ECS 210
Teaching Treaty Education in Schools7/30/2020 Treaty Education is a difficult topic to teach, as there is many people who don't believe it is important for students to learn about, especially when there isn't any Aboriginal students in the class or school. I also believe it can be difficult to teach as a white settler because we have no idea how Aboriginal people feel and the discrimination they went through and continue to go through. I also don't know Aboriginal culture and there ways of life but that is why it is so important to learn about Aboriginal culture. I will continue to keep learning so I can educate the youth of our province.
"For the immigrants of my grandmother's generation it was as if their adopted country had no story, or at least not one worth learning about or remembering. They acted as if the story of their new home only began with their arrival on its shores (Chambers, 2020)". I felt this quote from Cynthia Chambers fit how people view the relationship with Aboriginal people and the settlers. Lots of people choose to ignore the past discrimination of Aboriginal people and therefore continue to discriminate against Aboriginal people. If people do not learn the history no one will ever learn from it. "The present and past tie together, we need to work backwards to proceed into the future (Dwayne, 2010)". We also have to recognize that the history of Aboriginal people is our history too. "We are all treaty people; it is our story, what was shared and what was lost (Chambers, 2020)", therefore we shouldn't be looking at learning about Aboriginal people but learning about our history as treaty people. One thing I found interesting was when Claire Krueger stated that we shouldn't be "programming specifically aimed at educating Aboriginal students (Krueger, 2017)". I always thought the way to integrate Aboriginal students into our classes was to aim our content around those students, so that they saw themselves in the curriculum. Kruger states this is not the case, we "should be focusing on non-indigenous students and aim at fixing racism that we have gotten so good at teaching (Kruger, 2017)". We as a province must look at the covent of the treaties in Canada "As long as the sun shines and the river flows", "this statement is a true curriculum, the one that calls us to renew our relationship with one another, that calls us to renew our commitment to what we have in common, to our stake in the world and its survival, upon which our own depends (Chambers, 2020)". This statement will help us reach our destination of reconciliation, and will help us to fix the past history we have with Aboriginal people to renew our relationships with the people and the lands.
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School Curriculum and Treaty Education7/23/2020 In the reading "Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be learned in school" by Ben Levin; he discusses different ideas about how school curricula is implemented and developed. Curriculum is defined as the "official statement of what students are expected to know and be able to do (Levin, 2007)". Public policy govern every aspect of education- what schooling is provided, how, to whom, in what form, by whom, with what resources.
The article discusses the input that goes into planning the curriculum and which parts are implemented. The planning can be by many different individuals or groups, educational governance usually involves some combination of national, local, and school participation. The final authority over the curriculum usually is voiced by the national or sub national governments. One thing I had learned, was that schools have their own authorities over curriculum. Such as in High school each school has their own say over the electives or optional classes they choose to implement. When planning curriculum public attention is not a factor or has little impact on the curriculum; and even though teachers have degrees in teaching that doesn't mean they have a voice in the planning of the curriculum either. In policy and curriculum planning it is all about power; "those who have the least status tend to have the least influence on political decision making (Levin,2007)". I feel like teachers should have a say on political decision making because they are with the students and know the students better than higher status individuals in the school system. In the article Treaty Education Outcomes and Indicators it gives an insight into how Treaty Education is implemented into the Saskatchewan curriculum. One thing I noticed before even reading the article was that it was last updated in 2013, which was seven years ago. So many important First Nation events have happened, with more information coming out and being discovered each year. I think this document should be updated at least every couple years. "The Ministry of Education respects the federal government’s legal, constitutional, and fiscal obligations to First Nations peoples and its primary responsibility for Métis people. As well, the Ministry of Education is committed to providing the appropriate supports and programs that reflect and affirm the unique status of First Nations and Métis peoples"; in this statement we begin to understand how the government is trying to implement First Nation culture heritage into the Saskatchewan school system. I don't know if I am right with saying this but I think that having a separate document for First Nation indicators outcomes further separate them from us. We are all on the same land and we are all treaty people so why are we still separating our education. I think it is important for every school to learn about Treaty Education in Saskatchewan. When the implementation of the Treaty outcome and indicators happened in 2007, I believe there would have been a ton of push back from parents and citizens in Saskatchewan. Even today there is probably some individuals who don't agree with students learning about Treaty Education. There is nothing that someone doesn't have an issue with though. Even though, some people had push back I still believe it is important for students to learn about Treaty Education, and the history/ culture of First Nation people. How to be a "good student"7/14/2020 In today's education, teachers are to follow the curriculum and hit every indicator. A teachers job is to "fill the glass with certain things" which is stated by Kumashiro in Against common sense. This means that teachers jobs are just to teach the curriculum and students should be learning only about what schools teach.
Being a good student means that they follow the directions of the teacher, they come into the school year with little knowledge but leave at the end with every indicator from the curriculum learnt, they sit quietly and do their work, they listen attentively, they have good communication skills, they only speak when directed to and most importantly they learn how schools want them to learn. This is how common sense affects what makes a good student, teachers love to have control over the classroom as this looks good to society and the school. Having control over the classroom allows the students to learn the desired learning outcomes, well that's what we are led to believe but some students learn in ways that aren't seen as following the direction of the teacher. As a teacher we need to have an understanding that students learn in different ways and have different societal factors that affect students learning. I know from my experience working at a daycare, it can be frustrating when students don't do exactly what they are told, but everyone learns differently and we need to respect that. Take a deep breath and remember when you were learning things for the first time, maybe recently or in younger years. Let students learn in whatever way they please, as long as the student is learning is it really that important how they are learning. The students who are privileged by the definition of a good student in terms of common sense, will be the ones who succeed throughout their education and then into later areas of their lives. They will get a good job because they had the support needed around their learning. The students who are privileged by this are the ones who learn how society views a student should learn, an eager student who asks questions when instructed to and follows the directions of the teacher. These are many different students, but in Canada I would say the majority are white Canadian citizens who grew up in Canada, because they grew up following the common sense of Canada. This doesn't have to be white students though, because as long as a student follows these guidelines they are considered a good student in the eyes of society. A "good" student is shaped by historical factors because common sense may change after certain historical factors or even just after years. Our ideas change as we grow about the world and everything included in the world, this means that our common sense will change. Right now our common sense is oppressive but if we keep learning and educating others we can work to fix our common sense, and evolve the definition of a 'good student'. Is 'Common sense' problematic?7/7/2020 When I first thought about common sense I thought these are things that everyone knows, people from anywhere around the world knew these things. Some common sense things that I could think of like clean up after yourself/ try to keep a tidy house (room), brush your teeth twice a day, check both ways before crossing road for cars, and so much more. My view point on 'common sense' has now changed after reading; "The problem of Common Sense" by Kumashiro. Kumashiro has their own ideas of what 'common sense' is she understands after her time spent with The Peace Corps in Nepal that common sense is different for everyone, it is different around the world. That they had to change their own thoughts on meals, water, time, privacy, and other aspects of daily life so that they were understanding common sense from the viewpoint of people living in Nepal. It is important to pay attention to the 'common sense' of the community we are living in or visiting as we need to look past our own prejudices and see that our way of living is not the only correct way. We need to be able to fit others ways of living into our own viewpoints, while teaching in other countries because we need to have an understanding of our students lives. We also need to see that 'common sense' may be different for people living in the same community as us. Peoples religions, cultures, lifestyles, identities have an affect on their common sense. This means that it may be common sense for someone that they pray every night but for other families this isn't something they do. As a future teacher this needs to be learnt, and looked at so we are not bringing our own prejudices into the classroom. We should not assume that students follow certain guidelines or know certain things, because many people have different views on 'common sense'. In Nepal they follow a different curriculum model then we do here in Canada. "Lecture-practice-exam approach to teaching had become so ingrained in the practices of Nepal's schools as to have become a part of 'common sense'. They start their school semester in mid-February but instructions did not start until late-February because most students didn't attend till then. Class lessons focused around government issued textbooks; where the lesson went through some sample lessons and then for homework the students would complete a parallel problem at home. Each morning the teacher would go through the problems from the homework the night before. This was what a typical day in Nepal looked like according to Kumahiro. In Canada our schedule is different compare to that of Nepal's; Canadian schools go from end of summer to beginning of the next summer. We follow a set curriculum, which is basically a checklist that students need to learn but we have to not look at it that way. We need to figure out what the students need to help them succeed, and what their skill level is. Every student had a different skill level and gain different skills at different times. The Canadian curriculum is outdated and doesn't support certain ways of thinking, of identifying, and of relating to others (isms). We are a multicultural country so our curriculum should support that; the Canadian curriculum reflects the perspectives, experiences, and values of only certain people in society, especially those who have traditionally been privileged or currently wiled political influences. Sometimes it is difficult to look at our own practice, to raise questions about the purpose or effectiveness of many of these practices but we need to look beyond the checklist of the curriculum and support the diversity of our Country. One part of 'The problem of Common Sense' that struck me the wrong way was when Kumashiro was talking about what The Peace Corps was. She explained that the goal was to help schools in Nepal adopt what many of the United States have learned about teaching and in essence be more like American Schools. Every country is different, they have different common sense and different views on the world. No one should be conformed to be more like someone they aren't, no matter if its in their country or with in your own country. People should be free to express their own selves, their own views and their own lifestyles. AuthorFourth Year Education Student ArchivesCategories |