Project #7
Voices of Northern Teachers

David W. Friesen and Jeff Orr, Regina.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the northern teachers involved in this study. These teachers openly and willingly shared their storeis with us. They sincerely welcomed us into their communities and allowed us to be part of their ongoing thoughts, dreams, and frustrations about northern education. We present their stories in this monograph as a testament to the wonderful commitment we see them making to the enhancement of students and education in northern Saskatchewan.

Aboriginal Teachers' Voices

The secret of teaching is to be found in the local detail and the everyday life of teachers; teachers can be the riches and most useful source of knowledge about teaching; those who hope to understand teaching must turn at some point to teachers themselves. (In Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience. Schubert & Ayers, 1992).

We embarked on the journey of talking to the graduates of NORTEP, an Aboriginal teacher program in northern Saskatchewan to gain an understanding of what it means to be an Aboriginal teacher. Although much ahs been said about Aboriginal education, the voices of the teachers who are at the vanguard of this development have been largely silent. Researchers and policy makers tend to speak for teachers rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. We were convinced that the stories of northern Aboroginal teachers needed to be told because they contained insights into the many important questions surrounding Indian and Metis education. As we proceeded, we came to realize the answers were not only in the stories, but that the answers were the stories themselves.

This monograph prepared for the McDowell Foundation, is part of the first round of research projects which the Foundation has funded. We hope it will serve as an example of the kind of research which engages in research for teachers rather than on teachers (Noddings, 1986). To us, this central focus upon research for teaching is one of the benefits of the Stirling McDowell Foundation which has the potential to make it an exciting research foundation for teachers. We see this project as a way to enter into a conversation with teawchers in the north and south about the importance of Aboriginal educational issues. We hope it will serve as a means of furthering cross-cultural understanding among Saskatchewan teachers. The STF's Aboriginal Education Policy (1994) reminds us the "The educational system is currently not meeting the needs of the majority of Aboriginal students" (p. 72). This policy sees a major role for the STF in identifying the unique problems Aboriginal teachers face, providing support for them, and helping them create networks with one another. We believe this monograph is one way the STF can move towards meeting some of these complex and difficult commitments.

Studying Teachers' Lives

During the 1994-95 school year we visited four nothern communities and talked to thirty-six teachers. With twenty of them, we went back for a second conversation. The monograph produced for the Foundation contains the stories of nine of these teachers. Our interest in these teachers' stories is due to the relationship we had built with them as their former teachers during our years as NORTEP faculty members. Although we are non-Aboriginals, these teachers were more than willing to talk to us. This was partly because they had developed relationships with us as their teachers, but it was also because they had a great deal to say about their expereinces in northern education, and saw this project as a way their voices could be heard by others.

It became more and more evident as we talked to these teachers that the complexity of their teacher lives were filled with joys and frustrations which were often no known to others within their own school, let alone by people in their community and beyond. Our relationship with these teachers evolved from an initial goal of hearing their voices into a larger moral obligation to pass on their concerns and aspirations to others who might be in positions to influence change. We therefore see the monograph as a way to begin to enter into a broader conversation with administrators, community leaders, and government policy makers about some of the major issues in northern Aboriginal education. These stories may prove useful in workshops with teachers and policy makers in northern Saskatchewan so that possibilities for further action can be discussed.

Our major research question was centered around finding out what Aboriginality means for northern teaching. One of the ways to learn about teachers' knowledge and concerns is through their stories. The story method is increasingly being used to investigate and give voice to teachers knowledge by Canadian researchers such as Jean Clandinin, because researchers are realizing that teachers make sense out of their teaching by telling storeis about their expereinces to others. Stories are also a useful way to represent teachers' experiences because they reflect a method which allows for experiences to remain holistic and to begin to capture the rich complexity of teachers' lives. Narrative also seems an appropriate way to convey Aboriginal teachers' stories because story telling is a traditional form of Aboriginal communication. We are convinced that conversation with Aboroginal teachers is a usefull way to gain insight into storeis about their lives and how their lives impact upon their teaching because it is based upon a two-way flow of ideas and does not place the researcher in a position of privilege. We also believe conversation to be a natural approach for northern research because, like northern hospitality itself, conversation is based upon the importance of personal relationships which allow people to give undivided attention to each others' concerns.

This work follows the lead of several prominent teacher educators who study the lives of teachers such as Ivor Goodson, Ardra cole, and Gary Knowles. Their work has helped us to better understand the significance of teacher role identity in teachers' practice. Clandinin and Connelly's writing on narrative has given us insight into presenting teachers' stories and ted Aoki's work has broadened our understanding of interpreting stories through theming. Together, these works reinforce the notion that the lives of teachers have a dramatic effect on the shaping of teaching practice.

Teacher Stories and Professional Developement

An approach to professional development that relies on providing teachers with technical and instrumental approaches to teaching denies the significance of the life experiences of teachers in shaping the ways they do their work. Such technical approaches generally fail to take into account the context in which the teacher works and the many forces which have shaped their beliefs about teaching. We believe significant professional development occurs when teachers construct their own biography and then reflect on how it is lived out in the classroom (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988; Knowles & Cole, 1994). By reading and reflecting on their own stories as well as the stories of others, teachers gain deeper understandings of their teaching practices. The rise of reflective teaching groups gives testimony to this claim (Miller, 1990; Hollingsworth & Minarik, 1991).

Teacher stories provide a window on teachers' lives. They obviously focus on some things but not on others. We decided to present a number of stories in different ways so teachers reading them would be exposed to a variety of issues and viewpoint.s some of the stories have been writte by us from the transcripts in the first person. They have been edited for ease of reading. Other stories have been written using as much of the transcript teact as possible to allow the voices of these teachers to come through more directly.

The stories are followed by a discussion guide that should be useful in facilitating teacher reflective group sessions about issues in First Nations education.

The NORTEP Story

Embedded in the political context of the movement towards self-government by First Nations, Aboriginal teacher education programs (TEPs) have emerged in many regions of Canada. A report by the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB, 1972), Indian Control of Indian Education, set the stage for the move towards Aboriginal teacher education. TEPs have been a response to the problem of university access for Aboriginal people due to the problems in K-12 education. Some of these programs provide entry to on-campus programs, others are modifications of regular programs, and still others are off-campus programs with strong Aboriginal control.

In Saskatchewan, a variety of "TEPs" C Aboriginal teacher education programs C began in the 1970's.

Though each program embodies unique features, all combine a mixture of program design, tutorial counselling, student support, cultural orientation and adapted delivery modes which have resulted in very significant success rates for Indian and Metis students wishing to enter the teaching profession. (NORTEP, 1987, p. 2).

These programs were established to provide educational opportunities for Aboriginal people in order to ensure an informed citizenry and full participation in the economic life of the province. With the highest per capita Aboriginal population in Canada, Sasktchewan has an obligation to reverse the under-representation of First Nations and Metis people in the teaching profession (p. 4). By 1987, the Saskatchewan TEPs had graduated just over 250 teachers.

One of the TEPs, the Northern Teacher Education Program (NORTEP), was established in 1976 to prepare teachers for northern Saskatchewan. This northern region encompasses over half of the land area of the province, but it is home to only 3% of Saskatchewan's one million people. Over two-thirds of the northern population are of Aboriginal ancestry, living in over forty scattered communities and reserves (Carnegie, 1991).

The first major purpose of NORTEP is to positively influence northern education through the provision of an off-campus, field-based, Aboriginally-oriented university teacher education program for Indian and Metis people. The second purpose is to contribute to northern social and economic development. To accomplish these two purposes, the program has set the following objectives: to reduce the level of teacher turnover in northern schools, to address the severe underrepresentation of Native teachers, to provide Aboriginal role models for northern school children, to reduce pupil-teacher linguistic and cultural barriers by promoting northern Aboriginal languages and culture in northern schools, to overcome school-community barriers, and to provide access for northerners of Aboriginal ancestry to post-secondary education and salary-based employment (Carnegie, 1991, p. 39). NORTEP has a Board of Governors comprised of elected members from the Northern Lights School Division, the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and the Prince Albert Grand Council. Both universities in the province approve instructional staff and courses and work in partnership to grant degrees, while funding is provided by both provincial and First Nations governments.

NORTEP offers a four-year B. Ed. Program I elementary and middle years education, a recently begun small-scale secondary program, and a two year introductory program in Arts and Science. Students spend several weeks at the La Ronge centre taking courses, and then return to their home communities to work with an experienced teacher for a week to two weeks every month. Besides core classes in Indian studies and Aboriginal languages, all NORTEP-based courses are infused with northern Aboriginal perspectives with the specific purpose of preparing teachers who can understand and teach with an Aboriginal and northern focus.

As of 1994, NORTEP has graduated 179 teachers of which 133 are currently teaching, furthering their university education, or working in an education-related field. One hundred and eight graduates are classroom teachers working primarily in band operated or provincial schools in northern Saskatchewan (NORTEP, 1994). In the Northern Lights School Division, the largest northern provincial school division, the perdentage of Aboriginal teachers increased from 3% in 1976 to 25% in 1990 due to the availability of NORTEP graduates (Carnegie, 1991, p. 59).

The Program Review of NORTEP (Carnegie, 1991) claims that it has been an effective teacher education program. Its credibility arises partly from the fact that the program is "arm's length from government reather than government controlled" (p. 156) and adheres to the principle of Aboriginal northerner participation. NORTEP is perceived as having been successful in meeting its goals and objectives through "a community-based, inter-agency cooperative model" (p. 157). The field-based education delivery model has apparently produced graduates who are suitable for northern classrooms. Yet no study has explored this program from the perspective of the graduates themselves. What are their stories of their influence in shaping northern education? The stories which follow are intended to begin to hear the voices of those who have spoken out about their experiences in northern education, and to provide a forum for discussion about the issues which they raise.

TEACHERS' STORIES

A Cree Language Teacher's Story: Preserving Northern Culture

Sally grew up on the trap line and on her reserve in northern Saskatchewan. She taught elementary for a number of years before she began to teach Cree language in the elementary school on her home reserve.

Before I was old enough to go to school we lived on the trap lines with my dad. My dad was a traditional Metis trapper and it was through his grandfather, who was a white, that I came to embrace the traditions of two cultures: dad, without fail, would leave his work on the trap line every Christmas and every Easter and we returned to our community to attend church. My mom was a First Nations Cree, what we call "Treaty Indian". There is a Cree belief that within certain families runs a storytelling line. My mom was a good storyteller and within our Aboriginal community there seem to be many storytellers. Although I use storytelling in my teaching, I am not one of those who can pass stories on to others.

My life as a young girl was a mixture of life in the community and life on the trap line. When school was out, my family spent our summer holidays helping my dad on the trap lines. In fall, when school began, we left the trap lines to our dad and the family returned to the community, with our mom.

When my mom was a girl, she had gone to an industrial school in the north. Here experience there was to influence my future, for she believed that education was valuable. My dad had never been to school but he wasn't against it either. He seemed to be aware that the old ways were passing, for he was always trying to tell us that education was the way now. He knew trapping wasn't easy and said we'd have an easier way of living if we had an education. I can sure remember when my brothers didn't want to go to school. He took them out to the trap line and made them work really hard, just to show them how difficult it was to make a living this way. However, when it came to me having to leave the north to attend school in the south, I know that my mom helped a lot to convince him that I should go.

Elders were an integral part of life in the community and in my life as a little girl. Each had a specialized role, such as midwife, herbalist, story teller, and so on. One I highly respected was my great grandmother who came to live with us when she became too old to go out with the family to work on the trap lines. Now, she was a story teller - so much so that kids would come to my house to listen in fascination to the legends and stories she wove. Another elder for whom I had great admiration was an old man, a herbalist, who knew exactly which medicines to administer whenever anyone was sick.

It was not easy to leave my community to attend high school in the south. However, a close friend of mine left the north to take nurse's training in the south and it was her example I followed. Also, I didn't want to have to make a living on the trap line. I knew that was a hard way of life. So, in the early 60's at the age of 14, I came to live with a very caring family in the southern part of the province to get my high school diploma at the age of 18. Although I didn't speak much in my language and was way from my culture, I was able to keep in touch with my culture by working in a tourist camp during the summer. I really enjoyed my schooling there but I also enjoyed going back home during the holidays.

It was a good thing I was raised to make the best of a bad situation! After high school I returned to the north to be married and ended up returning to work on the trap line for 10 years! It was such hard work and there were times I thought I was the only one alive out there - it was so lonely for the first year. But I guess we adapted to it. There is one experience that especially stands out in my mind. My husband and I had set up a little campsite about 20 or 30 miles out from our cabin and we stayed there in a tent. But one day the weather dropped to about 45 degrees below zero and it was about six o'clock that evening that we decided we had better return home to the cabin. That was the one time in my life that I didn't think we would make it back. Hard as it was, life on the trap line was a good teacher. I had to make decisions for myself and I learned I was strong.

In the mid-70's, I applied for a job as a teacher's aide in a very small northern community whose school employed only one teacher; we were called Native Instructors. The first teacher I worked with was so good with the children that I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. The next teacher wasn't as successful but that made me even more determined to attend NORTEP and get my teaching certificate so I could help the children.

Before I attended NORTEP I wasn't as outspoken as I am now - I would listen and not say anything. But the experience of being with other Aboriginal people, reading and discussing new ideas changed me as a woman. I became proud of who I was. I became able to talk to people, to express how I felt; able to fight for something, not only for what I wanted, but also for what I thought was right. When I graduated as a teacher from NORTEP in 1981 I went on to become the mayor, medical dispenser and teacher in a small remote northern community.

Since NORTEP, I have been teaching in the same small northern community in which I was raised and went to elementary school, except for a year that I took a leave to finish my degree. It appears that , as graduates of NORTEP, we have made a new path which some of our families and friends have also chosen to take. My daughter and nephew have gone on to NORTEP, also to become teachers, and another daughter is just finishing her degree at a university in the south. Also, it has affected my students who were amazed that I would return to university for a year and so I told them that one is always learning. It pleases me that I have been able to bo before them that they may know of opportunities n the world outside our little community.

Teaching in my home community has not been a problem. It is more like living within an extended family. In our culture, we call great aunts "grandmother", and I'm often called "auntie" rather than "teacher" and here I must mention a humourous event concerning this. In the first year that we moved here, a little girl in grade 1 came up to me and said, "Teacher, my father tells me you're my grandmother." I whispered in her ear, "Shhh, don't ever say that in public, especially if there are men around." Of course she told her dad and then this became the big joke in town: "She doesn't want to be old and have grandchildren!"

Being a teacher and knowing what is important for the children is quite different than being a parent. Many parents of the students have been schooled in a residential setting and believe that the children should be educated in English, not realizing how important it is to our culture that we speak our Native language. I have been teaching in the north now for many years and have found that the students who speak Cree as their first language have an easier time learning English. Those who come with an inability to speak goo Cree have difficuylty with English because they have not mastered either language. Our values are embedded in our language and thus my dream is to preserve the Cree language and teach our students of their past, of their roots which go dep into generation of life lived out on the northern trap lines.

As a child of 12 years, I was out in the wintertime checking the fish nets. Today, there are few children who experience this: the trap line culture is surely becoming an event of the past. As a teacher, I have noticed the students who do go out on the trap line for a month or two in the fall are more perceptive. They are very aware of their environment and their relation to it, able to relate the names of all the trees, plants, birds, and so forth, in Cree, if they are Cree speakers, or in English.

We, as Aboriginal teachers, are teaching our students about the trap line culture and the values inherent within it, of living and working together. Last year we took the grade 5 class to a remote area outside the community for a five day cultural camp. There they learned how to snare rabbits and fish, even my husband was involved, shwoing them how to set traps. At ight, the elders told legends as we sat around the fire together. In addition to this cultural camp, we have the children learn the arts of survival and for this they will spend several nights in the out-of-doors.

This is a good place to work and I am happy to be here. I am respected as an Aboriginal person and the Cree language is central in the school; in the classrooms and hallways, at meetings, in the staff room, and with the parents and grandparents. The elders are grandparents to many of the children and often come into the classroom so interested to see what the children are doing; this, of course, is equally appreciated by the children. Sometimes we have a feast or open house at the school for the parents and grandparents and we converse in Cree.

I think that the most important thing in my life is being able to contribute a little of myself to the students in my classroom and this is much more than just transmitting a curriculum. I've been trying to teach them what I have learned - that they can make a life for themselves outside our community without loss of their identity as an Aboriginal.

Discussion Guide

 Teacher Role:

1. From Sally's story, what are some of theimportant roles she has played as an Aboriginal person in her school and community?
2. How do these roles differ from the roles you play as an educator?
3. What would Sally ad to your school context?
4. How could schools that do not have significant First Nations student populations make space for Sally's Aboriginal knowledge?

Keeping the Dene Spirit Alive

Ray is Dene and he grew up on his home reserve in northern Saskatchewan but he also spent considerable time in residential school. After teaching middle years students for several years he became a Dene language developer for his school division.

I grew up in a little reserve called Dipper Lake and there were only about 10 families. It's north of where my parents reserve is located. At that time, it was a permanent community for that group of Dene people. In the fall time there would be trapping and in the summer there would be fishing, picking berries, hunting, learning about the land and its signs and that kind of stuff. My parents and my grandmother taught me how to speak, do a little bit of trapping a nd a lot of everyday stuff. They are the people that influenced me and helped me maintain my language and culture. The value that they taught me that really sticks in my mind is respecting older people. You'd go visit and you didn't have to knock. You would go in the door. If they didn't tell you to take off your shoes you just stood there by the door and visited. People used to share quite a bit. Anybody that would kill a moose would share it. You didn't have to ask because if they knew you were out of food they would provide you with something to keep you going. They knew who needed what and there was respect and sharing. People were trying to be on an equal basis with everything. They didn't try to compare families.

My parents were very strong in support of language. They told me, "Once you lose your language, you've lost your spirit. You're lost." My parents taught me how to survive. If you weren't able to kill a moose, then you'd have to find alternatives for meat. You'd have to dig into whatever it was, whether it was a squirrel or porcupine. They taught me to be able to think of theings that would help me to make it through stages of my life. I remember my grandmother teaching me things like my mom and dad taught me by talking about certain things. I remember her constantly making birch bark baskets and I used to to go out with her and there would be a whole bunch of birch trees in the woods. She would look for the right type of birch and the right type of roots. I remember her being selective and not just taking whatever you come up with first. She didn't just go out in the bush and say, "Okay, this will do, and if you don't like it throw it away." That's not the way she was. It was a matter of selecting certain trees and not wasting stuff. That's what I remember about her. There are things that she taught me that have influenced who I am today.

I didn't go to school until I was 9 years old. I started school at the student residence and that was a totally different experience. At first it was scary because it was one big building and everybody slept in this one big room. There were people from lots of different placed mixed in there. There were people from back home but it wasn't like being with your family. You were just a number and it was different and it was scary. You didn't know how to approach the nuns, the priests, or the brothers because they had their own set of rules to follow. The first three years weren't all that happy becuase I wasn't used to being away from home. I was learning a whole new lifestyle and I was cooped up in one building and not able to do what I wanted to do like go out in the bush to hunt birds or animals. That was taken awy from us and you couldn't cope with that. We had to live by a set of rules which we didn't know how to approach and we were constantly watching over our shoulder and wondering what would happen? "What can I do today without them knowing?" They didn't like the fact that we spoke our own language, whether it be Cree or Dene. On Saturdays we got away to set snares which was good in that sense. We were able to be free at this time and do whatever we wanted. We could sneak a little bit of bread and bologna and catch yourself a rabbit or a partridge. That was the only time we would be able to communicate with the other Dene people that were going to school with us.

When I went to the residential school, their philosophy of religion was practically shoved on me and I didn't have any say over it. "You learn this because this is what we want you to learn." They practically wanted you to become a prienst and it wasn't really related to the way that I was brought up. Although my parents were religious, they still had a lot of respect for the land. They knew that all these things came from somewhere and if you destroyed that then you destroyed everything else around you. Church, to me, is not just going to a building and sitting there and meditating. So I came to the belief that church is out there because the land was put there for a reason for people to use destructively or productively, whichever way you want to look at it. It is out there for a reason and you have to respect that.

NORTEP was very important in my development because it focused on certain things about who I was and I didn't want to lose that. I didn't want to lose my language. My dad told me all the time, "You've got to keep your language. You've go to keep talking even if you're away from it. You've go to keep thinking in that frame of mind."

When I first graduated I started to teach in a far northern community. That was way back in '89. The first year I taught grades 3 and 4, and I also taught Dene. I was teaching Dene for Grade 4 all they way up to Grade 9. One of the first experiences I had there was teaching shop and I never had any kind of background in shop work. I think the highlight of that year was the cultural type camp where we took about twenty students up North in March. We had the kids learning about hunting and preparing meat and that kind of stuff. It basically showed students how to hunt caribou, prepare caribou and some basic survival activities. As far as the cultural camp goes, they learned the basic traditional skills. They learned to start a fire, make bannock and dry meat, and they learned how to cut up caribou. They also learned how to live together as a group cooperatively. There wer certain tudents in that community that have never had the experience of being on the trap line or going hunting. We gave them the expereince of how it is to live on the trap line and go hunting. I thought that's the way education should be because a long time ago, young Native people learned things by steadily observing everyday things through their parents, grandparents, hunters and trappers. If they went out with a trapper or a hunter then they observed and if they were doing something that wasn't right, then they would probably say, "Okay, this is they way it is done, see if you can do it that way." Observing and then doing things; not the other way around. The other way around is, "You read this now and then you go and do it." It's totally opposite from the way I was taught things. So when I went to the culture camp that was the kin d of thing I had in mind. The first time they put up a meat stand some of them just chopped off any kind of green trees and put it up there. This older lady told them, "Okay, that's not right. You go back into the woods and you find dry trees, then you put it up there." They said "Why?". She told them that if they put the meat on green trees that it will absorb the taste of the bark. Some of them didn't know about that kind of stuff, so I guessx those are the kinds of things that we were getting at.

My teaching was a mixture of English and Dene. I would say something in English and I would get them to say it back to me in Dene to see if they understood the word. It was very helpful because I knew what was being said at that level. Sometimes I would refer back to Dene and then have them translate it back into English. This back and forth between English and Dene helped them to understand. There are a lot of things that you can do using the community such as the thinking of the elders and the parents, and the way they do things. The thought processes are different when you're thinking in Dene and then you're teaching them in English. You have to translate from Dene to English and most of the time it's kind of reversed when you're talking about the language part of it. The students had the opportunity to use a Dene way of thiking in another kind of cultural setting because the concepts are bsically different when you're talking in Dene. There are differences in gender-type things because there is no she and there is no he in Dene.

I could speak the language and I could write, but the only thing was there wasn't a scope and sequence or a program that set it up for the whole year. We were lacking in materials and you had to make materials as you went along which took quite a bit of time. That was a major drawback when I first started. I was teaching a language that hasn't been taught in a classroom setting. It wasn't a surprise to me to find their fluency level being so high. I expected that kind of fluency in the Dene language because I knew at that time this community plus two others were very fluent. I was looking forward to going up there because at the same time I would be able to use my own language in a classroom setting. We did a lot of language arts because I wanted to get them to understand the concepts that they knew in Dene.

The language was a lot different with those people that stayed in the community and didn't go out on the trap line. The people who spent time in the bush knew how to survive, how to set traps, and how to be alone by themselves. They could use more complete words in the Dene language. I found them to be more respectful and a little bit more mature and a little bit more helpful in situations. It would be a lot easier if you were able to teach a lot of those things in Dene, so they would understand it. All these different kinds of terms such as, "ice conditions", "weather conditions", and what to look for when you go hunting are the things they know because their parents talk about that all the time. It would be nice to talk about those kinds of things in the classroom in Dene.

There was often a lot of activity going on in the classroom and sometimes somebody says something to another student that is not very nice. When this happened I would basically stop everything and talk to them about respect. I would ask them how the people of Wollaston show respect for each other? I did this so they could relate back to what they had done in the classroom and were able to see how people acted within the community. How do you do that within your own community level? Basically, I wanted them to think about the way things were done in the community. I always tried to put it back to how the community would handle this kind of a situation. It got them thinking and I think it helped in the long-run.

It was really helpful to be able to understand the language because sometimes they would go ahead and say something mean. It was a slip of the tongue type thing, but I would understand them. We'd been taught about community values through NORTEP and I grew up in that kind of environment. In my own community where I grew up they used to have these traditional Dene community values at one time but now it's slowly fading away. I found the parents to be very helpful and supportive. They were always telling me "whatever you have to do to educate my kid, go ahead and do it." By the community as a whole, I was accepted. I did a lot of home visits. Whenever students were getting out of hand academically or behaviour wise there was a lot of support.

I'd like the community to get back to showing a lot of respect, and parents being able to show that respect to their kids. With that kind of an attitude presented in a household, I think kids will come to school with that idea so I'd like to see that kind of thing come back. You don't just say, "Okay, today we're going to talk about respect" and leave it at that. You have to do certain things to make them realize what you're talking about by using different teaching strategies.

I'd like to see respect for the elders so student can go and just sit down and listen to stories such as oral history, without having to memorize it or to write anything down. I'd like to see community members that are knowledgeable about survival take children into the bush so that maybe if they have to go back to fishing and trapping because of the way the economy is going they could do it. I also would like to see them be knowledgeable about technology. If they don't want to be a trapper, okay. Studying both worlds and making them have a look at how they can interchange it when it's good; when it's bad and put the two close together. Another thing that I'd like to see is for Band members to support whatever somebody is trying to set up, whether it is a business or being a teacher, and not calling them down.

I guess my main accomplishment up north would be helping to start a Dene program and trying to get the students to realize that their culture is as important as any other culture. I stressed a lot on language. They knew how to speak it and didn't always think they needed to learn that kind of thing. When they thought about it they would say yeah that's part of maintaining our own language for the long-run. I would give them hints here and there about why it's important and why you keep it up. I tried to treach them how to show respect to elders and to teach them waht kind of respect to show to another person such as sharing. I told them that it is equally as important to do the traditional trapping and hunting because you still learn when you're out in the bush. They are not learning in English abut they are learning by observation and by listening and those kind of values.

After that I was in a northern Cree community for two years. I was teaching grade 7 and grade 9 in Social Studies. I brought native issues into my classroom through Language Arts. In Social Studies I was trying to put things into an Aboriginal perspective. I would ask them if they want to be like me or to be like another Native teacher that's in the classroom? I would use examples like what do you eat at home? How does your grandmother prepare hides? Have you ever seen them? What's the procedure there? Then I tell them this is the way I remember my mother preparing them and ask them if there is any difference. Sometimes they'll ask me about religion. I talk to them about the way I grew up and why you had to haul water and chop holes in the lake when it's 40 below. I tell them that I used to do that. Some of them will ask me how to say this in Dene. I tell them the way.

My approach to curriculum was not to only follow what was laid out in the curriculum. I followed it, but the resources I more or less ignored. I figured out where I could find something that was maybe a little bit better than what was in the curriculum. That was hared to do because there was hardly any kind of resources that were available. I was looking for stuff that would be more meaningful. If you want to get them read, do you get them read, do you get them to read Tom Sawyer or do you get them to read something they can relate to like something about Native people in another part of Canada? After they ahd read that, we looked for what was different and what was the same. The couple of years I was there I had a pretty rough class, but there was a lot of one-on-one, and sometimes there was a lot of just stopping things and telling them we've got to talk about this whether you like it or not.

In my current job as a Dene materials developer, I see myself as a person that's trying to maintain a language through media. How can I make it interesting to those students that can't speak the language. I'm worried about the language because I know that back home a lot of the younger people are not speaking the language. They're not interested in picking up the language. Maybe it is because some of their parents don't speak it at home. Everything that they watch is coming from the States so you have to compete with those kinds of things. My generation can still speak it but after that I think it more or less stops. I think that pretty soon there's not going to be too many Dene communities that are able to speak their own language in Saskatchewan. Parents say they're concerned, but at the same time, some of them don't make an effort to speak. Dene to their own kids at home, and they want the school to do it for them. It isn't all the schools responsibility. Parents have to take an equal share if they want it to survive.

A lot of the older generation don't speak Dene to their kids. So the attitude that some students had was Amy parents don't talk in Dene, so why do I have to learn it?@ I found that to be visible mostly on the west side in places like Patuanak, Dillon and Turnor. La Loche is still fluent. When you walk downtown and people are speaking Dene and the whole community is speaking it, then everybody speaks it. If you go to a place like Dillon or Patuanak and say something to somebody in Dene they don't speak to you in Dene.

Hopefully I am able to make an impact by producing materials that other people can use. There are a lot of different ways to say certain things in the Dene language for certain situations. I think the northern school system is moving in the right direction. They're doing things that are helping to maintain the language aspect of it such as publishing and producing materials. We are able to produce things that other people can use. But producing materials is just a beginning. It's better than just going into the classroom and not having anything. I guess what I would like to see is students starting to write their own little stories and getting them published. That way, they are the ones that are producing that material and then they are looking at their own work. I hope eventually that will happen.

You have to define what is native culture nowadays? Is culture just sending them out into the bush and learning how to set traps, how to set snares, how to cut fish, how to prepare hides? Is that culture? Is that what the students want? Or can we rpesent culture in a classroom setting that is kind of a model for the community as a whole? It can be religion, it can be language, how you treat people, how you interact with people. Do you go and visit the elders and listen to stories, or do they have to come to the classroom? When you talk about culture, it's a big area and I don't think you're able to teach a culture, per se, in a classroom setting. You've got to be able to live it; and if you're jsut sitting there in a classroom and just listen and get out of your culture, and not live it, what's the sense of it? Is it going to be straight language or do we take 15 or 20 kids and let them stay in the bush for a whole year with a teacher? So I guess Native teachers and leaders that are interested in education need to define what they want. It's a tough question because I've known the word culture to be bantered around ever since I started NORTEP. The parents say let's teach culture in a clasroom buty they don't come out and say what they mean by culture. What is it exactly that you want to be taught in the classroom? I think it's everybody's job to define this. Is it going to include computers, ski-doos, putting fish up in your trap line and watching TV? Some of it is bad and some of it is good.

You need to have a purpose for the cultural camp idea. If you take them all out for a year then that's what I would call a culture type experience. Not just one week out in the bush and just feed them peanuts. I think culture is more than that. Culture is being able to speak, being able to fish, trap, learn how to survive, learn how to talk to your elders for advice when you're out there and being able to be in harmony with nature. Culture is being away from your main community and getting away from the radios and the TV's.

I would say it is important to make teachers more aware. If they're going to be teaching in a Native community, then you should be aware where you're going. You should have a sense of how the people live, what their likes and dislikes are, what they do for fun and start from there. You can do a lot of your own locally, developed materials stuff. You always have to make some sort of relationship where you come from to the other people that are outside of you. Teachers have to be able to be open-minded and able to teach about our Native Studies. I had to be open-minded if I wanted to survive in both worlds. I took the good parts and the bad parts and I put into one big pile and mixed them up. If you're not open-minded and you just have tunnel vision then you're not looking at what's happening on both sides.

Discussion Guide

Life History:

1. What influenced Ray in his current view of education? How does his cultural background make his educational priorities different than yours? What does this mean for your work?
2. What are some of the forces that Ray has had to resist in order to maintain his language and culture? Do these forces exist in any way in schools you are familiar with? If so, what might you do to transform them?

Teacher Role:

3. What is Ray's view of the role of Aboriginal language in the academic and cultural development of students? What might this mean for future educational development in your educational context?
4. What is Ray's view of what curriculum for Aboriginal people should be? How does his view of curriculum differ from yours? What could this mean for your practice?
5. What values drive Ray's beliefs? How do they compare to your own values? What can you learn from his value system that will help you in your work?

An Aboriginal Perspective on Curriculum: Giving Back

Matthias is a Cree educator who grew up with his grandparents, spending a lot of time on the trap line as well as on his home reserve in northern Saskatchewan. He spent several years as a classroom teacher before he assumed an administrative position in education for his Band Council. He is working towards a masters degree in curriculum.

My view of knowledge, which involves a cyclical way of living, was taught to me by my grandfather. Aboriginals call this the circle of life. Even today, I considtnetly work at making sense of my life experiences through my daily interaction with the environment on the Churchill River Basin.

My knowledge is an extension of ancestral teachings that culminated in a formal education. When I refer to Aboriginal knowledge , I am really telling you what I know as a Native person, from my experiences in an Aboriginal culture. Aboriginal knowledge is complex and defined through First Nations languages, but I will attempt to translate from Cree to English, to say what I consider to be an Aboriginal world view. From this Aboriginal language perspective, I will present my philosophical argument concerning the need to include Native epistemology in curriculum.

It was through my grandfather that my Aboriginal knowledge began, when I was about three years old. It was neither formal nor organized. Grandparents, in our culture, are held in high esteem, they are the elders, and to be taught by an elder is recognized as a valuable education. I was fortunate to be raised by my grandparents into my teen years. Grandfather was a trapper. Now, trapping usually involves several families working together on a line. If trapping was poor in one area, my grandfather would say, AYour trap line does not have enough; come to mine.@ I became aware that we didn't necessarily go to trap as many animals as we could to make a profit, rather it was a lifestyle. My grandfather worked on the trap line because he wanted to be out there, living off the land, learning about and respecting all life that sustained our lives. Our walks often took us out to the river and I watched as my grandfather picked medicinal herbs, for he would alsyas put something back in their place; I learned to be connected to the land.

Through the Cree language he was teaching me Aboriginal knowledge, our cultural values and how to live within the circle of life. He helped me to retain much of this through story telling, collecting herbs, surviving on the land, and sharing his spiritual beliefs. I think he wanted me to keep this knowledge so that, at some point in my life, I would be able to find my purpose. I think I am at that point now because those stories and legends that were told to me are all coming back. I did not lose them. I did not forget them, and I am now beginning to connect with this Aboriginal knowledge.

One can learn how to live and think in a cyclical way through understanding the circle of life. Unlike Western society which tends to compartmentalize and separate aspects of the natural world into isolated entities, the Aboriginal views the natural world as holistic. Thus nature is examined as the interdependency of all life, from the smallest form to the largest, each connected to the other. This connectedness revolves in a cyclical process of constant change. Change is inevitable and is part of the mysterious plan that we can only define as the natural process, or the circle of life, in which everything that is natural has some degree of life. Balanced living is a result of devoting one's energy and of placing equal value on emotion, mind, body and spirit. This entails living within the laws of nature, not distrubing the circle of life to the point that it changes to a linear path which, it is believed, leads to distruction.

Also, a part of Aboriginal knowledge is the practical knowledge of survival which is a way of knowing and understanding the physical world. Survival embraces the cyclical knowledge that one's actions move outwardly to affect many other things, for all is interconnected. Aboriginal thought produces a life that accepts daily occurrences in a spirit of humility and, on the other hand, that strives to maintain a personal balance and harmony with the environment.

This is what I want to pass on to students. They need to be connected to this Aboriginal knowledge. I think Aboriginals should have the opportunity to decide and choose what they believe to be important and worth knowing, a nondestructive knowledge that will enable life to continue on this earth. I want to give students their Cree language. I can best express my beliefs and my understandings of the world through the Cree language. I have difficulty doing it in English and, although I attempt it, it does not come out exactly the way I want. I think that to recover the language is to recover our culture. I do not believe, as some, that we would recover our culture by reviving different cultural rituals and customs - pan-Indianism can be destructive.

It is important that students know their history. Native people must develop their education system so that it includes Aboriginal history before the year of 1492, for in the process ofbeing educated in a white society, we were also in the process of being colonized. As teachers, we have learned many things about our culture, things that we were previously unaware of because of the institutions that we have attended. As Aboriginal teachers we have a responsibility to make sense of our traditions and allow students to experience their Native culture. In understanding the way we were and are being oppressed and marginalized, I now see that my role as a teacher is to emancipate students through Aboriginal knowledge and world view. This is a process of empowering students to understand their lives so they can change their situation. We cannot dictate to them that they must be a certain way, but we can give them the opportunity to see things from an Aboriginal perspective.

When I was in school I struggled to comprehend a language and a knowledge that, more often, disagreed with my heart, for the knowledge of the world I knew was explained and experienced from a Native world view. I was self-conscious about my poor use of the English language and without the confidence to speak in a second language, I remained silent or did other things to distract the teacher to avoid speaking English. I felt inferior.

Because my background was that of an Aboriginal child growing up in a small community, I understand my students. Some people might not agree, but I think it is a wonderful opportunity for a teacher to know the context of their students' lives because this knowledge enables the curriculum designers to create suitable programs. I do not have to ask the child what is the situation at home. I know it quite well, being familiar with most of the students' Cree culture, language, extended and immediate families and their situation outside of the school, in my community.

I sense a generalized fear in the community that their youth show disrespect for their natural environment and have little understanding of their relationship within it. Aboriginal knowledge would enable students to see their environment not only as a resource and their livelihood, but also as their mother and they would be less likely to exploit nature destructively for economic purposes. It would teach the young of balanced living within the circle of life.

For these reasons, I believe Aboriginals should have input in developing their perspective of curriculum in all subject areas and I feel most strongly so, in the area of Aboriginal languages. My vision, while I am in this position, is to see that the Cree language is used as the language of instruction in nursery, kindergarten and, perhaps, Grade 1. This, however, would depend on each community. Cree immersion may be appropriate in a community shere many of the students are not able to speak their own language, whereas, in other communities, a bilingual Cree immersion program might be more appropriate for those students who have retained their first language and are able to use it.

Presently, we are drafting a proposal for a bilingual immersion program for our Band school and I am now in a position to be able to propose that first language be used in at least the first three years of education. I don't have much power but I can work, using research that supports the need to retain the Cree language, to convince the ones in power. In addition, we are providing experiences so that students can develop a relationship with anture through our cultural program. This program will go beyond just learning about our cultural values and the past. There are many activities that we do today which can teach respect for the circle of life, such as survival (hunting), fishing, kayaking, canoeing, running dogs, and snowshoeing. We cannot stop change. Our knowledge must adapt and grow, but our values will always remain because they hold all life as sacred.

These ancestral values and wisdom are embodied in our elders who are rapidly becoming a diminishing resource and we must learn from them and give it to our students. Many children are not fortunate to have elders that they can go to and it is here that I believe our Aboriginal teachers could play an important role. Teachers, as community members, have access to the elders and knowledge of how to approach them. The traditional knowledge of elders, learned by our teachers could, in turn, be passed on to students in organized situations where the students could be taught such values as respect and sharing, in the Aboriginal way.

Today our Aboriginal teachers have to be equipped with a knowledge of curriculum that enables them to be more than just Atransmitters.@ When I was first teaching, I thought that what was written in curriculum guides was the ultimate truth and there was no other way. I did not always agree with the curriculum, but I still taught from it because the children had to write Adepartmentals.@ The curriculum was inaccurate, some of it did not make sense, and some of it just did not apply to the students in the region. Yet, I really did not know what to do. At that point, I did not understand. Understanding came when I entered graduate school. It was there that I learned to reflect on what curriculum means, to critique curriculum guides and the values within. Now I know more about what goes into developing a curriculum, where it has come from, and can distinguish between one that is good and one that is not.

The lack of training for Aboriginal teachers is one of the greatest barriers to bicultural and bilingual programming. Without training, Aboriginal teachers are reluctant to move into teaching in their Native language. As well, the curriculum in English. It is easier to follow the English curriculum and occasionally use Cree to help those who have difficulty understanding English. Another barrier relates to leadership. Many people are not convinced that bringing back the language is useful. They may feel that their language and culture is inferior and that learning English is the only way their children will succeed in the world. Leadership is needed to help people in the communities become involved in preserving their language.

Leadership in preserving our language began in my community when the Band took control of the education system. They decided to integrate Native language and culture into the school and they modified areas of the core curriculum to meet the needs of Aboriginal children. At that time, the school had been using educational material, mostly from the provincial system, following the provincial curriculum and, initially, it was within this framework that integration evolved. The Curriculum Resource Unit is developing a document for language and culture, at this time it is more of a framework, but it is evolving. There is much inconsistency in the instruction of core subjects from the provincial curriculum because of the lack of in-service for teachers within the Band system. However, teachers at the elementary and middle years levels, through use of the adaptive dimension, have been able to be creative with the curriculum.

First Nations curriculum is evolving through the efforts of dedicated leaders in education. Leadership entails many abilities, skills, and qualities that influence others to ensure that plans succeed and that work gets done. Such leaders are informed of current developments in other communities; personally, I have found networking with other First Nations curriculum developers to be an excellent means of staying in touch. In addition, a leader should know what the parents, the students, the teachers, and other players think, feel, believe, and do. Most importantly, leadersip comes from within, not in a spirit of self-achievement, but one of responsibility to help solve problems and when recognition comes it is given to the community. Leadership takes teamwork.

People look up to me as a leader in the community and have high expectations for me to make changes and do things out of the ordinary. They do not ell me that I should do things in a certain way, nor do they put me down, but I believe the expect a little more out of me, feeling that my position enables me to do more. I view my commitment to the community through an aspect within the circle of living that I learned from my grandparents. It concerns giving back to the circle of my environment for all that I have taken in from the beauty of the North and its peoples.

Discussion Guide

Teacher Role:

1. What is Aboriginal knowledge according to Matthias? How is it different from non-Aboriginal knowledge? What are the implications for classrooms with Aboriginal children?
2. How can teachers affirm Aboriginal knowledge in the classroom?
3. Matthias sees himself as a bridge between the knowledge of the elders and the needs of the children? Is there a similar role for non-Aboriginal teachers?
4. Do we do enough in schools to connect children with the "land"?

Bringing the Elders' Voice into the Classroom

Rose, a Cree person, spent her early school years in an Anglican residential school but returned to her home reserve each summer. After spending a number of years as a kindergarten teacher, Rose became involved as a Cree language materials developer in her school division.

I was really exceptionally close to my grandmother so I spent a lot of time with her. She taught me a lot of things, although she never really said, "you have to learn this." I learned just by being around her. I would watch her do things. We'd go into the bush and she didn't really tell me things, I had to be there at the right time in order for her to tell me. I learned a lot from the elders. My grandmother had two buddies that she used to walk around and do stuff with in the bush. Even though I was a little girl they accpeted me. They told me things that often had something to do with the spiritual things or they would tell me something like, "this plant is good for this and this plant is good for that." My grandparents talked to me about giving things back to the earth and giving gifts. You don't talke all the berries, you leave some berries. You have to leave something. If you take all of it you can never put it back. If you take all of it and then try and put something back, it wouldn't be the same. Those are the kind of things I had stuck in my mind because I wanted to learn. Anyway, these are the things that I tell my children now.

The gift of giving is one thing that the elders taught me, and in today's society if you give, it's not accepted. I like giving stuff to people even though I'm not expecting anything in return. If they'd done something special for me, I'd like to give them something in return. You can't take everything from this Earth, you have to give something back. I'm talking of giving of my knowledge because when I was young, it was given to me and I can't keep it because it was given to me; I have to pass it on. That's one of the values that I learned. Whatever the Creator put on Earth was not for you to take and keep, you have to pass it on at some point.

I was educated in a residential school in P.A. The reason we got sent to the residential school is because there was no school in our community for the longest time. It was run by Anglicans and they were quite accepting of the Cree way of life because although we weren't allowed to speak Cree in the classroom, we could speak Cree in the dorm. I don't remember an instance where somebody told me not to speak Cree in the dormitory or in the playground. The values we learned were Christian values but they're almost the same as the values that Natives have. I think that the residential school helped me to get where I am. They were very strict about being time-oriented; whereas in my culture, they're not really that strict. That's one value that I've really grasped and it's really helped me.

The only time I got home from residential school was in the summer, so when I got home I spent as much time as possible with the people that were older than me. They showed me or told me things and those are some of the values I still cling to. I'm not saying that I've forgotten the other values I learned from the residential school.

When I went home in the summer time I had to speak Cree because both of my parents didn't speak English. Two of my older sisters don't speak English because they never went to school. I've always had a closeness with older people and have visited them. I know when to speak and when not to. I think they know too, that I have a natural curiosity to know things.

Elders are lonely people because hardly anybody goes to visit them. They just stay at the house and once in a while they have a visit. I like to visit if I know there is an elder living there or I go and visit a friend of mine if an elder is planning to come and visit. I have to phone these elders sometimes because I need help. The elders tell me, "well phone me; if you need help all you have to do is phone me and I'll help you." They really appreciate it when I buy them a pair of heavy socks and I give them a package of cigarettes. It doesn't have to be very expensive. I don't know why but the elders like the way I speak Cree. They say I sound nice when I speak Cree. They say, "you still have the perfect Cree." I see myself as a voice in the classroom for elders. As a teacher I am speaking both for elders and for education. I don't want the language to be lost because it is a beautiful language. The Cree language creates a very direct relationship with students.

NORTEP taught me how to survive in the educational system the way a non-Aboriginal sees it. This the way you do things. This is the way you're supposed to do things. This is they way you do your unit plans. There is that aspect of time again. You have to have your assignments handed in on time. You have to be able to share and I got that from both worlds. To be good to you fellow human being is anothervalue that helped me that I was taught at the residential school and also at home. You learn to balance the two things. I think once a person sees that this Christian value is the same as the Aboriginal one, they have one value. So you just put it into one container.

NORTEP could have offered more classes in ESL, teaching English as a second language, because if I knew how to teach English as a second language, I'd be able to teach Cree as a second language and I wouldn't have that much trouble with trying to write down lessons. I was never taught how to speak English as a second language. I was taught how to read English and how to speak English through Dick and Jane but how many times do I say, Aoh Sally.@ They should offer a class there on how to teach Cree. I would like to be a student. I can teach how to speak Cree at the university level but I'd like to know how to teach it to kids.

The kindergarten kids didn't speak English but I knew what they were thinking or what they were saying. Some of the elders had children going to school who were under their care. Most of them were grandparents, and they'd come to the school in the fall and tell the principal they were taking the child out to the trap line and would like to be able to bring some work with them.

I passed the elders knowledge on to the student population. I would just help the children through the Cree language program. It wasn't to teach the language because they already ahd a stable hold on the language. It was to revive and maintain the language so that it didn't die. When we came across vocabulary that the children didn't understand, I would tell them, "this is the way the grandfathers and the grandmothers spoke; this is the yway they spoke of things; this is the way they did things." I am also keeping alive the values that are dying with the elders. The foremost value I always bring across to the children that the elders had passed on ws the concept of respect. Respect for people, respect for the environment, respect for yourself and respect for your fellow students. When you're learning the Cree language, you can't help but touch on some of the values. It is an enrichment of language because the younger generation don't really use all the words that were used long ago. They attempt to slack on an English word.

You have a better understanding about your culture when you know the language because with the everyday things you do, you have to sue that Cree language to explain things to children. You have to use Cree because the people over there are still closely tied with the environment. The language has a lot to do with anture and respect for nature. For example, the description of the seasons is connected with nature. Culture revolves around the seasons. Therefore, you have to show a respect for the environment and if they lose that they're lost. It is different to be able to talk about the environment in Cree rather than in English.

By getting the values and the language together it's certainly going to help them be proud of their "Cree-ness" and their "Indian-ness". It's going to help them because they're going to have a very good self-conept which will help them in the long run because if they ahve a good self-concept they're going to be able to do things that they thought they otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

I used story-telling in my teaching when I was teaching Cree for the Grades 7, 8, and 9 just to get them rolling so that they could tell their story too. There are lots of values and stuff in those stories. We have to give children more leeway. We can't just stuff them with things all the time. We have to give them a chance to grow themselves.

Aboriginal children have to learn things about not rushing and being curious, but in a respectful way because that's what is expected of a child growing up in a Native environment. You're not expected to ask questions all the time, yet in school this is what we expect the children to do. If they don't ask questions we think as teachers that they don't want to learn anything, but it's just that their culture is that way. You have to understand the children in order to be able to bring that into focus. I think nowadays, educators think that the child understands it if they start to ask questions, but in order for a child to understand, they have to be motivated to want to learn a certain concept. They know the concept already but you want them to prove to you that they understand by performing a task that shows you.

When I was teaching on my home reserve there was an expectation from the community on me. It did make me feel good to be teaching back in my home community because I was showing a kind of leadership that had never happened before in the community. A lot of the young people looked up to me. But in a way it didn't really make me feel good because I think a lot of the people would be too dependent on that, saying, "I don't have to do it; there's somebody else doing it already." It was a lot of pressure.

The kids listened to me about the importance of getting an education because I'm one of them and they know that I've never turned by back on them. If they needed to talk I was always there to talk to them and they could speak to me in the language they knew. They were more willing to talk to me and to listen to me because I was living proof that I had gone through an education system and then I had gone back to school. They knew I hadn't completed my Grade 12, but I had completed my Grade 10 and they knew that. When I reached the point in my life when people from the community came to me to fill out forms for them and to do things for them that required a person to be able to think in English and to write in English and to be able to interpret what the questions were, I think that's when the kids saw me as a role model. "When I'm big I want to be able to do that; I want to be able to help people." My kids asked me, "how come you never charge these people who come to you, and you do it for free for mom?' and I said, Awell, there are a lot of things on Earth that I get for free which I'm not expected to pay back."

Parents were more open to me. If their children were having problems in the school, they'd come to me and I'd talk to them about it. I had to somehow get trhough to them that they ahd to talk to the principal as well. People would come to me before the principal but I couldn't just ignore the principal. A lot of things that they wouldn't talk to the principal about they felt more free to talk to me about because I spoke and understood their language. The hardest thing for me was during reporting periods because I'd have to be around and make sure that I was there for the people who were sometimes overlooked by the other teaching staff because they wouldn't be able to communicate with them. If you're a Cree speaker, you can't always put your words so that the English people can understand you, especially for people that haven't been in school for quite awhile who have a minimum knowledge of English.

The kids used to ask me how many years I had to go to school to study Cree. Now those kids are parents. They're at home and when I go home this christmas there will be a lot of them dropping in at my son's house just to come and see how I'm doing. They'll be counting my grey hair and my wrinkles and all that. I'm still quite close to them.

I have written four books in Cree for the teachers and students which have been distributed to provincial and band schools. They are mostly directed to interviewing elders and getting that down on tape. The parents know what I'm doing. I've shown some of the materials to them and they say that it is neat. By doing these materials children are going to see Cree written down. It's going to have an impact on them and I hope it will motivate them to try to read in Cree.

Our school division could allow the Cree language program more time instead of just 15 minutes a day. They could give them 40 minutes a day or an hour. In some schools the teacher only gets to see one particular classroom twice a week and 15 minute time allotments, and that's nothing. They have to start treating it as a subject and give it the same time they give English language arts. I think my school division has really gone beyond what they should be doing because I don't think any other school division has got the material developers working in the office and developing stuff for children out in the field. They have an understanding that this is what we need.

Discussion Guide

Life History:

1. Rose learned about "giving back" from her grandparents. How is she "giving back" in her current role as an educator? Does this concept have merit in your education situation?
2. What values did Rose learn from elders and from residential school? How is she living those values in her practice?

Teacher Role:

3. Rose talks about culturally appropriate ways of being with students. What are some of these ways? What might this mean for other contexts where First Nations students are learning?
4. Rose played a significant role with parents. How do her ways of relating to Aboriginal parents compare to your work with parents? What implications might her role have for your relationships with First Nations parents?
5. What are Rose's views on Cree programming? What implications does her vision have for Aboriginal language programming in other contexts, and for curriculum policy?

An Aboriginal Languages Consultant's Story: Recovering the Past

Wanda is Metis and taught elementary school for a number of years before she became a Cree curriculum developer. She is just completing her Masters degree with a focus on Aboriginal language education.

Our family weren't Treaty Indians so we lived in town. I attended the provincial school for the first four grades. Because I was a "trap line kid" we would go up to our trap line on the Churchill River with all our books and my mother became my teacher and my father became the principal. My father only had about three months of formal schooling but to me he was the smartest guy in the world. He could fix anything and he could make anything. He could take his boat motors apart and put them all back together. He was a real good carpenter and he'd make toys, sleights, and furniture out of blocks of wood. My dad was also a very good hunter. He managed to raise us all; he was a good provider.

We had a dog team with about six sled dogs. My dad made everything suchas tents, the sleigh, and the traditional toboggans with the canvas perfectly laced up. Our cabin was a log cabin which was handmade as well as little log cabins for each one of the dogs. He put up hay in the fall for the dogs and I thought he treated the animals well. Whey were the huskiest dogs you ever saw. Through the trap line experience we learned to really care for the animals. My dad was a real conservationist so when we went camping we always were taught to leave our campgrounds clean. We learned to respect the environment.

My dad always talked Cree to me; now I talk Cree to him too. I think that's so neat. He encouraged us to go to school although he was not literate himself. He always had that really good feeling about himself that he knew he was educated too.

We had a family of ten - seven older than me and then two younger ones, so the ones that went to the trap line with me were the two younger ones. I can remember that it took blocks of time away from my school. In Grade 4 I started boarding out and stayed in town when my parents went out on the trap line. It was difficult for me to stay in town. When I had to start boarding, I'd just cry because I knew my parents were leaving the next day. I found it very lonely and frustrating to stay behind and board out starting from grade 4. I wanted to go with them, or when older, I wanted them to stay because I was getting used to town life.

This was a time of incredible change, since for the first time children had to go to school. That changed the lifestyle of the parents, and that's where the problems started for many trappers. Many of them would have to come in off the trap line to get their second fish payments. Since the second payments came here in january, they couldn't stay out there until spring because they had to wait for that money to purchase their supplies. Longer periods of time had to be spent here because of these changes. There was not much for them to do in town.

As a Metis, it seemed I wasn't accepted by the treaty people or accepted by the white people. I was an Indian to the whites, and a white man to the Indians so I was sort of half way between. For a period of my life I wanted to be an Indian, because I remember some of my cousins were from the reserve here, and some of my cousins were from town. Those two worlds for sure impacted my life.

I have always been interested in knowledge but attaining an education has been a determined, sometimes difficult journey. I began my primary learning in a larger northern community with some understanding of the grammatical structures of my first language, Cree. Of course in those days, there were neither English as a Second Language (ESL) classes nor Aboriginal teachers - no one understood how having a first language can influence the learning of a second language. All instruction was in English. I experienced such difficulty in learning English that I had to repeat the first grade. Even today, I continue to have difficulty with English but have overcome much because of my education and especially because of my training at NORTEP where I did receive instruction in ESL.

Although my education had rough beginnings, perhaps I leanred at an early age that I needed to work harder than most children. I struggled on through my high school years to achieve a formal Grade 11 standing and, at the ceremonies, I was to receive an academic award! It was then that I knew I was capable of learning and, with continued effort, I could succeed.

I left my home to attend a Business College and for the next eight years I woked in the secretarial field and even here, through using English in a practical way and growing in organizational skills, my education continued. However, it became quite routine and a longing for studying and academics set in. I applied at NORTEP and was accepted, graduating in 1984.

It was NORTEP that helped me sort out who I am. Before that time I didn't have a strong sense of pride in my background because of different things that had happened in my life and racism that I had experienced - a denial of my Aboriginal roots. I can recall some of the really neat things that I went through there, especially the Native Studies classes. That's where a really big change started to happen. I think of my NORTEP experience as giving back to me a pride in our language and our culture; building up my self-esteem. It has helped me a lot to really feel okay about who I am that I am a special person. It's helped to bring out some of the gifts that are inside me.

Little was I to know that my learning was to continue. I was interviewed over the telephone for a teaching position in a remote northern town. The town was a Metis community that had many social and economic problems. My cottage-like teacherage was actually a dilapidated building that appeared to have been vacant for a long time. I couldn't guess when it had last been touched by a paint brush or caring hands. The outside of the building was unfinished with an extension that may have been a dream of someone long before, but now its walls stood bare, as an unfinished chapter in a book. I guess the townsfolk believed that my children and I could adjust well to this as we, too, were Metis. In retrospect, I believe what I was going through was culture shock. This town was not the town I had grown up in and it appeared to have different values than the ones I grew up with. I didn't las for the year; actually I became quite ill.

My next position was ata reserve school in the south. These were two really good years. I learned what a difference a good principal can make. I remember her great attitude and the positive atmosphere of the school. All of the staff were involved. Following this experience, I decided to finish my degree so I went to university down south. I particularly loved learning and, equally important to me, studying at home and spending precious time with my children. I was to attend university for one more year, completing a postgraduate diploma in education.

My next three years were to be spent in a city school. Here, again, I worked with another terrific principal in the first year and the staff and administration worked together as a cohesive group. Also, the school board employed an excellent language arts consultant who took every opportunity to try new ideas in the classrooms. The school took a very positive approach with the students. During that time, I worked on the whole language strategy. I used the student's experiences to help them learn. Their stories became an important part of the classroom.

At this time, in addition to teaching, I was also a member of an Indian and Metis committee which was headed by a consultant from our board office. There were meetings and training sessions with Indian and Metis representatives from all the schools in the public school system. Following the sessions, we returned to our schools to share all that was learned. A major focus of the meetings at that time was integrating Indian and Metis content into the provincial curriculum. I don't know what happens to others, but when you're in a school like that you're kind of thought of as an expert on Aboriginal issues. I was always asked what I thought about Aboriginal aspects of the curriculum, whether I knew the answer or not, but it didn't bother me. I'm not really an expert but I tried to accommodate this view the best I could.

Teaching was stressful at this stage in my life. I was spending long hours at the school, many times until 10:00 at night. At this time my daughters were in their teen years and I just wasn't spending enough time with them. So, I made the decision to leave teaching and was accepted on with a Tribal Council, in the Education Department. Here, for a year, I worked as an assistant office manager and striving on, applied for a better position as a Cree Materials Developer, for which I was accepted. I then applied for my current position of Aboriginal Languages Consultant and was again accepted! I love this position. Working with the Cree and Dene languages is a very rewarding and fulfilling career.

But my story is still not told in its entirety. Since completing my postgraduate diploma in 1989, I have been working on my masters degree in education. Last winter I completed the final class needed to fulfill the credit requirements to graduate. So, I am in the final stages of my project, with convocation rapidly approaching. Along with a literature review, I'm surveying five Aboriginal language programs across Canada, and the teaching methodologies being used in those programs. I intend to do a comparative analysis of them and prepare some recommendations for teaching the Aboriginal language. My academic achievements go hand in hand with the job I now have. I am, today, full of ideas, which I have drawn from my education and my experience, to assist teachers in planning and implementing Aboriginal language programs in schools.

I'm related to Archdeacon McKay who wrote a Cree dictionary for the north at the turn of the century. This kind of brings it full-circle because here I am working on the Cree language. He did a lot of work in the Cree language and he also did some hymn books and some prayer books. I really think that the language can be revived. I don't think it has to be lost. There is really something about empowering the children through teaching them the language. If they know their language and they can feel good about their language, maybe it will give them something back to empower them to do other things. I think the high suicide, crime, abuse and drop out rates are linked to a loss of identity.

Discussion Guide

Life History:

1. How has Wanda's biography influenced her teaching?
2. How has your biography influenced your teaching?

Teacher Role:

3. Wanda experienced the pressure of being an expert on Aboriginal issues in her school. Consider situations you are aware of in which Aboriginal people are expected to be knowledgeable about Aboriginal culture? How can non-Aboriginal teachers come to understand Aboriginal knowledge and skills without putting unrealistic demands upon Aboriginal people?
4. Wanda suggests that the loss of Aboriginal language is at the root of a loss of identity. How can Aboriginal languages by recovered?

Making the Classroom a Place for Cree Culture

Marie has been a Cree language teacher for several years in a provincial school that has a substantial non-Aboriginal population. She grew up on a reserve in northern Saskatchewan

When I am teaching, I return to some of the lessons I was taught by my grandparents, especially the lessons in patience. I moved in with my parents at the age of 12 but, until that ime, I lived with my grandparents. I can remember going snaring with my grandmother and checking traps with my grandfather. When I was out on the lake, I learned the same things that I learned from working on the trap line; to respect the land and be patient, because they were very patient. To keep us in line, we were told stories and legends. We grew up in a loving and caring environment and yet, because they were religious people, it was strict. I learned about family closeness and what it means to be secure and to take on responsibility and to not complain. During holidays, when I ws of school age, my grandparents took me traplining and, afterwards, we'd return to the community because I had to go to school. It was important to them that I be in school. From the way they raised and treated me and from their teachings, I knew that I was loved. Their teachings have helped me to show respect to the students and to teach with more patience. One needs to be a patient person to be able to meet the learning needs of the students.

I never spoke any English at all when I entered school but, from Kindergarten to Grade 6, I was immersed in English. The things I remember most from my schooling were those times when I was outside on field trips and, or course, my Cree teachers. I remember a lot of activities that we did in Cree. I guess that I remember them the most because I could relate to them and, even today, I relate a lot of the ways I do things to the ways that Cree was taught to me in school. I try to adapt some of these ways, trying not to do some of those things that frustrated me. I'll always remember my Cree-speaking teacher from Grade 3 who took us on a school trip to another northern community by plan - my first plane ride in a Twin Otter! I don't remember a lot of the English lessons, except for my Grade 5 English teacher who talked about the Second World War. Once, when we were watching films on World War II, he slapped his hands on my desk and I jumped right up. I've always wondered why he showed us those films. That's the most vivid memory of my elementary years with an English teacher; however, most of my teachers were very nice.

NORTEP taught me a lot of strategies about how to teach and how to know who I really am. I matured, I guess, because I think differently than I used to. I'm more knowledgeable about worldly things, about education and how chioldren learn, and about how personalities are moulded. NORTEP taught me to reflect on my upbringing and to realize all the positive things that I had taken for granted - things I had never really thought about. Always, and in every class, there was an instructor who talked about these things. Here, I learned to truly appreciate how I was raised by my grandparents and my parents. The instructors were all different and shared different knowledge with us. So I guess you could say that, for having been in NORTEP, I reflect not only education and teaching but also life itself.

All I thought about the summer after I graduated was teaching. I tried to prepare myself but I have come to know that no matter how prepared you think you are, you never are. When I started teaching, I came to the school early because I was anxious and scared at the same time. I wanted to get my year plan done because I had no idea of the school's expectations. I'd seen several year plans but they were all different. Some of them were very detailed and others were just an outline. Every Cree teacher used samples of each other's year plan to make their own. I tried to change a lot of things because kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 were all being taught the same thing and I didn't want to do that. I did a lot of activities that I've since changed, and I learned a lot just from experimenting with different teaching methods. The way I started was to do a lot of oral exercises for the first half hour and for the next half hour I'd get the students to do a follow-up activity. I used the NORTEP lesson plan format to do my Cree lessons and it worked out fairly well.

I used the whole-language approach and got them to come up with the words which translated into Cree. I had them do little projects such as posters or drawing northern pictures, and then I got them to translate it into Cree. I wanted them to finish their pojects right away, but it couldn't be done because they were too long and I only got to see them once every six days, so that didn't help. They enjoyed the project because they did a lot of visiting with their friends, and I got to work with them one-on-one on the language teaching and how to say the things that they drew in Cree. Very few were fluent in Cree. Whatever they did, they ahd to write the English workd with the Cree workd because the majority of them are non-Cree speakers. That's what I did with the Grade 5's and 6's, however, I think I did more with the elementary grades as far as teaching them different verbs and nouns and more oral exercises. I found that the children in Kindergarten learned more Cree from last year than the older grades did, so I'm trying to change my approach with them.

When I teach the Cree language, we talk about meanings because our words are not a direct translation from an English word. In our culture, the names of the months of the year are derived from their meaning, for example, December's name is Frost Moon. The reason for this is because there is a lot of frost over the trees and plants and everything. The same applies to the Egg Laying Moon; it is to let the people know that eggs are eing laid by the birds so they can go and collect them for food.

The other thing I did, when I first started here, was to take the students out looking for berries and collecting leaves for a fall activity. This year I took them on a scavenger hunt where they looked for objects such as trees, leaves, and so on. First, they had to speak the object's name in Cree, then write it down. They had a good time on this outing and did finish the project because there weren't too many words that they needed to write down.

I really enjoy getting to know the students and working with them, especially when they're enthusiastic and want to learn Cree. I think the oral lessons are the ones that I enjoy the most - when I sit with the kids in a circle and get them talking. I have fun and so do they. I don't have any problems with discipline because they enjoy singing and talking Cree, even though they don't always know what they're talking about, they're using the language.

I talk a lot about our culture and bring in resource people to extend their understandings of the Native culture. I show them videos and get them to work on arts and crafts. We also have a culture club going and, here too, they learn about the Native culture. Last year we took them to a small reserve nearby to take part in a winter festival. The students seemed to enjoy meeting and playing with the Native children.

I find that the Native children who understand and are fluent in the Cree language really shine in this class because they get to be the ones that raise their hands and say, "I know what that means!" I find the non-Native or non-Cree speakers, wanting to work with the Native children, saying, "I want to work with him because he understands Cree; he understands the teacher."

I guess as a First Nations person working with fluent speakers in Cree, one understands and feels quite comfortable around one another. When they come here, I try to talk Cree to them as much as I can. I have found that the culture club members show more respect for the Cree language and culture when they come for Cree lessons. They work harder and try to help out wherever they can. The majority of them are non-Native, but they're a mixed multicultural group. This class gives the non-Native kids a chance to get to know the Native children and to notice that they're there. When I first started teaching, the Native kids sat at the back of the room, but when I started speaking Cree they were the ones that understood and responded. The non-Native kids would look back at them and realize that they understood. Now, the children have begun to mix with one another and the Native kids no longer sit at the back.

Recently, I received a comment form a Grade 1, Cree speaking student that illustrates the connections I am trying to make with these children. She was touching something and I told her not to do that. I didn't point to her or anything. I kind of took her hand and didn't make a big show f it. She said, "You talk to me like my mom?" I think the children who speak Cree understand me better. I speak to them in Cree and don't have to repeat myself when I give them directions. They catch on right away and they're very comfortable wityh that. Most of them seem to work a little harder and we're able to speak to one another. I guess they don't feel afraid to ask questions or to make mistakes. I see that and sense it when I work with them.

But it is not always rosy. There are some students that are always in trouble and they will come right out and say, "Well, I don't want to be here." I get very upset. If I get one student for the whole day sho says that, then I think about that when I go home and say, "Well, what can I do to get the students to appreciate being in Cree class?" It's usually just one student but it really bothers me. I have to keep reminding myself that there are other students that like Cree, but sometimes I get caught up in worrying about that one student - I keep forgetting that some of these things are not my fault.

Most of the non-Aboriginal kids enjoy Cree class. They know the whole tape of Cee songs that I walways play when they go and do their activities. Then we talk about the songs and what they mean because I have them all on chart paper. They may ask me, "Well, what does Numuskasen mean?" and I tell them it means "my shoe." Recently, I have started telling stories in Cree and have found the students were familiar with many of the words - words which they had previously learned - but, because they had never really used them in an active way, didn't connect their meanings. I use hand motions and facial expressions and get them to imitate me and then they tell the story. It works because now they're going around telling their younger brothers or sisters the story. It works because now they're going around telling their younger brothers or sisters the story. Then, when I taught the younger grades and said, "Okay, I'm going to tell you a story. They'd say, AOh, I think I know this story!" So it's working really well. They enjoy listening to a story and I have them repeat it after me saying, "You're telling the story to me now!" and they get all excited.

I want them to realize that Native people are knowledgeable: I want them to have an appreciation for Native peoples. They need to know that Native people named things for a good reason. Also, it is important to talk about the way that Native people used to live because some students think the reason that they lived the way they did was because they were poor and didn't know how to make money (I hear a few students mentioning that). So, we talk about the land and what it was like before people from other countries came and introduced all these material things, such as money and so forth. I try to explain that Native people lived in a different way and so they didn't need to go to a store and buy food. Also, I talk about how things changed when the Europeans came. I explain why people live on the reserves now, but I don't get into a really deep discussion about it. I guess I try to clarify the beliefs they have been exposed to, concerning the Native culture. I tell them that prior to our contact with the European culture, we lived off the land, but today we don't need to do that because we go to school and become teachers, doctors, or whatever, to support ourselves. I explain that some people do not live this way, but that their way of living is okay. The children are starting to understand, but I don't think we discuss it enough. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on this journey. It gets overwhelming, at times, because I want to do everything. I want them to learn so they are prepared for high school when they take Cree or Native studies. I don't want to discourage them from taking Cree.

I try to get the students to use their imaginations as much as possible, rather than me doing all the thinking for them. I want them to know that they have a mind of their own and that it should be developing. I can tell if something is meaningful by the way students react to it. I try to get them to create on their own because I know they enjoy creating their own work. Then it's really their own; someone else has not done it for them. It takes a long time, but I have noticed that when they finish they want tot take their work home and show their parents. It's their own work that they can have forever, full of Cree words and numbers.

I always wanted the picture of the inside of a cabin in my classroom. So I got students in Grades 3 and 4 to paint one for me and, at the same time, to make their own portfolio in which they could put all their work, thinking that they'd be able to keep track of what they did and didn't finish. They said, "I know what we're supposed to draw in here....culture themes", and I said "Yes, you're right." When I ask them werhe they got their ideas from, they replied, "Oh, looking around the room", because I have pictures of lots of things. I guess they didn't think I would put their work up but I did because it makes them feel important. They notice when I display students' things. Even the kindergartens have asked me, "Can I do that too?" and I said, "When you're in Grade 6 you can do that", and that's okay. Students often ask me, "Is somebody else going to do the same thing?" and I reply, "NO, you are the only ones that are doing this," and I receive the response, "Right on!"

My grandparents would be pleased with many of the things in my class, such as the cabin and all the trinkets and the language. But they would ask me, "How come you're teaching them how to make key chains. Where did that come from?" I have questioned myself about the key chains and have wondered why I'm teaching this because they have no significance within the Native culture. I don't know who started the key chains or where they came from; as we never had them before. I do try to keep things imple and not get too caught up with insignificant things. I want the things we do in class to have a meaning. I used to be very critical in my mind of some of the teachers that I worked with because of how they treated the culture, know I would not want to do some of their activities because these didn't really have any meaning. It's like pushing papers through a copy machine and I know the students don't enjoy doing much of the kind of work. I try not to do that because it's getting away from reality and that's not me.

The parents want to see the language at home and so I have found many ways to do this. What I do with the kindergarten to Grade 3 students is to send home a little report card with all the words from the songs that I teach the students. When I first started sending these home, the parents said they really liked them. The younger grades take home whatever they work on in class, like activities about the weather. When I taught them how to say "sunny" and "rainy", they took that work home. I thik it helps if I send some of the words home because then the parents will learn them too. They have told me that now they could help their child learn some of the Cree that I teach. Also, I try to communicate with parents through the school newsletter; usually it's in the form of a little letter that talks about what we're doing in Cree-speaking class and what new project we'd begun or it would include little recipes. Last year, it was the recipe for Bannock written only in Cree. I told the parents to ask their children to translate the wrods for them, because they had learned all these new Cree words in class.

When I began teaching here, I tried to go to the staff room but I just didn't feel that I fit in. Then we started having Native lunches and I felt comfortable. We'd bring traditional food and share it. We invited the non-Native staff or whoever wanted to try it. Also, the new teachers are changing the atmosphere a bit because they talk to everybody and are more open and accepting. I think they are breaking down some barriers. Now, when I go to the staff room, I feel much more comfortable and have go to know those teachers that I didn't know last year.

A few teachers ahve come in to look at what I do and some have even used the language in their own classrooms. Last year I photocopied the months and the days of the week for them and put the copies in their mailboxes. When I visited their classrooms, I could see that many had displayed my work. I plan to give more help this year as I know teachers will be coming to me for resources for a cultural festival in May. The activities will start in my classroom with the students taking these back to their classrooms to finish them, so they won't forget the skill. I think the students will take more interest because they know work is important when it's taken back to the regular classroom. I don't usually ask teachers if they talk to the students about what they did in Cree class; however, some do mention that "so and so said they learned this in Cree."

Discussion Guide

Life History

1. What did Marie learn from her parents and grandparents? How does this connect with what you learned for your family?
2. What early school memories for Marie were positive and not so positive? Are your positive and negative school experiences based on similar or different types of experiences? What do Mary's early memories say to us about school experiences that affirm and enrich cultural identity?

Teacher Role

3. What are some of the struggles which Marie has had as an Aboriginal teacher in a predominantly non-Aboriginal school? How do her struggles speak to Aboriginal teachers working in other non-Aboriginal contexts? What might these struggles mean for possible changes in other contexts?
4. Marie talks about the connections she had made with Aboriginal students. What are some of these connections and what might they mean for your work with First Nations students?
5. It is often said that non-Aboriginal students need Aboriginal teachers and the knowledge they share, as much as Aboriginal students. What does Marie do with her students that supports this premise? What might this mean for educational programming in other contexts?

A Story of a Cree Curriculum Consultant: Coming Home

Jessie is a Cree teacher who grew up in a Cree settlement in northern Saskatchewan. After teaching for many years as an elementary classroom teacher she has most recently been a Cree curriculum consultant in her school division.

As one in a family of many children, I grew up in a small community in northern Saskatchewan and, as many in that community, my parents and my family were Cree speakers. I was taught how to live off the land by the use of bare necessities and some of my happiest memories include times spent working with my family on the trap line. I learned how to set traps and how to skin and stretch a muskrat and, throughout, it was our Cree language that wove us together as a community. It was a life education.

But school was a different education. Cree was not to be spoken in the classroom nor on the school grounds; however, this didn't stop us from interacting in Cree after school hours. My dad wanted me to quit in grade 8, but I disagreed. I spoke with my teacher about this concern and she convinced him to allow me to remain in school. Throughout my teen years, I carried the dream of becoming a teacher. In the early 70's, I worked for two and a half years as a teacher aide and in the summer of 1973, northern Lights sponsored the teacher aides in a class at the university. My experiences were beginning to convince that I could become a teacher. NORTEP had just begun their teacher education program in La Ronge and I decided to apply.

With only a grade 10 education, NORTEP was a great challenge and a greater opportunity. I had a young family to support and an education to pursue. However, these challenges became a turning point in my life. NORTEP gave me a new perspective of my Aboriginal ancestry and gave me an awareness of what my people had contributed to society. The supportive staff of NORTEP provided opportunities for me to assume the role of an educator. I recall my first year of field experience and the feeling that "perhaps I don't belong here," but I also remember the support of one particular teacher who became my mentor. She was positive and caring. As my role model, I observed her manner and attitude towards her students. A confidence in my abilities, a determination, and a desire to be informed developed and grew within me. I had reached a point where I could say, "hey, I am someone and I am going to show you that I'm as capable as anyone else!" Through the program, I saw areas which needed to be addressed; areas that would benefit the students and the people of the north. I had found my focus.

I graduated from NORTEP in 1980 and for 12 years taught at the elementary level in a northern school division. To my knowledge, this was, and is, the only school division in the province that had an Aboriginal languages team for both Cree and Dene. It gave its teachers the opportunity and the support to pursue a vision of bringing our languages back. As one of the first graduates of NORTEP in this community, the students had a teacher who understood and shared their background. Undoubtedly, my students would recall such phrases as, "come on, you can do it! You can climb the ladder as far as you can go!" Aboriginal parents, who are often uncomfortable with educators, could be appoached with ease. But, I believe that the greatest impact I may have had in those years was that of a role model. One who taught and lived the relevancy of the Indian and Metis ancestry and, by speaking in my Native language, I feel that I strengthened their sense of community.

For three years now, I have been working as a curriculum materials developer in the Cree Language Program. Coming from a classroom teaching position into the central office has enhanced my vision of education. I am now beginning to internalize and develop an understanding about the division's goals and perspectives in education. In this setting, I know that I am not only an employee, but I am also one of the players who is interacting and growing as part of a very important team of educators. There is so much to be done in the area of Aboriginal languages. When I first came here, there was no curriculum guide for Cree or Den, although there were recommended support resources in use. There is a real need to continue developing curriculum and support materials and to provide support for language teachers.

It is my belief that team work is very important in the sharing and combining of ideas, a belief which probably originated from growing up in a large family. Each team member brings different strengths to the tasks at hand. As a member of a division team, I am involved in developing adaptive units in language arts for Aboriginal students. This position has allowed me to be part of the Aboriginal language and the English language arts team. Many of the NORTEP graduates are teaching Aboriginal languages now and, as graduates from NORTEP, they have a lot of initiative, practical experience, and a commitment to teaching. However, they lack training as language teachers because they haven't had the opportunity to take methodology classes. Therefore, the two areas that I focus on with the teachers in our division are in the collaborative planning of language programs and the application of various teaching strategies.

There has been a gradual and positive progression in educational development throughout the division, in terms of relevancy and benefit to the students of the north. However, being proud as a people is linked to knowing one's language and I am aware of the gaps that exist in relationships within families and communities because the languages have been forgotten. I feel strongly about having a role in changing this situation. The vfision that I have for northern education is to create an interest in the retention and the learning of our Aboriginal languages.

In reflecting on my personal journey, I can see that, similar to many families of NORTEP graduates, myu family has been influenced by my role in education. Education became an important focus in our home. My daughter became a teacher after I did. Today, most of my siblings have a university education. My father, many years later, expressed his gratitude for the education and employment his children had achieved.

About every two years, I return to my community to visit relatives and friends and to repay a debt of gratitude. Recently, I was speaking at a school with a team of educators. When it was time for introductions, the principal said, "I'm going to introduce you, but you have to speak in Cree," to which I replied, "sure, I'll speak in Cree!" As I walked up to the microphone and addressed the students and teachers in Cree, I realized I'd come full circle. I had played a role in bringing the language of my youth and of my people into the classrooms and the schoolyards of the north.

Discussion Guide

Life History:

1. What role did NOTREP play in Jessie's development? What function do Aboriginal teacher education programs seem to play that may be difficult for mainstream teacher education programs?
2. How did your teacher education program influence your development as a teacher? Are there things that you would like to see added to teacher education programs?

Teacher Role:

3. Jessie talks about team work in her role as a lnaguage consultant. How has team work been part of your work in education? Are there things that could be done to enhance team work in your educational context?

A High School Teacher's Story: Transforming Cree Education

Billy is Cree and spent his early years on the trap line with his grandparents befroe moving back to his reserve community for his later school years. He has been teaching Cree and Native Studies in the high school in his home community for three years.

I grew up with my grandparents until I was about 16. I was in school maybe two months out of a school year because I was out on the trap line. My grandparents taught me a great deal about Cree language and culture. When I came back to school for good, I was in Grade 9, but I failed every subject right across the board, although I was as fluent in Cree as any 40 year old. I had to repeat Grede 9 again and in Grade 10 I started to pick up a little bit, especially in science. Science intrigued me so much because I was fascinated by the way you can relate in to nature. And then in Grade 12 I blossomed after half a year of Grade 12. I guess I was a late bloomer.

My dad has greatly influenced who I am today. He was the first Grade 12 graduate from Northern Saskatchewan. In high school in the south, he spent a lot of time with Jim Brady, a political figure. He was into local politics around here. I was 17 and just finishing Grade 11 when he passed away. I was spending more time with my grandparents on the trap line because my dad was out prospecting. He was a foreman and he was hiring guys from town here and he did work all over, in the Territories and all across Canada. After Grade 12, I took some courses in geophysics prospecting and I did that for three years. It was a good experience to be out there.

I used to be really down on my abilities until my sister told me directly and bluntly "that's all you Indian People say; it's hard, I can't make it out there." So she got me really mad. That got me going. So I applied to NORTEP and got accepted. The Cree Language class at NORTEP was taught in a different dialect but it helped me a lot with my Cree teaching. The classes in Native Studies and my knowledge from going through this program here from 7 to 12 also helped me develop my understanding of Native issues.

When I graduated I went for an interview with my Band's Education Committee. I was in there for an hour and forty-five minutes. Right off the bat one of the interview committee members asked me a question in English. He said, "hypothetically speaking." Because there were all Cree speakers interviewing me, I stopped him and said, "do these people understand what you're saying?" So he asked them and they said "no". So I asked if we could proceed with this interview in Cree. They said, "why not, if everybody agrees, the we will." So we did. They let me explain all the questions they read to me in English. So I had to explain to them in Cree what the question was, because they were strugglig with it. The questions were ones that the non-Aboriginal superintendent had made up0. I had to define things like philosophy of edcuation in Cree. I didn't feel right to be speaking in English because most of the time they wouldn't understand me anyway. That's why I requested the interview in my language.

I was fotunate to be offered a job teaching grade 6 in my home community. That first year was scary because I had nobody to count on as a cooperating teacher. That first month I was here at 7:00 in the morning, just rpeparing the whole day so that everything would be on my desk from period to period. I'd have supplemental material for each subject area in case I ran out of material for that period. I was so anxious and kind of scared. I didn't want to let anybody down.

Those kids built a lot of self-confidence in themselves because I did some pretty weird stuff with them. I set up a cam corder in front of them, and because everybody was so shy, I got them to cut out a picture from a magazine and they had 30 seonds to rpesent that picture in front of the camera. I said, "if you can do this in front of a camera, you can talk to anybody, you can talk to 500 people." That was in Cree and English. They really came out of their shells. I was coaching volleyball that year too. That's the first year they won the provincial championship. Every evening I was out there and I didn't have a weekend for myself. Because of that I was never free that first year. It was tough.

Sometimes I feel pressured by the community to perform in athletics. When I told people I wasn't going to be coaching the boys again this past year a lot of them actually told me to bo back to coaching. A lot of community people came to the tournaments to watch us and they go out of town and watch us play. I talk to the players in Cree and their confidence is better. The school committee is supportive of the volleyball program because volleyball is a big, big sport in this community. When we came home after winning bot provincial championships, we had a community parade here, where the boys held a banner that said, "boys provincial volleyball campions." The boys walked behind, and I walked behind there too. Then all the community stepped out from their homes as we had a parade around the community.

The second year they asked me if I would teach 10 to 12 Language and 10 and 11 Native Studies. They said, "well, you should teach all the way from 7 to 12." So they had me teaching Grade 7 to 9 as well, and then a split classroom when I took on this Cree program I was just overwhelmed. I was expected to be able to come in and be an expert in Cree and Native studies so I had my work cut out for me. I could teach grammar, but I had to teach myself the syllabics. I just studied every night and tried to be fluent. If I had to write something, I wrote it in syllabics to train myself. I basically put it together from a variety of resources. The 7's to the 12's couldn't write the Roman orthography properly. They didn't have a clue what grammar was behind the Cree Language. They could write a little bit of syllabics but they were very inconsistent. They were good at transcribing pre-written Roman orthography so they just transcribed the syllabics. Now things are looking pretty good. I picked and chose what I felt was relevant and what I thought should be taught to these students. I couldn't just lay out a program for them and teach from that because some of the mare receptive, some are fluent, and some are even non-speakers. You have to look at students individually and it was very difficult for me. NORTEP should be teaching the same kind of language that they teach in this high school, where they cover grammar, Roman orthography and then move on to syllabics.

I also use Cree as a teaching strategy to teach bilingually. When I first started my student teaching I was working with the Grade 2's and although the person I was working with was a Cree speaker, they taught in English. There was hardly an teacher-pupil interaction in terms of verbal communication back and forth, so I thought of trying Cree. Brainstorming was one of the things I had to do that day, so I tried English first and I think I got two things on the board. So I switched over to Cree and they filled all three boards up with responses. I did this by conversing with the students in their own language and then brainstorming. That's how it started and I have followed the same thin all the way to Grade 12 because they can express themselves in thei own language more clearly and concisely. I think they had quite a few teachers that spoke Cree, but I don't really see any bilingual teaching. If I had my way, I would have bilingual teaching from K-12.

One time I was in the resource room and I was listening to a trap line kid being tested on oral comprehension. The teacher read the story and asked questions. I think he got two questions out of ten. The teacher had to go somewhere for a few mintues to answer a phone, so I quickly read the story to him again in Cree and asked him the ten questions and he just nailed the ten questions off just like that. So I think there is bias there. That's why I interchange the two languages.

When I teach in the classroom I always use my first language. The only time I speak English is when there are non-speakers there, and then I have to explain to them. My instructions are always in Cree. If I kept on going teaching and explaining the words and concepts in English they wouldn't understand. When I speak my own language, they know. So that's how I teach every subject.

Most of the students speak Cree, but ther's a lot of the elementary teachers who are not fluent in Cree. In 1992, I did a proficiency survey on these students. I started up from nursery to Grade 6 and the further down you went, the less Cree speakers you have. I found in one classroom there were 20 students in that classroom, five were fluent, ten were receptive, and five had just a little bit of Cree. In Grade 6, I had five receptive and 23 fluent speakers. At the end of that year, all five of those students who were receptive chose to speak their own language. Then again, last year, they had a non-speaker and those five went back to speaking English.

With regards to the Native Studies, I teach Grade 10 and 11. When I first started I didn't have one book to teach from. I now have seven Native Studies books, but all this material I have I compiled myself. I think one of the barriers for me was being put in the position where I didn't have any teaching material and I didn't have a clue what to do at the beginning. The provincial curriculum in Native Studies is kind of irrelevant so I have developed my own curriculum. I just pick and choose what I think should be taught in Native Studies. I do a lot of Metis and Native Studies about the fur trade and the treaties with them. When I first talked about our treaties I discovered the students knew nothing about them . They didn't even know what a Treaty person was or non-Treaty, Bill C-31.

I try and cover relevant material like the treaties, but I always zero in on what's affecting us. I bring up a lot of contemporary issues, like the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord. I explain exactly what it is in Cree. Then I bring in the Indian Act a little bit. We cover the White Paper and the Red Paper. I cover the Peter Ballantyne Band land entitlement settlement and other current local issues. Whenever something like that comes up, I discuss it right away and then go back to the unit I'm teaching. It brings a lot of truth to Native Studies, and they think, "hey, this class is for real." They're pretty interested by the whole thing. I didn't get that when I was going to school. I guess I a meeting giving these kids some knowledge that no one else is giving them. I want to prepare these students if they go into a Native Studies first year university class. If somebody says, "Red Paper" or "White Paper" or "Indian Act"or "Constitution" or "bilateral or trilateral agreement", they will know. For the kids that don't go on to university, I think it gives them a lot of understanding of history regarding Native people. If they want to stay here and be a Band counsellor, or whatever, they can use this material too. I talk about nepotism and that kind of political mentality. I try and hit on everything. I use a lot of humor in my classes and there is a lot of student interaction. I try and remain nuetral plitically. I teach what I am supposed to teach but I don't really take a position. I didn't really tell my views on the Meech Lake Accord or the Charlottetown Accord. I tell them exactly what it is and then I ask them what they feel about the whole thing.

I tell my students to try their best, no matter what it is. I want them to succeed in life. I talk to them like a parent. Most of these Grade 12's that graduate out of here stay back here and collect welfare until they get a job like a carpenter or a stock clerk. I want them to go out there and try for a while, instead of saying, "it's too hard." I want these kids to feel good about who they are because we've been oppressed for so many years. They think its okay to b e passive and okay to take a back seat to everybody, and I don't think that's okay. I think it's time to change things around and that's my goal. I want them to be proud of who they are and succeed. They ahve the same intellectual capability as anybody. I just want them to feel proud of who they are.

Kids come to me and they ask me a lot of questions. They ask me about ski-doos, they ask me about vehicles, and they ask me about education. I tell them that I didn't think of myself as university material. I thought I was just a loser and that I deserved this. That was my mentality. I've pretty well come through insurmountable odds to be who I am. I don't think of myself as an upper crust person. I'm a down to earth person.

What I'd like to see is some educated people on the Band Education Authority. They should have somebody in there with at least a Bachelor of Education as an advisor. The new system gives the Authority more power and now there's hardly any room for abuse. In previous years, everybody was under the Director of Education. Now the Educational Authority is above the Director of Education. I think that's a good idea. I actually edited the proposal for the chairman and put in my ideas. There were a lot of people against the Education Authority and about half of them were for it, too. I prepared a lot of stuff to present to council. At the centre I put the student and I put circles around it to represent local autonomy and community members. All these old models are top-down, but this model with the child at the centre is more circular and is more Aboriginal.

Sometimes it's like banging my head against a brick wall to tell the Chief and Council anything. There are a lot of things we have to fight against. We have to fight against our own people that disagree and then sometimes I don't know why people can't give up that mentality.

The system is not really allowing me to be who I want to be as a Cree person in this school. That's why I want further education and I want to go to school some more so I can actually do something about it as a principal or as an administrator in central office. The band should be supporting Aboriginal administrators. I'm not here from Montreal to put in two years and then gain experience and I'm out of here again. I could be here for life. I do it out of heart and I care about what I do.

An ideal teacher will always associate with the students no matter where; at the store, out of town, on the highway, anywhere. I see too many authority figures which is not good. Even from the perspective of the school committee, they think teachers should be away from students. They shouldn't participate in community events such as dances. I tell these students I'm at the same level, although they tell me that I am not. I say, "I am a person that comes from this town and got an education and came back to teach. I'm at the same level you are. There is no such thing as social status between us here." And I converse with them many times out there in the community. One thing I notice about many teachers is they keep to themselves and they don't really associate with students out of the school. But I do.

I feel for community people. Sometimes when I go to La Ronge or some place and I see an Aboriginal person, just by looking at a particular person it make meeting me want to cry inside. I don't know why. I care for them and I have seen so much because our people are so oppressed. That's why I want to change things.

Discussion Guide

Life History:

1. Billy talks about the influence of his father on who he is. How is this influence evident in his aspirations and actions? How have your parents influenced who you are as a teacher?
2. Billy experienced a strong upbringing in Aboriginal language and culture. How is he attempting to develop this knowledge in others? What are his concerns about students in his community? What might this mean for other contexts?

Teacher Role:

3. Billy is influencing his community's view on education at the same time that it is influencing him. How do these community pressures impact upon the role of Aboriginal teachers? What does this say about politicial pressures that First Nations teachers experience?
4. What ways does Billy use Cree in his practice? What implications does this have for your teaching context?
5. What sort of knowledge does Billy want his Native Studies students to value? What influence is he having on Aboriginal self-determination? Should this knowledge be a part of the social studies and history curriculum which is taught in Saskatchewan?

A Principal's Story: Serving My People

Abe is Cree and has been a principal for several years on his home reserve in northern Saskatchewan. Before becoming a principal, he taught middle years subjects and high school Cree.

Trap lines were the way of life when I was a child growing up in a small northern community. Because my dad spent so much of his life trapping, I was reared by my Cree-speaking grandmother and aunt and so, as a young child, Cree was all I spoke. When I was six years old, and of school age, I was sent away to attend a residential school in the south. This was to become the pattern of my childhood, living in the south for the school term and returning home for the summer.

I have many good memories of residential school, there are really no bitter ones. To me, it wasn't an alien place at all because I felt at home speaking Cree with other children from the north. The traditional values I had learned at home, such as sharing and respect for elders, helped me to do well at school. I was able to listen and didn't rebel and, in a way, I got the best of both worlds. Although I didn't lost my language or culture. I think the residential experience made me a little too dependent on other people because they made all the decisions for me.

After Grade 12 I returned to the north and tried trapping but found that I didn't have the skills. And so, because I had felt at home in the south, I returned there and enrolled in Business College to complete a diploma in Administration. Then, I travelled north again and worked for seven years for an Indian Band, settled into life, and raised a family. However, I wasn't content; I wanted more. I wanted to attend university to become a teacher and my hopes became fixed on NORTEP, the only such institution located in the north and the only possible hope for my future.

Attending NORTEP was a significant turning point in my life. The program gave me so much, not only in concrete ways but also in personal growth. I received funding, a university education, and the training to become a teacher. But even more, it put me in touch with other notherners, it respected my culture and language, and it opened my eyes to children. With my growth in self-confidence, I became more out-going.

I graduated from NORTEP in 1985 as a teacher, taught in a small community for a year, but returned to my home community when there was an opening in the high school for the position of vice-principal. I would like to pause here and explain a bit about our community which is in somewhat of a unique situation. Our community is partially governed by an Indian Band whose jurisdiction extends to include control over policies within its schools. This, in turn, influences how I operate as a principal within the community, because not only am I responsible to the Band, but also I am responsible to the teachers and the community. However, I do not view this as a problem; I feel very supported by these groups.

The Elders of the Band are involved in the goings on of the school and often drop in. They are so appreciative of hearing Cree in the classrooms. I value what the teachers on my staff have to teach me about my position and I solicit their feedback during regular staff meetings. And, concerning my work in the community, it hasn't been difficult. People know me and the support I have received from parents has been excellent. I know they don't feel threatened about coming to see me, as might be the case with a non-Aboriginal. The students seem to accept me and feel comfortable; I know their parents and I speak their language. For me, being a member of the community is very important.

To continue, I was vice-principal in my community for seven years. I taught the Cree language, Native Studies, and a variety of other subjects. My desire was to implement strong Cree language and cultural programs for Aboriginal students. I was able to pursue this dream further when I became principal of the K-5 school in 1993. As principal, I am committed to a primary Cree immersion program, realizing this is critical if our language and our culture are to survive.

I view my role as principal as much more than manging the school. As the principal, I need to determine what the community wants and then work with everyone to accomplish it. Most families now expect more for their children than just to attend school. They want their children to be able to read and write and still retain their Native language and culture. This is really the bottom line and always has been, since I've been working here. I see myself as a team leader, part of the educational team, specifically responsible for insuring that the children learn and develop and, in addition, retain their Cree language and culture.

When I began here as principal, there were no language or cultural programs for Aboriginal students. I had never worked in curriculum before but with these needs and there being no one else to do it, I began to experiment and eventually set up Cree language and cultural programs in the two schools here. To my surprise, they have become model programs to other school systems.

An on-going challenge, in keeping with this program development, is to maintain a balance between the cultural component and the provincial curriculum. We work on integrating the two programs and are having successes. For example, our cultural program incorporates some of the provincial themes.

I tell my staff that I'm no expert which means I don't have all the answers. I'm not the kind to charge in on my own and tell others what to do. My direction comes from the community; the school committee, and my colleagues and I try to administer collaboratively, as much as I can, so that everybody is in tune with what's happening in the school and the community. I encourage the teachers to get involved in peer supervision as a way to share their ideas and materials. I believe that such exchanges develop trusting relationships.

Recently, we have moved out of the portable classrooms into a new school building. It is a family type situation, that feels more like a "home". In the hallways you hear a lot of Cree and a lot of praise being given to the children by the staff, most of whom are of Aboriginal ancestry. These teachers are good role models for the students, showing them that there are opportunities outside our community. Looking back over the years, I would have to say that I believe that greatest impact I have made would be in the area of program development. I can only hope that what I'm doing here just keeps growing because forme it's more than a job; it's serving the needs of my people.

Discussion Guide

Principal Role:

1. Abe talks about the importance of a close relationship between the school and community. How does he promote the idea of a community school?
2. Are there ways that your school can become more of a reflection of the community you serve?
3. What is it about Abe that helps him form a close relationship with his staff? What can we learn from Abe's approach with his staff that might be useful in other school contexts?
4. Abe believes that Aboriginal children need to learn to live productive lives in both worlds. What about non-Aboriginal children? Do schools adequately prepare them to live in multiple worlds?

 

Summary Discussion Guide

If you read a number of these stories you may be able to identify some common patterns that will help you to better understand some important issues for Aboriginal education. The following questions will help you reflect on these stories as you come together with other teachers for discussion.

Response

1. What are some of the common themes that weave these stories together?

Biography

2. What are the experiences that these teachers have had that influence their role as teacher?
3. How does their Aboriginality affect their teaching practice?
4. How is their role differenct than yours?
5. How has your background affected your approach to teaching? Tell other members of the group something from your background which you think has influenced your teaching.

Issues

6. What arethe unique concerns Aboriginal teachers express in their stories?
7. Have you had experiences with these concerns which help you understand the perspective that these teachers bring?
8. How can you respond to these issues as they arise in your school?
9. What have you learned about cross-cultural teaching from these Aboriginal teachers' stories?

References

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Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Carnegie, S. (1991). Program review: Northern Teacher Education Program and Northern Professional Access College. Regina: Saskatchewan Education Training and Employment.

Clandinin, D.J. & Connelly, F.M. (1994). Personal experience methods. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative methods (pp. 413-427). San Francisco: Sage.

Connelly, F.M. & Clandinin, D.J. (1988). Teachers as curriculum planners: Narratives of experience. Toronto: OISE Press.

Connelly, F.M. and Clandinin, D.J. (1990). Storeis of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14.

Connelly, F.M. & Clandinin, D.J. (in press). Narrative and Education.

Florio-Ruane, S. (1991). Conversation and narrative in collaborative research: An ethnography of the written literary form. In C. Witherell, & N. Noddings (Eds.), Stories lives tell: Narrative and dialogue in education (pp. 234-256). New York: Teachers College Press.

Goodson, I.F., & Cole, A. (1992). Studying teachers' lives. New York: Teachers College Press.

Goodson, I.F., & Cole, A. (1993). Exploring the teachers' professional knowledge. In D. McLaughlin & W. Tierney (Eds.), Naming silenced lives (pp. 71-94). New York: Routledge.

Gudmundsdottir, S. (1991). Story-maker, story-teller: Narrative structures in curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23(3), 207-218.

Hampton, E. (1993). Toward a redefinition of American Indian/Alaska native education. Canadian Journal of Education, 20(2), 261-309.

Hollingsworth, S. & Minarik, L.T. (1991). Choice, risk, and teacher voice: Closing the distance between public perceptions and private realities of schooling. (Occasional paper 134). East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University, The Institute for Research into Teaching.

Knowles, G. (1993). Models for understanding Pre-service and beginning teachers' biographies. In D. McLaughlin & W. Tierney (Eds), Naming silenced lives (pp. 99-152). New York: Routledge.

Knowles, G. & Cole, A. (1994). Through pre-service teachers' eyes: Exploring field experiences through narrative and inquiry. New York: Maxwell MacMillan International.

Miller, J. (1990). Creating spaces and finding voices: Teachers collaborating for empowerment. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.

National Indian Brotherhood, (1972). Indian control of Indian education. Ottawa: Author, Noddings, N. (1986). Fidelity in teaching, teacher education, and research for teaching.