australia. Higher Education Research and Development, v36 n3 p583-596. This paper is drawn from our collective experience coordinating, and teaching in, a large common inter-professional unit on Indigenous cultures and health at an Australian university. Specifically, we use our lived experiences as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal academics working interculturally to inform a theoretical discussion about how universities conceptualise "quality" in learning and teaching for Indigenous studies and, more broadly, "Indigenising the curriculum". Drawing primarily on the work of Rauna Kuokkanen and the "logic of the gift", we argue that the application of Western "quality indicators" to learning and teaching for Indigenous content demonstrates an innate lack of institutional understanding of the complexities of teaching interculturally and the "unlearning" which needs to occur for students to become critically self-reflexive and develop capacity for ontological pluralism (essential for graduate intercultural… [Direct]
(2023). Humanising Pedagogy: A Politico-Economic Perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v55 n5 p634-651. In this article I shall reflect on the issue of humanising pedagogy, taking a view that dehumanisation, in general, comes from two kinds of oppression. I shall argue that, apart from oppression of the political type, tertiary education is also a victim of another type of oppression which contributes to its dehumanisation, viz. the oppression exercised by the economic system that South Africa has chosen to adopt after 1994. In the context of these two factors, I shall discuss what humanising pedagogy is, as presented in selected literature. I shall then discuss the political oppression and Freire's educational solution. Further, I shall present the effect of neoliberal economy on higher education. Finally, I shall, in full circle, go back to the issue of humanising pedagogy and the possible solutions, coming from Freire, but also Fanon, Said, and Bhabha. I shall conclude with a personal reflection on the situation in South Africa and the role it could play in remedying the educational… [Direct]
(2024). Deconstructing the 2022 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Standards: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Australia, Kenya and Nepal. International Journal of Early Years Education, v32 n3 p696-719. This critical cross-cultural study examined the alignment of the 2022 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards in the U.S. with Australian, Kenyan, and Nepali educational guidelines. Previously, NAEYC's educational guidelines adhered to Euro-Western notions of child development, with a biased view of normative development for young children (Zaman and Anderson-Nathe 2021). Among other findings, data from this study showed that NAEYC's standards were potentially sensitive to cultural difference, but did not adequately address child, family, and contextual needs. Therefore, this study recommends continued review of NAEYC's educational standards to make them culturally and contextually inclusive…. [Direct]
(2024). Walking the Map. International Journal of Multicultural Education, v26 n1 p8-30. In this article, I discuss how walking as mapping serves as a method for observing and disrupting spatial geopolitics, opening possibilities for alternative systems of living. I explore three theoretical perspectives–posthumanism, Indigenous and decolonializing theories of land, and Black geography–that, while distinct, nonetheless share some overlapping characteristics: the recognition and contestation of knowledge systems, the turn toward a relational ethics of living, and a call for critical and creative methods of mapping. intervention into existing systems. In the final half of the paper, I consider these orientations and their call for creative and critical methods of intervention as I review my scholarship on walking and how it has served as a form of counterstory mapping…. [PDF]
(2024). Harnessing Indigenous Knowledge for Teaching of Mathematics for Sustainable Development in Rural Situated Primary Schools. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, v28 n3 p404-421. Mathematics is not seen as an absolute corpus of well-founded knowledge anymore, but as a human activity, a social phenomenon, part of human culture that evolves historically and intelligibly in a social context. By harnessing the indigenous cultures and their knowledge systems in-depth, this article aims to evaluate how the sustainable development agenda can benefit from the teaching of mathematics in rural primary schools. Underpinned by the Teaching for Robust Understanding in Mathematics framework, the researchers used a phenomenological case study research design in qualitative research methods to respond to the question: how can indigenous knowledge be harnessed in the teaching of mathematics for sustainable development? From a population of 60 intermediate-phase mathematics teachers in the Alfred Nzo East district of the Eastern Cape, the researchers used criterion sampling to choose and conduct semi-structured interviews with three teachers experienced in using indigenous… [Direct]
(2022). S√°mi Children as Thought Herders: Philosophy of Death and Storytelling as Radical Hope in Early Childhood Education. Policy Futures in Education, v20 n3 p316-331 Apr. This article follows a story played out by children at a S√°mi early childhood centre in north Sweden. It does so by reflecting on the children's story as a form of Critical Indigenous Philosophy. In particular it explores what it could mean for a child to be a philosopher in a S√°mi context by developing the concept of "jurddav√°zzi," or thought herder, in conversation with Wittgenstein's method of 'leading', and Cavell's of 'shepherding', 'words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use'. The children's play story–involving themes of death, struggles with natural surroundings, and interconnectivity through seeing life in nature–is read in relation to questions about traditional stories raised in the poetry of the S√°mi poet, artist and philosopher, Nils-Aslak Valkeap√§√§, or √Åilloha≈°. The article ends by discussing how the children's invitation to follow their story can be seen as a decolonizing pedagogical gesture of the child that requires a particular kind of… [Direct]
(2022). Balancing the Needs of the School Community: Implementing Trauma-Informed Behaviour Supports in an Australian Regional Primary School. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v47 n9 Article 3 p43-61 Sep. Exposure to adverse and traumatic events in childhood has been found to lead to poorer academic and social-emotional outcomes in school settings. The psychological impact of exposure to such events, referred to as childhood trauma, has been identified as a key driver of these educational difficulties. First Nations students have been found to experience higher rates of childhood trauma compared to non-First Nations students, with historical and intergenerational adversity contributing to such difficulties. There are national guidelines in Australia for the use of trauma-informed care practices in schools to reduce the impact of childhood trauma on educational engagement. This pilot case study examines teachers' experiences in a regional school implementing trauma-informed practices with First Nations students. Findings highlight the complexities of balancing students' safety and belonging with teachers' professional and personal needs in sustaining trauma-informed practice…. [PDF]