Group 2

Group Members

Curtis
Janis
Laura
Peter (not shown)

Critical Incident

Our group discussed, at length, that with the exception of Janis, we did not have any critical incidents occurring in our classroom. As a result, we felt it best to focus in-depth on Janis' response which highlighted many of the tensions that are sure to develop in classrooms with so many various ethnic groups.

An Incident:

One of my students is an early English language learner (ELL). His language skills are slowly developing but at times speaks his own language with some of the other same language speaking students in the classroom. I love hearing other languages spoken in the classroom and learn as much as I can interacting with students and their own languages when given the chance. My S.A. however, insists on English being spoken in the classroom, and really “snuffs” out other languages when they hear it being spoken. At the beginning of the year, classroom rules were setup and one of them just happened to be that English or French were the languages that were okay to be spoken in the classroom. Routinly though the student speaking their language is singled out by the teacher and told to speak English in a rather unpleasant tone.

I differ greatly in opinion with my S.A. when it comes to tolerating other languages in the classroom. I embrace other spoken languages in my own classroom, yet my S.A. does not in their classroom. I look at this difference, not as a barrier, but a teachable moment, where we can make connections and understand each other in a much better way.

A Critical Question:

I teach a grade four class therefore studying indigenous culture is part of our curriculum. Since our social studies themes are under an indigenous umbrella many of our projects are also centred around studying the history of Canada's first nation's people. Whilst reviewing how Indigenous people make canoes I had one student ask me why we were studying this material. She didn't understand how first nations's were part of Canada's history because normally they only hear about colonization. I tried to explain how every culture and nation has important parts of history and that the first nation's were integral to the shaping of Canada's identity. I also tried to explain it by asking her about her own Chinese history and how that's important too.

I'll be honest that the question flustered me because I didn't want to offend her but it's also really difficult to explain why studying indigenous culture is important. My SA was not in the room so I was unable deflect the question and had to come up with an answer myself. Perhaps the activity we were engaged in was not prefaced with an explicit objective and that may be a proactive solution for student understanding.

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1. What issue did the authors identify as a problem related to Aboriginal Education?

The authors identified: racism, oppression , socio-economic disadvantage, discrimination, disconnect between school and family and the disconnect between the adults own literacy abilities. (language and numeracy)

Communities themselves could also be fragmented and not one socially comprehensive unit, through different family and other social networks.

2. How did they analyze this problem? (eg. What has created this problem? Why does it need to be solved?)

Looking at it through critical pedagogy, this aims to empower learners by asking critical questions that frame their dialogue and their agency. It questions the legitimacy and history of power relations.

Popular Education Theory - having people come to know themselves and understand their stories

Socio-cultural Responsive Theory

3. What was their "solution" (What needs to be changed and why?)

The school-family relationship needed to change. Because students were not getting the support they needed at home, the parents needed to develop their own language literacy and numeracy literacy in order to help their children develop their own literacies.

Give voice to the language and cultural in their community. Not just the dominant language (English)

The school thought to accept "Aboriginal English" as a dialect instead of a deficiet because they didn't know proper English. So reframing the language. Holistic socio-cultural model. Teachers also needed to develop a literacy in Aboriginal English to be able to understand the students.

Literacy as a social practice.

School had to rebuild the relationship with the community.

Detailed mapping of the community. developing a network of human social services. Asking the parents about their views.

Survey and aboriginal school forums.

Working with a laison for 2-3 years.

Working with trusted Aboriginal advocates in the community.

4. How did they implement their solution? (How did they envisage change to happen)

Consultation with community members, school and critical review throughout the project..

Survey and aboriginal school forums.

Working with a laison for 2-3 years.

Working with trusted Aboriginal advocates in the community.