(2012). Conservation Education in South Africa. Education in Science, n247 p20-21 Apr. Lawrence Anthony is a conservationist for whom actions speak far louder than words. An imposing figure, Anthony does not take "no" for an answer and uses his commitment, enthusiasm and indefatigable drive to change situations, both in his native South Africa and around the world. Anthony has worked tirelessly alongside tribal leaders over many years to establish a commitment to conservation. One such project has been to persuade tribal leaders to give up their grazing lands and return them to land on which elephants can roam freely. Although Anthony admits his first love is the elephants, he is also committed to the conservation of rhinoceros. Anthony established the Earth Organization in 2003, now known as The Lawrence Anthony Foundation, designed to bring together all aspects of his conservation work. As founder of this non-profit, non-partisan, issue-focused organisation, Anthony's focus is deeply rooted in action. The powerful strapline of the organisation,… [Direct]
(2014). Student Outcomes 2012 Demographic Profile. Fact Sheet. BC Student Outcomes The BC Student Outcomes Survey Project collects information from approximately 30,000 former post-secondary students annually. In 2012, four surveys were conducted with students who completed the following studies: (1) diploma, associate degree, and certificate programs; (2) baccalaureate programs; (3) apprenticeship technical training; and (4) courses in Adult Basic Education (ABE) or English as a Second Language (ESL). The results from these surveys are presented in this fact sheet. Highlighted findings include: (1) A majority of former post-secondary students were women; (2) Overall, a majority of the former students surveyed were born in Canada, although there were differences; almost all of those who took ESL courses were born outside Canada; (3) Of all Student Outcomes respondents who were born in Canada, 6% identified themselves as Aboriginal persons; and (4) At the time of their studies, the majority of those who were born outside of Canada were naturalized Canadian citizens…. [PDF]
(2016). Examining the Impediments to Indigenous Strategy and Approaches in Mainstream Secondary Schools. International Journal of Leadership in Education, v19 n5 p534-556. Noted Maori scholar Russell Bishop identified three impediments to developing Indigenous principles and practices in schools within colonized countries. These include confusion about the culture of Indigenous children, uneven programme implementation and issues with measuring student achievement. In this article, we present results from a mixed method-research project that aimed to investigate the development of culturally responsive school leadership in 84 New Zealand secondary schools. Whilst analysed data revealed signs of raised awareness of Maori students and their achievement amongst school leaders, findings also aligned with Bishop's assertions that the main impediments to successful implementation of important Maori principles and practices were symptomatic of a lack of partnership with Indigenous students and their communities…. [Direct]
(2011). Perspectives on Sami Mathematics Education. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, v42 n2 p185-203 May. The Sami are an indigenous people of the Arctic, and through a resolution of the United Nations, Norway is bound to take care of the Sami culture and language. Since 1987 the Sami have had their own curriculum, but they have no mathematics syllabus. In this paper we summarize the legal acts that take care of the Sami culture within the Norwegian educational system, and then discuss three examples of Sami mathematics, which can be part of a possible Sami mathematics syllabus. First, a unit of measurement is presented, second, a unique way of treating the ratios 2:1 and 1:2 is described, and finally the use of some Sami versus Norwegian geometry terms are exposed. The three examples are situated in relation to the Yup'ik Eskimo Mathematics in a Cultural Context (MCC), as described by Lipka, Webster, and Yanez (2005) and their contribution in this special issue of "Interchange."… [Direct]
(2015). Rejecting Ahmed's "Melancholy Migrant": South Sudanese Australians in Higher Education. Studies in Higher Education, v40 n7 p1226-1238. This paper draws on related research studies in two urban centres (Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia) with South Sudanese men and women engaged in varying degrees with higher education. The co-authors examine some gendered differences in the process and demands of resettlement, including within employment and education, and its implications for rapidly changing public versus private gender roles. We argue against essentialising discourses of the "liberatory" nature of education in the west, versus constructions of "cultural knowledge" as innate, burdensome, and less useful in western contexts. Drawing on Ahmed's critique of discourses of the "melancholy migrant" which position western knowledges and gendered practices as progressive and therefore more desirable, the authors interrogate the possibility of multiple forms of knowledge and new migrants–especially South Sudanese–as enriched by their previous experiences and knowledges, rather than… [Direct]
(2015). Drawing on Dynamic Local Knowledge through Student-Generated Photography. Equity & Excellence in Education, v48 n2 p266-282. In this research, the authors explored how teachers using student-generated photography draw on local knowledge. The study draws on the framework of funds of knowledge to highlight the assets marginalized students bring to the classroom and the need for culturally relevant pedagogy to address the needs of a diverse public school population. The purpose of this study was to understand how teachers were using student generated photography to connect students' dynamic local knowledge with curriculum and classroom practices. Through the methodology of critical qualitative teacher action research in two unique classroom sites, the authors' findings include increased student responsibility and ownership; teachers as learners; and the richness and complexity of the students' lived experiences…. [Direct]
(2015). Classroom Teachers and Daily Student Physical Activity Requirements: A Study of Capacity Building through Traditional Indigenous Games (TIG). Australian Association for Research in Education, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) (Freemantle, Western Australia, Nov 29-Dec 3, 2015). This study investigated the facilitation of daily physical activity for primary school students by regular classroom teachers. The existing practices of teachers and their perceptions of barriers to facilitating daily physical activity with their students were explored. Initial investigations revealed the need to build the capacity of classroom teachers so that they could provide effective, fun and inclusive experiences for their students. When reviewing the fun and inclusive nature of Traditional Indigenous Games (TIG) it was postulated that TIG may assist teachers to overcome their perceived barriers and thereby contribute positively to the health and well-being of students. The study employed a quasi-experimental mixed methods research design. A teacher intervention program was created which incorporated TIG and provided an effective avenue to examine the impact of playing TIG on teachers' capacity to facilitate daily physical activity. Eleven teachers from five primary schools… [PDF]
(2015). Developing Culturally Responsive Teaching through Professional Noticing within Teacher Educator Modelling. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, v17 n2 p64-83. Much evidence exists that culturally responsive and equitable teaching practices are challenging to develop. Evidence exists that in-the-moment coaching of "rehearsals" of practice can help foster mathematics teaching strategies, but how such coaching can assist the development of culturally responsive practice is less clear. Drawn from a larger study into rehearsals of practice, this article illustrates how teacher educator modelling of instructional activities with in-the-moment coaching can provide opportunities for professional noticing of culturally responsive teaching practices. Such opportunities were identified across seven videos of rehearsals of practice in which teacher educator pairs modelled and coached mathematics teaching. Examples are discussed in relation to facilitation of professional noticing and two aspects of a framework of "cultural competencies" for teachers of indigenous Maori learners. Implications include enhanced equity of access to… [PDF]
(2015). Pathways through Secondary School in a Comprehensive System: Does Parental Education and School Attended Affect Students' Choice?. International Journal of Training Research, v13 n3 p231-245. As the Australian labour market restructured during the 1980s and 1990s, Year 12 retention rates more than doubled between 1983 and 1993 secondary schools diversified to include vocational education and training programs as alternative pathways through school. From a human capital perspective, the completion of vocational qualifications in school may represent strategic investments that enhance labour market outcomes. Using data provided by the Education and Training Directorate of the Australian Capital Territory, this paper examines the links between parents' education and pathway through school. The results indicate that stratification within the comprehensive school system sorts students into different pathways according to parental education. After controlling for academic achievement in Year 9, students with lower-educated parents were more likely than those with university-educated parents to undertake a vocational education pathway. Furthermore, level of disadvantage of the… [Direct]
(2015). CTF Survey on Teachers' Perspectives on Aboriginal Education in Public Schools in Canada. Summary Report. Canadian Teachers' Federation As part of the Canadian Teachers' Federation's (CTF) ongoing work on education-related Aboriginal issues, CTF conducted a survey to seek out the perspectives of classroom teachers on diverse topics related to Aboriginal education with a view to informing practice and policy. CTF received nearly 1,900 responses to the online survey from teachers in public elementary and secondary schools across the country. The survey, which was distributed through CTF's Member teacher organizations, was conducted in November and December 2015. Two thirds of teachers surveyed report they incorporate some issues, content, or perspectives related to Aboriginal people into their current teaching practice. Among these respondents, half reported they do this occasionally, while one third do so regularly. By far, the most frequently cited approach to introducing Aboriginal education into the school curriculum is by integrating it into courses such as Cultural Studies, History, or Geography. While the… [PDF]
(2011). A Community of Scholars: The Native American Caucus. English Journal, v101 n1 p91-92 Sep. In 1999, the author was awarded a Scholars for the Dream Travel Award to help defray the costs of her attendance and presentation at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Although she had been to the conference before, she had never presented a paper, and she was thrilled to be part of a group of scholars whose work was recognized by the meeting's organizers. What she did not know was at that meeting she would finally find a community of scholars whose work paralleled her own. She met these people the first time she attended the American Indian Caucus. As a person who places much emphasis on attending to her emotional, or \gut level,\ responses in different situations, she realized that she felt warmth from this group. They were an intertribal mix–ranging from Wampanoag to Miami to Cherokee–but their aims were similar: to shed light upon the intellectual concerns of Native peoples in this country today. In this article, the author outlines her work with… [Direct]
(2011). Talking up Country: Language, Natureculture and Interculture in Australian Environmental Education Research. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, v27 n1 p56-67. Australia is an old continent with an immensely long history of human settlement. The argument made in this paper is that Australia is, and has always been, a "natureculture". Just as English was introduced as the dominant language of education with European colonisation, so arrived an ontological premise that linguistically divides a categorised nature from culture and human from "the" environment. Drawing on published work from the Australian tropics, this paper employs a socionature approach to make a philosophical argument for a more nuanced understanding of language, the cultural interface and contemporary moves towards interculture in Australian environmental education practice…. [Direct]
(2012). Education and Language: A Human Right for Sustainable Development in Africa. International Review of Education, v58 n5 p619-647 Oct. Pre-colonial Africa was neither an educationally nor a technologically unsophisticated continent. While education was an integral part of the culture, issues of language identification and standardisation which are subject to contentious debate today were insignificant. Children learned community knowledge and history by asking questions instead of being taught in a hegemonic alien language. This article argues that education and development should take place in a broader context of human rights, and explores the links between three areas often dealt with separately, namely: language, education and development. The authors of this paper demonstrate that changing the face of the multi-dimensionalities of poverty within societies is possible only when education is constructed in a rights perspective over the favoured colonial languages, which are not an integral part of the culture and resources of a community. The authors make a distinction between the "right to education"… [Direct]
(2014). Going down the Rabbit-Hole: Teachers' Engagements with "Dialectical Images" in Canadian Children's Literature on Social Justice. Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, v21 n1 p79-93. This article explores the attraction of Canadian elementary teachers to children's stories that narrate trauma, particularly the trauma associated with First Nations peoples' experiences in Canadian residential schools as told by Indigenous authors. The teachers' responses to these texts are conceived of as occurring within a "contact zone," situated between dominant white culture (the culture shared by the teachers) and the historically marginalized cultures represented in the stories. An interpretative lens of critical nostalgia is developed, placing the question of contact zones within the context of memory studies, trauma studies, curriculum theory and critical pedagogies related to remembrance. The paper identifies the need for developing critical nostalgia as a productive form of pedagogical remembrance, drawing on Roger Simon's adaptation to an educational context of Walter Benjamin's notion of the dialectical image…. [Direct]
(2014). A Ghetto Land Pedagogy: An Antidote for Settler Environmentalism. Environmental Education Research, v20 n1 p115-130. A ghetto land pedagogy begins with two axioms that align it with land education more broadly, and that distinguish it from the general umbrella of environmental education. First, ghetto colonialism is a specialization of settler colonialism. Second, land justice requires decolonization, not just environmental justice. A ghetto land pedagogy thus attends to an analysis of settler colonialism, offers a critique of settler environmentalism, and forwards a decolonizing cartography as a method for land education. This article discusses "storied land" as a critical cartographic method for land education, illustrated through a discussion of land in the San Francisco Bay Area…. [Direct]