Preview

Finding My Pedagogy

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1103 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Finding My Pedagogy
Finding My Pedagogy: Teacher conduct in the classroom through the lens of Traditional Aboriginal education and culture
Introduction
Each day my Mother and I spend almost one hour talking to each other on the phone. During one of our most profound discussions, she happened to tell me about family member that suffered from alcoholism. Although the conversation began with the topic of addiction, it evolved into a conversation about cycles. She explained that, in her opinion, behaviors are learned cycles; regardless of whether they are negative or positive ways of thinking and being, all manners of conduct live on a continuous spectrum and they all have a history. What is more, she rationalized that despite the mistakes of others, the direction
…show more content…
Understanding the past is central to the discussion of contemporary Aboriginal education. Before educators can discover way in which to integrate traditional education into the present-day non-reserve classroom, recognizing the tumultuous relationship that FNMI people have with colonial education due to residential schools is essential. Inherently, residential schools were an attempt by the Europeans to eradicate Indigenous peoples from the land and assimilate the children of Indigenous families to a Eurocentric colonial worldview. What is more, however, the objective of residential school was far more sinister than simply wanting to convert Aboriginal children's spiritual beliefs; residential schools were a form of cultural genocide. Underpinning the intentions of colonialist's residential school was the desire to facilitate the capitalist model of society by denying FNMI children the right to their language, spiritual beliefs, and culture. Schissel and Wotherspoon (2003) concisely summarize the essence of residential school by confirming the "intent of residential school policy was to destroy culture and rebuild Indian children as active participants in the industrial economy . . ." (p.43). These genocidal acts committed in residential schools are indisputable according to the United Nations (1948) which, specifically sates "any . . . [act] committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group . . . [by way of] causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group . . . [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" (p. 1). Knowing and understanding these facts, in my opinion, is the initial step towards redirecting the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the article “Improve Aboriginal Health through Oral History,” which was published in the Toronto Star on Sunday, May 2, 2010, the author Nicholas Keung discusses the childhood of aboriginal in residential school and its effect on the healthy relationships.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Series of traumatic events occurred while residential school were running, but it left a scars on aboriginal people forever. As an aboriginal women I get a lot of understanding from Pauline Johnsons “As it was in the beginning”, growing up on the Six Nation Reserve and having meet people who have experienced the same things as Pauline. Residential schools were open between the 1980’s and the 1990’s and the last school did not close until 1996, the year I was born. Pauline writes, “No more, no more the tepees; no more the wild stretch of prairie, the intoxicating fragrance of the smoke-tanned buckskin; no more the bed of buffalo hide, the soft, silent moccasin; no more the dark faces of my people, the dulcet cadence of the sweet Cree tongue”…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Looking at the effects of Canada’s colonial past, the chapter of Monchalin’s textbook The Impact of Assimilation discusses the history of residential schools and the impact that they have had on Canada’s Indigenous community. The purpose of these horrendous and unethical establishments was to eradicate the culture, traditions, and language of Indigenous peoples. This was done by removing Indigenous children from their homes, denying them communication with their families while forcing them to adopt the beliefs of Christianity. Beginning in 1920, it became compulsory that all Indigenous children from the age of seven to fifteen must attend school however; this did not necessarily mean that they were required to attend a residential school. Though…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Yellow Quill Crisis

    • 211 Words
    • 1 Page

    However, it is widely accepted that the cultural genocide and social disruption perpetrated over generations through displacement, discriminatory legislation such as the Indian Act, and federal programs such as the residential school system created enduring hardships among Aboriginal peoples and hindered the re-establishment of social networks and the development of stable…

    • 211 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The government needs to help repair these reserves to create better living conditions as well as create programs to assist the survivors of residential schools with their emotional and psychological issues that were created from the human rights abuses they faced. The aboriginal people of Canada are owed more than an apology for what was done to them for generations. A number of broken families and lost lives cannot be fixed from the monetary compensation they received. The Canadian government has not done enough to ensure the rights of aboriginals are protected. With the signing of the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous, there is hope for the future improvement and protection of these rights. Allowing for the past and current issues to be corrected and never repeated. It is the responsibility of Canada to recognize the abuses and create changes to protect these rights. It is up to future generations to understand the human rights abuses of the past and ensure that the future will never hold similar conditions for any group of people. The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission set forth by Harpers government will provide this opportunity as it seeks to educate all Canadians of the Human…

    • 2396 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Residential Schools: “Where the Spirit Lives” 1. How did residential schools try to assimilate aboriginal children? Explain at least six practices which promoted assimilation. • They changed the children’s look by cutting their hair which in some aboriginal culture has spiritual meaning, gave them different clothes to wear, and took away their identity by giving them new Christian names. • Forced Christianity…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Métis Residential Schools

    • 2013 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The history of the Métis and Residential Schools is not new. For a century, the mutual lives of the Métis children were controlled by the missionaries and the Catholic Church, and became wrapped up in Federal Government policies. The Metis Residential School experience was similar to the Aboriginal one; that of social exclusion and mental and physical abuse. The procedures that were created for the Métis in Residential Schools harshly exposed how bureaucrats felt about the social order of the Métis’ station in the New Canada. The Residential Schools took part in creating a lower class structure for the Métis, which separated them even further from their First…

    • 2013 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Aboriginal people have had to suffer through many different experiences and social determinants over the years, one of them being Residential schools, which has added to many other issues and arising problems. Starting early 1800-1900’s, kids were taken from their families and forced to attend these schools. There were a variety of the schools across Canada. The schools were government funded, and run through churches, where priests and nuns taught; some of the teachers were hardly educated themselves. Families were told that their children must attend these schools, because of the Indian Act that had been implemented, or the family members would be arrested or suffer greater consequences.…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This book was written by people who were either in the Kamloops Indian Residential School or got to see it second hand. These stories of the schools were told by Aboriginal People to have a record of how the Residential Schools went for them, not by how other people made it seem. These horrific stories told build my argument in my essay of how improper and inhumane these schools were for people who did nothing to deserve it. The torture they went through and have had the courage to tell their stories is inspiring. These people wanted people to know what happened so history would not be repeated; they also wanted to let people know that although they had to go through those years, they survived as a whole. It is important to recognize that this…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is important to acknowledge that impact that this school system had on Indigenous people because of the way we see how residential schools can still be affecting children, and the survivors.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The purpose of the schooling system was to remove all aspects of the Indigenous race and culture. Unfortunately, students had their hair cut, dressed in uniforms, given new names, and were not able to speak their native language. If any rule was broken, students were harmed physically and sexually. For example, a needle would be shoved into a Native Canadian student’s mouth if they spoke their own language. Students were also beaten and strapped, even tied down to beds, being abused sexually and physically for not obeying a leader's orders. Carole Dawson, an Indigenous Residential school student, states that the worst part was, “[p]robably the abuse. It's not only my own abuse. I saw the abuse of others” (109). Young children witnessed abnormal treatment of others, and they also experienced inhumane behaviour. In addition, escaping was common in Residential schools however, the punishment was severe. Many Indigenous students that attempted to escape Residential schools and succeeded, ended up dying from starvation, frostbite, or hypothermia. In fact, over nine-thousand Indigenous Canadians died from their futile efforts of leaving Residential schools. Celia Haig-Brown quoted a female residential school survivor as saying, “[t]hey said they were going to give me a real short haircut for my punishment” (qtd. In Quinlan et al. 68). Furthermore, Indigenous children were not able to see their own families again, the isolation affects the students emotionally, even to this day. Ingrid Annault states “[t]he worst part, besides the second thing of being there was not having your family, not having anybody to hug you and tell you they loved you” (107). A child's innocence is torn and damaged once they are separated from their family. The closest element Native children had from seeing their family was “a mere wave in a dining room” (Erin Hanson) however,…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    This view translated into the founding of a school system, recognized as the residential school system. Originally opening in Eastern Canadian provinces beginning in the 1880s, residential schools flourished and rapidly spread across the nation, and during its peak period of the 1930s, established over eighty operating institutions country-wide (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008). Residential schools were introduced by the Department of Indian Affairs as a way of “integration” of Indigenous peoples into Euro-Canadian society, through schooling Indigenous youth (usually seven to fifteen-year-olds) Canadian practices and “formal” education, being taught by missionaries of various Christian denominations. Children were removed from their family (in some cases, through force), and sent to attend residential schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native languages, or to observe their Indigenous customs, traditions, and practices. The goals of the residential schools were simple – to “kill the Indian in the child” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada).…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most Canadians today have the misconception of residentials school existing a long time ago and is considered history when in fact, the last residential school closed 20 years ago. The main purpose of the residential schools was to force indigenous children into the Canadian society by educating them through the church's teachings. The residential schools existed for 165 years, the first school opening in 1831 that resulted in victimizing about 150,000 children. The system took children away from their homes only to return as teenagers that lead to them not being exposed to their culture. The students were dubbed as the stolen generation. The legacy of residential schools impacted the future generations of aboriginals…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Residential schools were mainly operated by religious organization i.e. nuns, priests, ministers and missionaries (TRC). Residential schools separated aboriginal children from their families and brought them in school where operators of schools forcefully took off their traditional clothes and cut their hairs which was the most insulting feeling for aboriginal children as traditional clothes and long hairs considered as a symbol of respect for aboriginal people in their culture. In addition to that aboriginal children were not allowed to speak their native language in schools if they did that they supposed to punish by head of schools (TRC). By doing all these, residential schools wanted to show that their culture was inferior to Canadian culture. In the residential school girls were not allowed to talk or look at boys even they were brother-sister.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The residential schools truly killed the Indian within the Aboriginals, which was their primary objective after establishment.The reserves destroyed the customs of Aboriginals through its compact living conditions; and the lack of education or stress caused the Aboriginals to take atrocious actions. Furthermore, suicide rates would not be so high if the Aboriginals were not assimilated and enforced to follow the english way of…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays