Indigenous Learning Research Articles

Community-Anchored Assessment of Indigenous Second Language Learning in K-12 Schools

Indigenous second language programs in K-12 schools contribute to culturally nourishing education and to the revitalization of Indigenous languages. Assessing Indigenous second language learning presents particular opportunities and challenges based on the linguistic, historical, political, cultural, and social contexts in and for which the Indigenous language is being taught and learned. The self-governing Inuit region of Nunatsiavut is concerned with developing effective and appropriate tools for assessing students’ Inuttitut in order to evaluate how well K-12 programs are working so far, identify the basis on which future K-12 Inuttitut curriculum may be developed, and support ongoing assessment of learning and for learning in Inuttitut classrooms. This article discusses ways in which Inuit teachers in Nunatsiavut and a curriculum evaluation team have developed and implemented assessment tools and practices to evaluate Inuttitut learning in Nunatsiavut area K-12 schools. We discuss how Indigenous language learning and assessment, even when it occurs as part of an official school program, can be anchored in families and community. Families and communities need to be part of establishing language learning goals. Inuit teachers are drawing in full community resources and building a community of practice including Elders, other language speakers, leaders, principals, and teachers, to support and create contexts for community-anchored Inuttitut learning and assessment.

Getting schools ready for Indigenous academic achievement: a meta-synthesis of the issues and challenges in Australian schools

ABSTRACTThe Australian governments’ centrepiece Indigenous strategy, the ‘Closing the Gap’ framework, established in 2008 to address systemic Indigenous disadvantage, is underpinned by the concept of ‘school readiness’, which expects Indigenous families to bring their children to school ready to learn. The education system commonly blames Indigenous culture as a contributing factor in explaining the ‘Gap’. In this paper, we reverse the mirror of ‘school readiness’, examining what is known about the readiness of the education system to meet the aspirations of Indigenous learners. Using a meta-synthesis methodological approach, this paper provides an overview of research about the issues and challenges facing Australian schools to be ready to respond to the educational needs of Indigenous children. Findings reveal that the lack of teacher, curriculum, pedagogical, school environment and culture readiness are the four key aspects to consider. We conclude by discussing the implications and gaps in the existing Indigenous education strategies.

Exploring “Intersectoral Collaboration” towards the Integration of Indigenous Knowledge into Adult Education Programs in North Wollo, Ethiopia

Integration of indigenous knowledge into adult education recognizes collaboration based on indigenous frameworks and methodologies and gives more attention to people’s history, politics, cultural beliefs, and philosophical views. The most important beginning phases and tasks in promoting indigenous-based learning are establishing a responsive organizational structure that helps to identify and agree on what roles and responsibilities are played by each concerned stakeholder. Considering this in mind, this study aimed to explore intersectoral coordination and their participation in the integration of indigenous knowledge into adult education. In doing so, a qualitative research approach and a case-study design were employed. The study sample was composed of adult education experts and coordinators. Data was obtained through interviews, FGD, and document analysis. Furthermore, thematic analysis was the centre of this study data analysis. As a result, the study finding revealed that stakeholders’ coordinated effort has been observed that lacks consistency in supporting indigenous-based adult education programs due to their deprived collaboration and the presence of not functional administrative structure. This makes the provision and the integration of indigenous-based knowledge systems into adult education sporadic in its coverage of indigenous learning contents and experiences.

A Collaborative Multi-Method Approach to Evaluating Indigenous Land-Based Learning With Men

In Canada, a vast majority of urban Indigenous people face distinct challenges accessing and connecting to Indigenous cultural practices. Research has found that colonial policies and practices continue to disrupt and fracture traditional methods of passing down cultural teachings, including dispossession from traditional lands in which cultural practices are rooted. This disruption continues to affect the availability of educational programming by and with Indigenous people and in Indigenous languages. This research involves a multi-method approach to observe and engage with a land-based traditional drum-making program for Indigenous men in an urban center in Southwestern Manitoba. By participating, watching, and listening to the men within the workshops through unstructured observation, Sharing Circles, individual interviews, and photovoice, we aim to understand the impacts of land-based learning on Indigenous men’s well-being. The study is designed in accordance with University and Tri-Agency ethical guidelines, integrating ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP), as well as the principles of respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility within all phases of the research. The research is co-created by the university researchers, community collaborators, and other relevant stakeholders.

The prospective science teachers' skills in reconstructing indigenous knowledge of local culture on breast milk using pare (Momordica charantia)

Traditional communities still maintain a traditional way of life that relies on nature (Nuangchalerm et al., 2022). In the Dieng community, which occupies the mountains, pregnant women have a tradition of stimulating breast milk using pare (Momordica charantia), which has been done for generations as the inheritance of their ancestors. This study aims to explore the tradition of the community using bitter melon to stimulate breast milk in pregnant women. Prospective science teachers explore reconstructing the community's indigenous knowledge through local cultural studies on breast milk stimulation in the Dieng Plateau community. The exploration process is measured as the skills of prospective science teachers in reconstructing indigenous knowledge. The learning strategy chosen is to visit learning resources in the environment to connect indigenous and scientific knowledge with the learning stages per Jerome Bruner's spiral curriculum. Students learning activities to build new knowledge include enactive, iconic, and symbolic stages. Students visit indigenous learning resources in the community to build knowledge through experiments. This research used mixed methods, with 11 pregnant Dieng women as the research target. The result of a t-test of correlation coefficient obtained by t-value equals 4.202 with a significance equal to 0.002. Hence, learning strategy with the cultural study influences students' skills in reconstructing indigenous knowledge of the community in Dieng. In conclusion, prospective science teachers have very good skills in reconstructing the community's indigenous knowledge through local cultural studies about breast milk. Students are helped to acquire knowledge after lecturers let them build hands-on experiences by exploring indigenous learning resources in the environment.

Self-Determination in Indigenous Online Education

There is a pressing need, as outlined in the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, to promote success for Indigenous learners in higher education. One pathway towards greater participation and success may be to empower Indigenous learners to engage with open source digital tools and platforms that promote digital self-determination. This review of the literature will explore the concept of digital self-determination through examples of Indigenous communities claiming control over the infrastructure that serves their homes.

Further Reflecting on the Six-Year Primary Project of the Institute of Education, University of Ife: The Key Players

African linguistic complexity is often defined in terms of its multilingualism and a complicated colonial sociolinguistic heritage. Tis colonial heritage is seen in the prevalence of European languages, especially English and French, in the lingual Franca of sub-Saharan states. A corollary to the latter assertion is that education in Africa, south of the Sahara, is primarily Eurocentric and quite unAfrican in context. More often than not, it is disempowering rather than empowering if we go by Paulo Freire’s notion of education as being central to empowerment and poor education as the primary agent and metaphoric vehicle for modern day disempowerment, a knowledge base that does not liberate the mind or embrace the cognitive progression of the learner.1 After all, the original goal of colonial education was to train the “natives” in European languages so as to be able to communicate with and, ipso facto, serve their colonial “masters,” and help him to rule the same “natives.” The proverbial “Food for the slave” is relevant here; and as the saying goes, “it is not given to provide the slave nourishment or enhance good growth, but to provide just enough energy to keep on serving the malevolent master.” Such is the unfortunate paradigm that captures the essence of colonial education in which the lingua franca of the indigenous learner is not only backgrounded but altogether demonized in some cases. Otherwise, how else could the common warning in the typical colonial classroom “Vernacular speaking is prohibited”? The so-called “vernacular” in question is the Yoruba language!

Decolonization of STEM in the Public Education System in Québec, Canada

Indigenous representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is crucial for reconciliation, self-determination, and inclusive and equitable science policy. Indigenous people continue to be underrepresented in Canada's STEM workforce, creating a substantial annual cost to the Canadian economy. Canada’s provinces and territories hold jurisdiction over education, and the majority, including Québec, do not include Indigenous perspectives in their elementary and secondary STEM curricula. This exclusion can alienate Indigenous learners and deter them from STEM careers. As a model for the decolonization of STEM in other provinces, we call for the amendment of Québec’s Education Act to create an Indigenous Education Steering Committee (IESC), which would collaborate with the Minister of Education to ensure inclusion of locally relevant Indigenous STEM content in compulsory curricula. We further propose that Québec include continued professional development training for teachers on Indigenous perspectives in STEM in the Ministry of Education’s strategic plan, thereby building capacity for the equitable participation of Indigenous peoples in STEM.

The Mahaboworn Model of Social Studies Learning Network Innovation to Develop of Indigenous History Learning Resources in Northern Thailand

The objective of this research is to 1) explore historical background through a participatory workshop on the legend of Phra Nang Malika of Wiang Malika in Lanna, and 2) create indigenous history learning resources through mural painting and picture book, the legend of Phra Nang Malika, in Mae Ai Luang Temple Chiang Mai Province. The samples included the following: 1) 22 community leaders, monks, school administrators, teachers, village philosophers, and youth representatives; 2) 8 indigenous technologists; and 3) 5 learning management specialists. Purposive sampling was used to choose a total of 35 individuals. The instruments used in the research were an unstructured interview, a knowledge synthesis form to create murals, and a validity assessment form and 4) a performance evaluation form for a picture book regarding indigenous history. Quantitative data were examined using statistical software to determine the mean and standard deviation. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis and presented in a descriptive format. The findings indicated that;
 
 1) In Mae Ai district, the legend of Wiang Malika and Phra Nang Malika is a legacy of Chiang Mai Province, which is related to the history of Fang, and Phra Nang Sam Pew, which is connected to the Lanna Kingdom’s historical growth. In terms of trade, politics, governance, and religion, for example, is considered the role of women as rulers or kings, which exemplifies the notion of feminism throughout history and influencing the development of the Lanna Kingdom’s later age and 2) The outcome of the development of learning resources on indigenous history through murals and picture book at Phra Nang Malika in Mae Ai Luang Temple, Chiang Mai Province, through “the Mahabowon Model of Social Studies Learning Network or CMUR Model” resulting in educational materials on indigenous history that integrate the cooperation of universities, communities, temples, and schools, resulting in high-quality knowledge of indigenous historical record. A summary of the indigenous history picture book is also included. The appropriate sampling value is most suitable (x = 4.57, SD = 0.37).

Transformative agency for justice: addressing racial disparity of school discipline with the indigenous learning lab

ABSTRACT In the U.S. school systems, Native American students receive harsher and more frequent school discipline than White counterparts. Exclusionary discipline may result in adverse academic, social, and life outcomes. There is an urgent need for creating an inclusive, equity-oriented learning environment where Native American students’ identities, well-being, and dignity are promoted and nurtured. To develop a culturally responsive behavioral support system aimed to address racial disparity in school discipline, the Indigenous Learning Lab was implemented at a rural high school in Wisconsin. Indigenous Learning Lab is an inclusive problem-solving process through which Native American students, parents, and community members and non-native school staff collectively examine disproportionality in school discipline and design a new school-wide system. The purpose of this study is to examine how participation in Indigenous Learning Lab expanded local stakeholders’ individual agency to collective, transformative agency in designing a culturally responsive behavioral support system.

Kanne Lobal: A conceptual framework relating education and leadership partnerships in the Marshall Islands

Kanne Lobal: A conceptual framework relating education and leadership partnerships in the Marshall Islands

It’s in the blood: theory and praxis of lifelong Indigenous education

ABSTRACT Through the voice of a Metis educator, this work addresses the foundations of an Indigenous lifelong education. Lived experiences connect with unfolding personal narrative to demonstrate the ancient flow of Indigenous knowledge, and the continuity and expression of Indigenous being. The narratives implicitly references connections and relationships between people and land as vitally necessary for Indigenous learning and the survival of Indigenous peoples as distinct and whole human individuals and collectives. The concept of ‘blood memory’ is presented as foundational to the narrative and repositions a content that might otherwise align closely with readily accessible and acknowledged renewal within Indigenous education. This work does not speak from within the theoretical canons of education and schooling as these are upheld, adhered to, and promoted by Western intellectual traditions of knowledge. It offers analytical, critical thinking derived from the lived experiences and acquired learning of an Indigenous educator. The narratives demonstrate that lifelong learning is gifted and accepted through intentional individual and collective participation within a flow of knowledge transmission and transformation grounded upon generations of ancestral research in the development, validation, sharing, practice, and renewal of praxes that support everyday living and dying.

Innovative praxis for environmental learning in Canadian faculties of education

AbstractThis article explores innovative praxis in Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in four preservice teacher education programmes in Canada. ESE is finding its way into teacher education in a variety of innovative and interdisciplinary ways, as both part of mainstream programmes and in their co-curricular margins. Using a case study approach, each case builds on unique connections to Indigenous education, art education, cultural learning or educational gardening, which supports a variety of differing aspects in relation to ESE. These cases share a common theme of building relationships at the heart of ESE teaching and learning in the mainstream and the margins of the academy. Brought together through a Canadian network of faculty, researchers, policy-makers and community educators that was formed in 2016, these cases demonstrate a deep commitment and imaginative capacity for embedding ESE in Canada’s teacher education systems.

Grease Trail Storytelling Project

Background: Indigenous learners and community members are often excluded from online learning environments, as both consumers and producers of knowledge, resulting in an educational digital divide. Further, Indigenous knowledges represented through digital practices and online spaces risk misrepresentation and appropriation, which leads to stereotypes and deficit thinking about Indigenous people, their histories, and their current realities. There is a need for educational approaches that give space, voice, and agency to Indigenous people. Aim: This article is a reflection on a teaching enhancement project that weaved together local land-based learning, Indigenous storytelling, and digital media. Project Overview: Indigenous pre-service teachers created an open educational resource, the Grease Trail Digital Storytelling Project, to enhance the preservation and accessibility of Indigenous histories, stories, and memories embedded in local landscapes. Their approach to Indigenous digital storytelling uses the principles of respect, relevance, responsibility, and reciprocity to document and curate their digital storytelling practices and Indigenous knowledgetraditions. Discussion: The Grease Trail Digital Storytelling Project may serve as a helpful resource for those interested in learning how Indigenous digital storytelling could be approached for the preservation of Indigenous intellectual traditions that bring together land, story, and memory in online spaces and integrated as a tool for teaching and learning in school and community settings.

Decolonizing Educational Practices through Fostering Ethical Relationality in an Urban Indigenous Classroom

To foster the success of young Indigenous learners, our study partnered with an urban Indigenous school in Alberta’s capital region. This paper explores the decolonizing practices that emerged through the ethical relationships developed with students and staff guided by the Cree wisdom teachings of wîcihitowin and wahkohtowin. A group of Indigenous and Canadian university and school-based co-researchers worked with a class of students over four years (from grade 6 to 9) incorporating Indigenous knowledges with the mandated Social Studies curriculum. The teachings included Cree language, land-based activities, ceremony and story. Students expressed appreciation for the teachings and the opportunities they had experienced over the course of the study; it was a small step towards decolonizing education.

Design and implementation of an African native language-based programming language

<p>Most of the existing high level programming languages havehitherto borrowed their lexical items from human languages including European and Asian languages. However, there is paucity of research information on programming languages developed with the lexicons of an African indigenous language. This research explored the design and implementation of an African indigenous language-based programming language using Yoruba as case study. Yoruba is the first language of over 30 million people in the south-west of Nigeria, Africa; and is spoken by over one hundred million people world-wide. It is hoped, as established by research studies, that making computer programming possible in one’s mother tongue will enhance computer-based problem-solving processes by indigenous learners and teachers. The alphabets and reserved words of the programming language were respectively formed from the basic Yoruba alphabets and standard Yoruba words. The lexical items and syntactic structures of the programming language were designed with appropriate regular expressions and context-free grammars, using Backus-Naur Form (BNF) notations. A prototype implementation of the programming language was carried out as a source-to-source, 5-pass compiler. QBasic within QB64 IDE was the implementation language. The results from implementation showed functional correctness and effectiveness of the developed programming language. Thus lexical items of a programming language need not be borrowed exclusively from European and Asian languages, they can and should be borrowed from most African native languages. Furthermore, the developed native language programming language can be used to introduce computer programming to indigenous pupils of primary and junior secondary schools.</p>

Cultural knowledge as opportunities for empowerment: Learning and development for Mexican Indigenous youth

ABSTRACT Educators are often unaware of assets Mexican Indigenous children possess that originate from their cultural practices. Using Critical Latinx Indigeneities and Indigenous Heritage Saberes, our studies focus on three unique Indigenous learning communities that provide opportunities of empowerment for these students. We examine the experiences of Triqui middle school students in a Youth Participatory Action Research club and how it facilitated their use of research as a decolonizing tool to hold knowledge inside the school. We explore how Oaxacan students maintain their cultural traditions via a learning community created byan Oaxacan philharmonic band. Lastly, we investigate the experiences of Yucatec-Maya youth with cultural community organization programs that instill knowledge of and pride in their Indigenous identity. Our studies contribute to the critical conversations about equity in education for Mexican Indigenous youth. Recommendations are made for educators and community organizations working with Mexican Indigenous students.

Indigenous people’s education, career aspirations, career choice and challenges among senior high school students in rural communities in Palawan

The study aims to determine the Indigenous people’s education, career aspirations, career choice, and challenges among senior high school students in rural communities in Palawan. The qualitative and quantitative methods used in the study. Mean, frequency counts, percentages, T-test, and Pearson Moment Correlation were employed. Results revealed that most of the parents had ages 39-44 years old, female, high school level, farmers, and earned below 1,000. As for ethnicity, most of them belong to the Palawan tribe, had 3-4 number of children, and a cash conditional transfer recipient. It also revealed that most of the learners had ages between 18-19 years old, female, Palawan, the first child in the family, enrolled under Technical Vocational and Livelihood, and traveled 5 kilometers distance of residence to the school. There is no significant relationship Between Parent-Respondents Profile and Career Aspirations of the Learners except in parents’ age. There is no significant Relationship Between Learner-Respondents Profile and their Career Aspirations except in age, sex, and track profile. There is no significant relationship between the demographic profile of the parents and the educational challenges except in parent’s occupation, cash conditional transfer recipient, and several children. There is no significant relationship between the learner’s demographic profile and the educational challenges except in distance from school, birth order, and sex. There is a significant difference between career aspirations among learners and their parents, while there is no significant difference between the career choice among indigenous learners and their parents and educational challenges among learners and parents.

A worksheet, a whiteboard, a teacher-learner: leveraging materials and colonial language frames for multimodal indigenous language learning

ABSTRACT The growing demand for Indigenous language education in the United States often relies on community teachers with widely varying proficiencies as part of local language reclamation efforts. While these English-dominant ‘teacher-learners’ play a central role in the success of classroom-based K-12 language programs, their classroom experiences and practices have received little attention in second language acquisition research. I address this gap in the literature by examining an English-dominant Ojibwe teacher-learner’s pedagogical practices in an English-dominant tribal school. I theorise the use of colonial language and materials by relying on linguistic ethnography’s multi-scalar approach to language in use as well as a focus on sign-makers’ transformations of local resources. Findings show how the teacher-learner’s reliance on relational knowledge and colonial language framing scaffolds translingual practices and opens up discursive space for learners to experiment, play, and learn. This study highlights how one teacher-learner negotiates the ideological and material conditions that shape the learning and use of an Indigenous language within a colonial institution (school) that has long been a tool of assimilation and erasure.

Indigenous women and adult learning

Indigenous women and adult learning