(2012). Complicating Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Unpacking West African Immigrants' Cultural Identities. International Journal of Multicultural Education, v14 n2. This study presents findings from a case study of 18 second- and 1.5-generation West African immigrants. We draw upon notions of elusive culture and indigenous knowledges to highlight participants' complex cultural identities and respond to anti-immigration discourses through positioning West African immigrant students as assets in American classrooms. We extend culturally relevant theory in order to reflect the heterogeneity of Black immigrant experiences in challenging simultaneously invisible and stereotypical views of African values, knowledges, and ideologies. We call for practitioners and researchers to attend to Black immigrant youth's hybrid identities, indigenous knowledges, and enactments of cultural competence and socio-political consciousness within curriculum…. [PDF]
(2012). The Process of Coping with Changes: A Study of Learning Experiences for the Aboriginal Nursing Freshmen. New Horizons in Education, v60 n1 p1-12 May. Background: Given the increasing presence of aborigines in Taiwan higher education, especially in nursing institutes, the retention and adaptation of aboriginal students is a critical issue for research. Understanding the adjustment and transformation process of aboriginal nursing freshmen is very important for improving their learning, but very little information can be found about their experiences. Aims: In order to provide the references to improve the qualities of multi-ethnic learning in the future, this study is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the adjustment process of aboriginal nursing freshmen and the meaning they drew from their learning. Participants: The study recruited 20 female aboriginal freshmen from the five year nursing program. These students came from different areas or tribes in Taiwan. The age for these students was from 15 to 17. Methods: A qualitative method was adopted to conduct this research. The primary method for data collection was a… [PDF] [Direct]
(2011). Does the Availability of Vocational Qualifications through Work Assist Social Inclusion?. Education & Training, v53 n7 p587-602. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the availability of qualifications through work-based traineeships in Australia assists social inclusion. Design/methodology/approach: Industry case studies, of the finance and cleaning industries, were undertaken as part of a national research project on quality in traineeships. The two industry case studies were analysed to provide data on social inclusion aspects. A general discussion on the "pros" and "cons" of gaining qualifications through work, from a social inclusion point of view, is included. Findings: The industry case studies show many advantages of work-based qualifications for people who have had disadvantaged economic and social backgrounds. The study presents a model showing how work-based qualifications help to meet the twin social inclusion goals of employment and education. However in economic hard times, the need to have a job may rule out some people. Also, some doubts about quality in… [Direct]
(2010). Nourishing the Learning Spirit: Living Our Way to New Thinking. Education Canada, v50 n1 p14-18 Win 2009-2010. Learning, as Aboriginal people have come to know it, is holistic, lifelong, purposeful, experiential, communal, spiritual, and learned within a language and a culture. What guides their learning (beyond family, community, and Elders) is spirit, their own learning spirits who travel with them and guide them along their earth walk, offering them guidance, inspiration, and quiet unrealized potential to be who they are. In Aboriginal thought, the Spirit enters this earth walk with a purpose for being here and with specific gifts for fulfilling that purpose. In effect, the learning Spirit has a Learning Spirit. It has a hunger and a thirst for learning, and along that path it leads them to discern what is useful for them to know and what is not. However, Aboriginal peoples in Canada have been relegated to systemic poverty. They are the most economically disadvantaged Canadians by all standard measures. They suffer from isolation, unemployment, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and… [Direct]
(2009). From "Primitive Mentality" to "Clash of Cultures": Stereotypes and Indigenous Underachievement in New Caledonian Schools. Intercultural Education, v20 n3 p231-241 Jun. The archipelago located in the South Pacific known as New Caledonia is part of the "confetti" of the French colonial empire. Violent uprisings in the 1980s revealed that the impact of colonization had a long-lasting traumatic effect on the aboriginal Melanesian people: the Kanaks. As indigenous school failure became visible, educational claims became a key issue of Kanak sovereignist struggles. Over the last 30 years the question of inequalities in New Caledonian schools has almost always been attributed to cultural factors. Rooted in a philosophical and anthropological tradition that postulates a radical Kanak otherness, contemporary analysis of failure in school seems incapable of overcoming this stereotype. This paper examines possible reorientations for a revival of educational sociology in the New Caledonian context. (Contains 2 notes.)… [Direct]
(2009). Experiencing and Writing Indigeneity, Rurality and Gender: Australian Reflections. Journal of Rural Studies, v25 n4 p435-443 Oct. This paper has two interrelated aims. The first is to contribute to knowledge about rurality, gender and Indigeneity. This is undertaken by the first author, Bebe Ramzan, an Indigenous woman living in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Bebe shows similarities across rural and remote areas in Australia and details her knowledge and experience of home, rurality, rural communities, land and gender. The second aim of the paper is to examine issues surrounding the involvement of academic white women in Indigenous research. Writing from the position of feminist white women Barbara Pini and Lia Bryant reflect on theories of whiteness as cultural practice and in this paper contest representations of rurality in rural studies as white. (Contains 1 figure.)… [Direct]
(2014). Inclusive Education in Thailand: Practices and Challenges. International Journal of Inclusive Education, v18 n10 p1014-1028. In 2008, Thailand passed legislation on the educational provisions for students with disabilities to mandate the implementation of inclusive education. This article provides a historical overview of special education in Thailand and the emergence of inclusive education as it moves from policy to practice. To further identify the challenges faced in the implementation of inclusive education, this article reports the findings of a qualitative research study on the perspectives of school leaders from "inclusive schools" that reveal a range of issues, including cultural perceptions about disability, current policies, financing of inclusion and other salient concerns…. [Direct]
(2008). Indigenous Research, Publishing, and Intellectual Property. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, v32 n3 p89-105. In this article, the author makes a case for a greater understanding of Native research and how the academy can learn from it to become more sensitive to the concerns of the research constituencies. How academics handle the intellectual property that results from their research is also critical. What they make public and what they decide is better not to publish is only a beginning step. Making their efforts beneficial to research constituencies as well as academia can be self-serving as it protects their interest in future research possibilities, but it is also the right thing to do. In a world in which information flows are taken for granted, academics need to realize that not everyone sees the immediate benefit of their research. As such, academics have a special obligation to work out a means of returning their versions and interpretations of knowledge to source communities. They need to develop a positive rapport not only with the individuals with whom they work but also with… [Direct]
(2011). Science in the Maori-Medium Curriculum: Assessment of Policy Outcomes in Putaiao Education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v43 n7 p724-741 Sep. This second research paper on science education in Maori-medium school contexts complements an earlier article published in this journal (Stewart, 2005). Science and science education are related domains in society and in state schooling in which there have always been particularly large discrepancies in participation and achievement by Maori. In 1995 a Kaupapa Maori analysis of this situation challenged New Zealand science education academics to deal with "the Maori crisis" within science education. Recent NCEA results suggest Putaiao (Maori-medium Science) education, for which a national curriculum statement was published in 1996, has so far increased, rather than decreased, the level of inequity for Maori students in science education. What specific issues impact on this lack of success, which contrasts with the overall success of Kura Kaupapa Maori, and how might policy frameworks and operational systems of Putaiao need to change, if better achievement in science… [Direct]
(2013). Building Success from the Ground Up: The Three-Year Student Success Initiative at Elmwood High School. International Journal for Talent Development and Creativity, v1 n2 p141-152 Dec. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Student Success Initiative (SSI) Pilot Project at Elmwood High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The article examines Elmwood High School's profile, its guiding philosophy, and its past efforts to support students. Additionally, it outlines the Elmwood SSI model, distinguishes the principal features that led to the model's success, and illustrates the success of the three-year pilot project through multiple data sources showing improved student outcomes…. [PDF]
(2013). Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Literacy and Learning. International Journal of Special Education, v28 n2 p60-72. Evidence-based Practice Guidelines for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and Literacy and Learning are derived from an inductive analysis of qualitative data collected in field research. FASD is the umbrella term for a spectrum of neurocognitive and physical disabilities caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Data from a sample of N =150 was collected using sharing circles with Aboriginal elders and community members; conversational interviews with parents and their children with FASD; and interviews and focus groups with professionals who support children with FASD and their families. Special protocols were followed in collaboratively planning and participating in research involving Aboriginal communities. Aboriginal research methodologies utilized are situated among emerging, multi-disciplinary, qualitative research methodologies suitable for understanding the complexity of natural phenomena such as FASD. The goal of dissemination is to further translation of research… [PDF]
(2010). Global Interaction in Design. Visible Language, v44 n2 p149-159 May. Based on a virtual conference, Glide'08 (Global Interaction in Design Education), that brought international design scholars together online, this special issue expands on the topics of cross-cultural communication and design and the technological affordances that support such interaction. The author discusses the need for global interaction in design and its impact on design education and research. Authors in this issue are introduced. (Contains 1 table.)… [Direct]
(2010). Power, Prayers, and Protection: Comb Ridge as a Case Study in Navajo Thought. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, v34 n1 p1-23. Beginning in 2005, a five-year survey of cultural resources began to unfold in southeastern Utah along a prominent sandstone rock formation known as Comb Ridge. This visually dramatic monocline stretches a considerable distance from the southwestern corner of Blue Mountain (Abajos) in Utah to Kayenta, Arizona, approximately one hundred miles to the south. The sixty-six-square-mile Utah portion of the ridge and the object of study, lying between the San Juan River in the south to Blue Mountain in the north, offers a particularly rich landscape in which humankind has interacted during prehistoric, historic, and contemporary eras. The author's role in this venture was to provide ethnographic and ethnohistoric background for the field crews interested in the various cultures frequenting Comb Ridge and its environs. He turned to John Holiday, an elderly chanter, or medicine man, for much of the Navajo view of what this rock formation means to his people. This emic approach to what Native… [Direct]
(2010). Attendance, Performance and the Acquisition of Early Literacy Skills: A Comparison of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous School Children. Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, v15 n2 p131-149 Nov. As part of an evaluation of a web-based early literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA, a small exploratory study was conducted over one term in three primary schools in the Northern Territory. Of particular concern was the relationship between attendance and the acquisition of early literacy skills of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Using the GRADE literacy assessment, it was found that students made significant gains in a number of early literacy skills (e.g. phonological awareness skills and vocabulary processing). Classroom attendance was strongly and positively correlated with the acquisition of phonological awareness skills and early literacy skills (e.g. letter recognition, word identification processing). Indigenous children attended class significantly less frequently than non-Indigenous children and performed significantly worse overall, particularly with regard to phonological processing tasks. In light of these findings, it is suggested irregular attendance contributed… [Direct]
(2010). The Beat of Boyle Street: Empowering Aboriginal Youth through Music Making. New Directions for Youth Development, n125 p61-70 Spr. An irrepressibly popular musical phenomenon, hip-hop is close to spoken word and focuses on lyrics with a message, reviving local traditions of song that tell histories, counsel listeners, and challenge participants to outdo one another in clever exchanges. A hip-hop music-making program in Edmonton, Canada, successfully reengages at-risk Aboriginal youth in school with high levels of desertion and helps them establish a healthy sense of self and of their identity as Aboriginals. (Contains 44 notes.)… [Direct]