Building cultural bridges with Aboriginal learners and their ‘classmates’ for transformative environmental education

Abstract

The educational gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians is the most significant social policy challenge facing Canada (Richards 2008). This gap is particularly evident in the science fields. Educational institutions are still regarded as mechanisms of colonization by many Aboriginal people. Their ‘foreign’ Eurocentric (or Western) culture reinforces the systematic barrier to success of Aboriginal students in the current educational system. It is time to develop a new kind of educational process, an “ecology of Indigenous education” (Cajete, Futures 42:1126-1132, 2009), to allow Aboriginal peoples to participate fully in academic science and to share their deep understandings about sustainable living. Significant advances in environmental education for all learners will follow if we can embrace the relationship with Mother Earth that allowed Aboriginal peoples to live in harmony with nature for so long before colonization. “The exploration of traditional American Indian education and its projection into a contemporary context is much more than just an academic exercise. It illuminates the true nature of the ecological connection of human learning and helps to liberate the experience of being human and being related at all its levels.” (Cajete, Futures 42:1126-1132, 2009)