Aboriginal Education in Canada, Research Paper Example

The primary function of education is socialization of young people into a society, which makes it one of the central social aims for the sake of raising members of any society. Primary socialization occurs through child-rearing practices at home and within the family system. Secondary socialization usually occurs through more formal institutions. Education can also become the reflection of existing contradictions and tension in a society; this usually occurs on the territories where the mainstream group of population dominates the minorities and uses discriminatory practices in educational, social and cultural dimensions. One of such examples is Canada – Aboriginal education has traditionally been based on racist, discriminatory practices aimed at forced assimilation of minorities with the dominant Canadian society.

The crisis of Canadian education was caused by the conflict of racist imperialism principles with the Aboriginal value-based education welded in the natural environment showed an urgent necessity for search of a coherent, comprehensive approach to education and redefinition of its purposes. Nowadays the Canadian Aboriginal groups, the Inuit in particular, are in the process of developing an educational system that incorporates their culture and values along with modern studies of the dominating society. Only a detailed outlook at the mistakes of the past and the proper consideration of opportunities existing nowadays can give a clear understanding of educational and regulatory paths that need to be followed at the contemporary period of time in Canada. Using the example of the Inuit, one of the Canadian Aboriginal groups, one can trace the way a combined approach to education may be implemented into the modern Canadian reality.

The first contradiction that emerged between the Aboriginal model of education and the western model thereof can be seen in the basic approach to the place and environment in which the actual education process took place. In traditional Aboriginal societies, education of the young took place informally through the acquisition of specific skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to function in everyday life within the context of a spiritual worldview. A major purpose was learning to live in balance with the forces of nature. Education was thus a process of inculcating awareness of the proper conduct within a person’s family, clan, community, and nation. Rituals, ceremonies, festivals, and other social and religious events reinforced this search for knowledge. Traditional education also included teaching of specific skills such as hunting, fishing, trapping, and agriculture necessary for survival within a particular environment. An emphasis was placed on maintaining reciprocal relationships between the individual and the natural environment in order to ensure the provision of the substance required to live (Sinclair, 1998).

Upon the establishment of European formal instructional institutions, the nature and function of education changed dramatically. Formal education imposed European values, beliefs, and roles in order to ‘enlighten’ Aboriginals with the purpose of their further survival in the mainstream Canadian society. Education became an agent of assimilation, which was clearly felt with the introduction of residential schools in 1879. Aboriginal people were forced to attend them from 1879 to 1986. According to the Department of Indian Affairs (1996), documents show that between 1890 and 1965 an average of 7,100 native students attended residential schools compared to 11,400 who attended day schools in the same period.

During the late 19th century and much of the 20th century, the Canadian and American governments’ goal for their Aboriginal populations was forced assimilation. Sometimes this is contemptuously referred to as “making apples” — changing the culture and religion of Aboriginal peoples so that they become “white” on the inside, even as their skin remained red (Barman, 1995). The goal was to force Aboriginals to disappear within the larger, predominately white, society. Key components of this policy were the residential schools, which were operated for over a century, from 1879 — shortly after Confederation — to 1986. About 160,000 Native students passed through the school system (Corrado and Cohen, 2003).

The end result of various assimilation processes can be seen in the current mental health of Aboriginal people. A rough indication of this is mirrored in their suicide rates. Canada’s overall suicide rate is typically about 14 per 100,000 people — a little higher than the U.S. statistics (Robertson, 2004). Suicide rates for Aboriginals are two or three times higher.  An extremely high rate of 80.2 has been observed among 10 to 19 year-old Native males living on the northern coast of Labrador (Robertson, 2004). These dramatic figures may be explained by the high level of violence committed over Aboriginals – about 91,000 claims that they were physically and/or sexually abused (Corrado and Cohen, 2003). The result has been that, as adults, many suffer from depression, have difficulty in parenting, and live with a loss of culture. Some commit suicide (Brasfield, 2001).

Furthermore, the Canadian government’s policies included the destruction of much of Aboriginal culture, values and religion.  And with the help of the Christian churches, these traditions were largely replaced with versions of western Christianity. The main players were the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of Canada, and the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Brasfield, 2001). The government financed residential school systems; religious institutions ran them. Sometimes, children were kidnapped and taken long distances from their communities in order to attend school. Once there, they were held captive, isolated from their families of origin, and forcibly stripped of their language, religion, traditions and culture (Stout and Kipling, 2003). Many native children grew up with little knowledge of their original culture.

However, the compulsory and often violent form of Aboriginal education was not the only cause for dissatisfaction and protest. As Brasfield (2001) admits, the federal government of Canada did not appreciate the wealth of Aboriginal culture but rather practiced racism. For example, racist imperialism and its ethos permeated British Columbia textbooks between 1885 and 1925 (Ishiama, 1995). The textbooks depicted that the “savage” Indians of the province were in the process of transformation so desired by the federal government supporting the idea of a unified, mainstream society that had no space for Aboriginals in their natural form.

Under the provisions of the British North America Act of 1867 these “savages” became “wards” of the federal government. Guardianship of such kind piled all Aboriginals into one collective Indian category. The BNA act made no attempt to distinguish Aboriginal peoples in all their diversity and individuality (Stout and Kipling, 2003). The federal government’s imperialistic paternalism used the deployment of law to produce social or cultural homogeneity in the establishment of the Indian residential school system (Stout and Kipling, 2003).

The federal government used the Indian residential school system to promote Aboriginals “to learn White people’s ways” (Brasfield, 2001). That meant removing first languages, and consequently identity, from Aboriginal mouths:

Children were often harshly punished for any use of cultural practices or their languages.…Haig-Brown documents the following horrendous experience of an interviewee: “My father who attended Alberni Indian residential school in the [1920s] was physically tortured by his teachers for speaking Tseshat; they pushed sewing needles through his tongue, a routine punishment for language offenders” …. During the time they were at the residential schools, the children were required to speak English and were taught a curriculum that contained virtually nothing which recognized even the existence of them as people. (Brasfield, 2001, p. 297)

Residential schools went even further in the negative direction. They created a terrible inferiority complex in many Aboriginals. They received the constant message “that because you are Aboriginal you are part of a weak, defective race, unworthy of a distinguished place in society” (Barman, p. 74). Lois Guss spoke of this self-destructive training:

A lot of us left residential school as mixed-up human beings, not able to cope with family or life. Many of us came out with a huge inferiority complex realizing something was missing, but not knowing what it was. Many searched for love and support in the wrong way. Girls became promiscuous, thinking this was the only way they could feel close to another person. Never having learned to cope with the outside world, many turned to drinking and became alcoholics. (Barman, 1995, p. 74)

Separating Aboriginal children from siblings, parents, and other family members to attend residential schools did more than create inferiority complexes in individuals. It resulted in cultural genocide. Barman (1995) reported interviews with three former residential students about the familial separation and its detrimental effect on their sense of community:

I never did get to know my brothers. We were kept away from each other for too long. To this day I don’t know much about [them]. I just know that they are my brothers. After a year spent learning to see and hear only what the priests and brothers wanted you to see and hear, even the people we loved came to look ugly. Children were removed from their communities and placed in an alien environment that almost destroyed their culture and their language; we call it cultural genocide (Barman, p. 73).

Barman (1995) reported poor education that Aboriginal students received in residential schools:

Aboriginal children were allotted less time in the classroom than were their non-Aboriginal counterparts.… Aboriginal schooling was carried on with few exceptions by Christian missionaries primarily concerned with saving souls, only secondarily with literacy education [and]…funding of schools for Aboriginal children quickly fell below provincial funding levels for public schools (Barman, p. 58).

As it comes from these quotations and reminiscences, there was little cultural, social and educational emphasis on the Aboriginal values, beliefs and traditions in the period of residential education. However, the major pitfall was in the educational isolation from real life and lack of perspectives even for those who achieved success in studies – for this reason it was titled the period of lost possibilities. The federal government had not provided students of Aboriginal ancestry with the opportunity to gain an education and work experience that met individual needs and honored their cultural heritage as Aboriginal people. Mainstream communities and Aboriginal communities did not have the opportunity to develop good working relationships. Teachers did not promote cultural growth, which could have helped Aboriginal students succeed academically and remain in schools. Aboriginal students were not assisted with their social and emotional development as well as academic growth. These lost possibilities have a long-lasting effect to this day and reveal the dominant discrepancies in the imposed education for Aboriginals and the genuine comprehensive model it should represent.

One more problem that represented a serious barrier to education for Aboriginal children was the discriminatory practice regarding the language of instruction. Children not only had to learn to read, reading was in a new language that, at the same time, also had to be learned (the practice is true nowadays as well). Parents were told to speak English with their children but this conflicted with the need to keep the foundation of the Inuit culture alive. Severe retardation of the Inuit native language resulted. Teachers practiced punishing children for speaking their mother-tongue in the classroom. Children experienced feelings of guilt when speaking their natural languages, but the Inuit language was needed for survival. Children often memorized the material because they could not understand the contents. Things taken for granted in books were strange to them. For example, grandparents and relatives were depicted as not the people to be visited or seen everyday, even when they lived nearby. This model of family relationships derived from the Western perception of extended family as not the norm; but to the Inuit, bonding of relationships with relatives and friends through frequent social interaction was and is the norm. In the Western world, privacy is cherished and seen as a basic right, while the communal nature of social interactions in Indigenous groups directly contradicts the Western teachings (Brake, 1996). All these discrepancies could not help causing the division in Aboriginal children’s world image, cultural perception and character; the effect thereof was more often ruinous than constructive.

One more example of a contradiction between imposed Western education applied to Aboriginal children was the neglect of geographic peculiarities and realia in which they existed. A well-known fact in the Western world is that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. But in the Arctic, the sun behaves differently. Six things can happen: (1) it doesn’t rise at all, (2) it peeks through for a few minutes, (3) it rises in the South and sets in the South a few minutes later, (4) it rises in the East and sets in the West, (5) it rises in the North and sets in the North almost 24 hours later, or (6) it doesn’t set at all. To a student in Southern Saskatchewan, the pattern of the sun rising is relevant to #4; to the Inuit child it is a six phase-continuum. The Western world’s view of fact is not an Inuit fact and may negatively affect learning (Brake, 1996).

This situation shows how important is the relevant educational context that suits to each particular educated group; this effect cannot be achieved by means of a unified, compulsory education for everyone as this approach does not fit into the framework of educational purposes. Learning involves more than schooling for the Inuit (Bower, 1999). Education is a life-long process that includes interaction with the environment, community members, family, schools, and other institutions and agencies. The purpose of education is to equip children to succeed in the world in which they will live. In Inuit communities this is more than academic education; it means travel, camp, and harvest wildlife resources in the surrounding land and environment. Children need to learn what is important in the Northwest Territories including territorial, regional and local governments, institutions and significant issues in the economic and social system. Thus, the increased influence of Aboriginal people on the education of their children has become an essential element for the educational system advancement. The Inuit’s role is to control the environment of the schooling process: the building, materials and equipment, teaching quality, and counseling to ensure that education can take place in the classroom. Education is also passing down a society’s values (Klein, 1998).

It is the failure of this unified, racist and discriminatory system that finally led to a fundamental redefinition of the purpose of Aboriginal education. It was recognized that if Aboriginals were to survive as distinct peoples, a radical change would be necessary to provide them with sustainable opportunities for survival and cultural development further on. This change of perspective led to the rise of Aboriginal control over Aboriginal education on the basis of a more intense movement towards self-government. It was understood that only through a certain measure of freedom, cultural revival and reformation, the rise of authentic Aboriginal education was possible; so, nowadays the revival process is actively undertaken.

Canada’s Aboriginal peoples are not returning to a previous era; rather, they are reaffirming their identity by selecting aspects of the old ways and blending them with the new ones. Elements of traditional culture such as sun dances, sweatlodge ceremonies, fasting, potlatches, and spiritual healing rituals are being revived. The psychological and spiritual wisdom of elders who have kept Aboriginal teachings alive is being recognized and respected. In many Aboriginal communities, people are emerging with bicultural identities, with an identity firmly anchored in the traditional cultural world of their people and consciousness of the skills necessary to succeed in the mainstream Canadian society (Berry, 1999).

Implicit in this endeavor is a concept of education as a mechanism of revitalizing Aboriginal culture. This view of education is neither new nor unusual in the Canadian multicultural society. The same process of cultural nationalism has emerged and continues to take place as many racial, cultural, and ethnic groups in Canada vie for what they consider to be their rightful place in Canadian confederation. Francophones, Ukrainians, East Indians, Jews, Chinese, and others have all struggled to maintain their culture (Stout and Kipling, 2003).

Each group faces the dual tasks of attaining an adequate standard of living for its members and participating in the general civic life of the larger society, as well as protecting and valuing its heritage, institutions, values, and worldview at the same time. This process involves some effort to gain control over institutions in order to enhance the group’s ability to practice its way of life. Control of educational institutions is particularly important given their primary concern with the socialization of children into society. Thus, the survival of the group depends to a large extent on what is taught in schools. The larger function of schools as institutions in the transmission of culture remains unchanged. The change occurring at the present period of time concerns whose culture is being transmitted to Aboriginal children (Anderson, 1999). Some particular examples may help understand how Aboriginal groups take care about education and transition of experience to the successive generations.

The Canadian Inuit in the Northwest Territories are an excellent example of how an Aboriginal group incorporates their culture and values along with modern studies of the dominate society. The Inuit live in Canada’s Arctic and their history is rich in tradition, passed on through centuries by story-tellers known for their skill. Stories and legends, even as they ensure that Inuit strengths and values are passed on, both entertain and help to understand who they are (Klein, 1998). A brief look at their educational practices and the ways used to combine tradition and modernity will illustrate the research with empirical observations and will show the challenges that Aboriginals now face in the process of constructing their integrated educational environment.

Oral history and the highly developed art of storytelling to pass on subsistence techniques and cultural values are still practiced today but the audience has changed. These used to be both young and old listeners; today the audience usually includes only the elders. Accelerated entry into the 20th century has brought about confusion. The daily chores critical to Arctic life and varied new concerns including Western education and religion compete for the time and interest of children. Even if interested, children have little time to sit quietly listening and learning from elders. So, the purpose of the long story-telling sessions, to pass down values and important elements of culture, is severely restricted. The role of elders as teachers is subverted. Excellence in the subsistence way of life does not ensure survival in the modern world (Bower, 1999).

The Inuit concept of the word “educate” literally means “to cause to become a person”. For this reason the Inuit have introduced the cultural component into their educational process to make it more than book studying and to teach children the cultural values cherished by the Inuit community for centuries. The task of an “educator” is to help the child during the formative years to become a person. A child starts becoming a person since infancy. When a young child learns something or shows a proclivity toward a certain activity, it is quickly acknowledged and nurtured; this occurs not only in the home but extends to the child’s interactions in the community (Bower, 1999).

It is true that the model of education used by Aboriginals is a more frivolous one, which usually causes resistance to the highly-disciplined Western model. Inuit child-rearing is often called permissive by Western standards. The Inuit perception is that Western practices are overly directive and controlling, interfering and intruding in the child’s development, constraining development of individuality and prolonging childhood. Though most of the education in Inuit society was not formal, it was serious business, equipping the child with the knowledge to survive in the Arctic. Social interaction is part of survival so education in proper social education and the means to make a living are important. In traditional Inuit culture, education was everybody’s business. The success of a child’s education was strongly influenced by how well the parents accepted admonishment of their child by members of their community.

Children should be ready for all the choices to be made upon graduation, which is also included as the key function of education. Most students stay in the villages after graduation, so Arctic survival skills must be taught as well as the academic skills to survive in the Western world. Most survival education used to be one-to-one as a student had many teachers. Parents, relations, and other community members, at different times and situations, were teachers. According to the Western education model, groups are put into a classroom and taught by a single teacher for the whole educational term. The assumption is that the teacher is proficient in all skills taught to the whole group (Brake, 1996).

The Inuit have tried to address the difference in two ways. A low student ratio helps address the needs of individuals; teacher aides from within the community provide critical role models because most teachers are still brought in from outside the community. The many hours spent outside of the classroom with the community members are important in the child’s successful learning. The hours spent outside school are just important as classroom time. Good teachers recognize this, teaching children to use any situation as a learning experience (Sinclair, 1998).

Traditional Inuit education focused on excellence as well as survival. The inclinations of each child were noted and nurtured. All specialties were needed for survival. Once a child showed an inclination (such as an interest in archery, storytelling, or sewing), that interest was nurtured by those concerned with that child’s education. The child might be apprenticed to a relative or their community member expert in that field. Other areas may have been de-emphasized so the child could develop his or her talent (Brake, 1996).

Once Western models were introduced, the nurturing of individual interests virtually stopped. All children were taught the same subjects and at the same pace and in the classroom. For the talents and creativity of children to be developed, the Inuit need to search for alternatives in the Western model. One way to do this is through partnerships with the community. Students need to see how their studies are applicable to real life. For instance, children need to see how command of English is important in secretarial work, how calculus is used in surveying and the role of math and social skills in management decisions (Brake, 1996).

Revitalization of the Inuit culture in schooling has helped define an emerging philosophy of Aboriginal education as similarly bicultural, blending old and new elements into a unique synthesis encompassing all aspects of child development. The intellectual, physical, and spiritual aspects of child psychology and personality formation are viewed in a complex without any division between secular and formal knowledge characterizing schooling in the dominant Canadian society. Many elements of traditional Aboriginal teaching and learning have been incorporated into this perspective. Aboriginal culture and language have finally become central to the curriculum, altering the whole paradigm of conflict and contradiction in the Canadian approach to education (Bower, 1999).

The modern Aboriginal education promotes respect toward others, particularly toward elders and the environment. While a formal teacher is responsible for transmitting specific skills, including learning Aboriginal languages, emphasis is placed on learning through guided experience. Rituals and ceremonies, often including lectures or speeches, become important learning events. So does story telling, the use of oral history to pass on a wide range of teachings from traditional myths, history, moral behavior to games and dances. Learning also emerges out of everyday activities, including the way people act towards one another both in school and within the family and community. It is through such means that essential concepts as respect, friendship, pride, and spiritual sensitivity are acquired (Berry, 1999).

Despite the fact that the Aboriginal education actually needed for the Indigenous people already starts to originate, there is still much to be decided and agreed upon. While there is agreement among Aboriginal peoples about the necessity for Aboriginal control, consensus on the nature of the experience itself, the substance of Aboriginal education, is still in its formative stages. The need to incorporate a traditional cultural perspective into the contemporary context has been easier to assert in principle than in practice. Many Aboriginal tribes and bands exist, with diverse cultures and languages. The last four centuries of contact have seen the erosion of traditional Aboriginal cultures and the loss of Aboriginal languages. Despite assimilation goals, federal government policies of placing Indians on isolated reserves and educating their children apart from the dominant society have contributed to the maintenance of a distinct cultural identity. While today’s Aboriginal cultures are not traditional ones that existed centuries ago, continuity with the past and a sense of distinctive identity have not disappeared (Klein, 1998).

Some issues that now need close attention for the sake of further advancement of Aboriginal education are the role of teachers and parents in the educational process. Further on, the Inuit need to identify the desired product of their schooling system and then set that system up. They want young adults to be productive, happy citizens in whatever world they choose. Only under such generalized, modern approach the schooling system, especially the environment, is conducive to achievement of the goal. Cultural differences in the way the Inuit choose to program goals and objectives must be addressed.

The necessity of close attention to parents as significant players in the field of education is predetermined by their possibility to provide children with comprehensive, continuous education outside the classroom. However, the aid parents can provide for their kids in educational terms has become seriously challenged by their own negative experiences from the residential model and cultural divide they were subject to. Thus, the educational reform has to include reformation of parental attitude to the educational process first of all. The judgment of the newcomers as authorities on the new way of life was respected but they did not realize that the objective was to educate children to reject their own culture in favor of the Western way of life. The differences between cultures were ignored and the aim of schools advocated by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs was to assimilate the Inuit. This created strife and led to the realization that the system of education needed to be modified to include the culture and knowledge of the natural environment of the Inuit. The Inuit had to take the Western educational system and try to make it work for them (Sinclair, 1998).

A great part of Aboriginal cultural values, beliefs and traditions can be passed on to children with the active interaction of parents in the schooling process. Elders teach Inuit dancing which is incorporated into Christmas programs. And Inuit people have a long tradition of athletic competitions. These are important parts of gatherings, trade groups, and celebrations and involve groups from different areas of the North. These unique sporting events involve agility, strength, and endurance which are fundamental for working and surviving in the Arctic environment. They also provide lessons about discipline, cooperation, patience, good humor, and sharing (sources).

Teachers also become the key actors in the revived Aboriginal education. In the Canadian society, teachers possess the dominant role in education of children from the perspective of parent intrusion in the process. Parents have faith in the expert to do everything necessary to equip their child with the skills needed for success in the world. When Western teachers were introduced, they were accepted and trusted as experts and parents did not interfere. Nowadays, such approach resembles the large extent of indifference from the side of parents, as often thought by teachers – this attitude towards instruction requires a considerable change of perspective as well (Anderson, 1999).

Teachers need to assure parents that their involvement is needed in this type of education for their child to succeed. School has not been a positive personal experience for many Inuit parents, as it has already been discussed. Parent-teacher conferences can be intimidating, and positive interactions with parents need to occur. Parents may only become involved when they are reassured, even if they have limited formal education, that their knowledge is valued and is an important part in their child’s education. Parent involvement plays its essential role in passing down the language of the Inuit people; Inuit children are the only hope for the survival of the Inuit language. Inuit culture is unique and this is reflected in the language. To achieve such positive interaction practices, teachers can take advantage of both the historical and contemporary culture of an area. At the same time, this is an important way of preserving cultural identity. Teachers can invite elders into the classroom to tell stories and teach cultural activities like songs, dances, and sewing because respect for elders is a value taught early in life (Anderson, 1999).

Teachers need to examine every aspect of schooling to see if it is serving its purpose. Schools have changed from an individualized learning system to competency based education. Many schools in the North found that graduates could not read or write so a change was needed. Individualized instruction had not worked out. The competency-based approach is more congruent with the Inuit traditional educational practices, as children are ready for advancement and teachers know what children need to master. Teachers currently focus on providing the best atmosphere for learning. One way to address the problem of earlier systems’ deficiencies and lack of continuities is to enhance guidance and counseling services (Anderson, 1999).

It goes without saying that the systematic approach to arranging the educational change is as essential and the change itself. With alterations happening so often, teachers had to deal with the fact that the educational system was combining new ideas but they were never synthesized into a coherent unit or system. Students get taught with one system for a certain period of time and then another system is implemented; this results in the necessity of extra help for students to get adjusted to innovative requirements. In case such help is provided with the comprehensive understanding of all Aboriginal peculiarities in education, their rich cultural heritage that requires thorough incorporation into the educational process, it is possible to assume that the reform will succeed and the conflicts, discrimination and unitary imperialism will remain in the past.

References

Anderson, J. (1999). Indian control of Indian education. Toronto: Thomson Educational.

Barman, J. (1995). Indian residential schools in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Berry, J. W. (1999). Aboriginal cultural identity. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 19(1), 1-36.

Bower, C. (1999). Effective teachers of Inuit and Indian students. Toronto: OISE Press.

Brake, B. (1996). The Canadian Inuit. Toronto: OISE Press.

Brasfield, C. R. (2001). Residential School Syndrome. B.C. Medical Journal, 43(2), 78-81.

Corrado, R. R., & Cohen, I. M. (2003). Mental health profiles for a sample of British Columbia’s survivors of the Canadian residential school system. Ottawa, ON.: Aboriginal Healing Foundation

Department of Indian Affairs (1996). First Nations education. Ottawa: Government Press.

Ishiama, F. I. (1995). Culturally dislocated clients: Self-validation issues and cultural conflict issues and counseling implications. Canadian Journal of Counseling, 29(3), 262-275.

Klein, J. (1998). Locally developed Native studies curriculum. Montreal: Blackmore Books.

Northwest Territories Department of Education (2000). Native languages: resources pertaining to Native languages of the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife: Government Publications.

Robertson, L. H. (2004). Youth suicide: A community response. In W. J. Mussel (Ed.), A matter of life: Suicide, addictions and mental health. Calgary, AB: Native Mental Health Association of Canada.

Sinclair, B. (1998). Successes in Indian education. Montreal: Pearson Publishers.

Stout, M. D., & Kipling, G. (2003). Aboriginal people, resilience and the residential school legacy. Ottawa, ON.: Aboriginal Healing Foundation.