Dialogue: understanding the process of collaborative policy making in Aboriginal education.
Date
2011-12-01
Authors
Lowen, Corrine
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Abstract
Since 1999, Aboriginal Education policy in British Columbia requires School Districts to collaborate with their local Aboriginal communities to establish appropriate definitions of success, set measureable goals and actions plans to enhance Aboriginal student’s educational achievement. Together these groups produce five-year Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements. This study employs Indigenous Methodology and Institutional Ethnography to learn whether and how process of working together to create these agreements contributes to relationship-building between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. Key findings demonstrate that an engaged a dialogue between Indigenous peoples and education policy-makers changes the way that Aboriginal education is approached in BC school districts. Participants reported that the process changed them, touched their soul, and left them feeling humbled and renewed. The Enhancement Agreements hold promise as a process that works from within the institutional processes to address the unequal social relations of education for Aboriginal students.
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Keywords
Aboriginal Education, Aboriginal Education Policy, Indigenous methodology, Institutional Ethnography, Indigenous ways of teaching and learning