Friday, March 11, 2022

Intermediate FNMI ABQ: Introduction Module 3- Task 4 "Indigenous Issues in Canada"

As per course, 

"As we relate education to Indigenous children, we are learning that we have 'a lot' to learn about ... for this task you will share with your classmates an information page (in any format of your choosing) on a current Indigenous Issue. Dialogue between you and your students can begin with something one of your students heard or read about in the media.

Do a google search for current Indigenous issues. Not necessarily does the focus have to be directly related to education as there are many issues, which have an indirect impact on community beliefs, and ultimately student learning.

Choose a format to present your information. (e.g., mindmap, narrative, 5-slide powerpoint, etc.)

Complete and post your one-pager to the Task Board.

Be sure to review your classmates' submissions to expand your knowledge of current Indigenous issues."

As per discussion, 
"I first want to begin with a quick discussion on the UN's 17 Sustainable Goals. Growing up, there were originally 8 goals (if I remember correctly), now there are 17-that's amazing. These original 8 (as I remember them), are essentials and not just to people. That's not to say I will be discussing other animate beings, I mean to say, it is essential to the ideal way of life, the ongoing life that is hope to be created through the pursuit of achieving these goals internationally. 

The google search for current Indigenous issues in Canada was certainly cut off by COVID-19 drama (to say they least), but from the looks of things, a lot hasn't changed over the last decade in regards to what the issues are (not to say there haven't not been improvements), but the issues are still issues and they range from the accessibility of physical health resources to accessibility educational institutions that reflect learning in an environment they can relate to.

I was going to go on about treaties (I had actually prepared an analogy that suited that topic inadvertently), nonetheless, it might be better to reflect on something that it closer to experience. 

In Northern ON, there are treaties north of Sioux Lookout. As mentioned in previous posts, Frontier College is an organization that seeks to build relations between treaties, literacy and Canadian educators/future educators. The goal of the 17 I think that Canada is still working on, the one closest to an educator's strength/area of greatest impact is the fourth goal, "quality education". It is important to quickly reflect on the semantics of this statement "quality". The reason is because in Canada many of our youth are privileged to have very exceptional teachers in their classrooms as well as teachers who are keen on improving to meet the differentiation needs of their students. Having travelled around the world a bit, there are instances in which quality education is not as uniform though, being students have little supervision or are overcrowded into small classrooms basically left to their (literal) devices. In some of the worse cases, it looks like disciplinary actions taken are physical. That is not even discussing what is being taught/why they are being taught that content. Don't mistake that quality education is provided uniformly across Canada, but note that there does in fact exist a purpose to bringing up "quality education" in Canada (especially in regards to indigenous people). Although residential schools are closed circa 1996. There still in lies the elephant in the room that students from reserves who need to leave their home, families, and land to seek education in a distant and sometimes racially divided unfamiliar land.

Frontier College exists partly in purpose to reach and build relations between children, literacy and the rest of Canada. The reason it must function is not only because it is important to educate all youth regardless of their location but in hopes that they will inspire the youth to be willing enough and prepared enough for novel social settings with unfamiliar folk to stay in school and succeed in novel social environments. It sounds like a round about way of saying a means of supporting this rather lack of education situation Indigenous People experience, and that is because it is. I'm not knocking this organization, what I am saying is that the system is built in a need for organizations and causes Frontier College to pick-up the pieces of these seemingly impossible puzzles. There are schools that are designated for Indigenous youth to attend as boarding school students that do include supports and quality teachers in Timmins, Thunder Bay as well as Sioux Lookout. It is the matter of the fact that these students need to board in order to attend though that makes the quality of the education no so "quality" (off the bat). From its an echo of the policies mentioned in the third implementation progress report that are reflective of the disconnect between who these youth are and what they are learning about/being taught (or even not taught) in some cases."

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