This role has the potential to facilitate positive connection between the school and Indigenous families and community to help support children’s learning. The FNMI Itinerant role would involve connecting with Indigenous families and students in the school, and working on building on those relationships to also include teaching and administrative school staff.
As discussed previously, Indigenous students’ and parents’ perceptions of schooling may have been negatively affected by the history of Indigenous education in Canada contributing to
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feelings of discomfort and mistrust of schools and educators. The role of the FNMI Itinerate would involve creating a welcoming environment that encourages Indigenous student and parent engagement. For example, the FNMI Itinerate could establish relationships with the Indigenous families, invite their participation in schooling and classroom activities, and, potentially, provide direct support for Indigenous parents during interactions with schools and/or in navigating the intricacies of schooling processes. The FNMI Itinerate role has the potential to act as a liaison between the school and Indigenous family’s and community, to build relationships that will help support Indigenous student’s learning and in the process further non-Indigenous students and teachers understanding and awareness of Indigenous heritage and culture.
I spoke to Indigenous and non-Indigenous interviewees about the idea of extending the summer program FNMI Coach into the school year. Interviewees agreed that an FNMI Itinerate would go a long way to establishing and building family-school relationships. For example, Kaden is a non-Indigenous school principal in East Haven and he oversaw a number of program sites during the East Haven summer program. He was deeply impacted by this experience. He considered the positive impact that having an FNMI Itinerate would have in his school, to the extent of
contributing to “breaking down walls of hesitation” with the family and with the teaching staff. As a principal I would bring in an Aboriginal liaison to help break down those walls, to let me in and be able to have a relationship with the parents, so that they learn to trust me as well. I need to bring in someone that genuinely knows the culture to be that liaison to build those relationships of trust. Once you have the trust then it doesn't matter what culture, they now trust you that you're building a culture of acceptance and everyone's welcome, everyone.
Part of the role of the FNMI Itinerate would also involve establishing connections between the school community and the local Indigenous community. For example, the FNMI Itinerate could create a roster of immediate and extended Indigenous family members in the school community and Indigenous community members willing to participate in school activities, cultural events and demonstrations, and/or deliver culturally sensitive lessons or teachings.
In summary effective practices of the East Haven program can be transferred into the regular school year through the implementation of an FNMI Itinerate teacher into schools with large Indigenous populations during the regular school year to support both non-Indigenous teachers with cultural content, Indigenous student success, and developing connections with Indigenous families and local communities. The role of the FNMI Itinerate would parallel the role of Literacy Coaches, Numeracy Coaches or ESL teachers currently working within Ontario school boards in terms of providing teachers with guidance and coaching to learn how to effectively embed FNMI content into their regular practice. I conclude that implementing FNMI Itinerate teachers would facilitate bridging policy rhetoric of cultural and family inclusion and schooling reality by providing the support needed to facilitate cultural awareness among students and teachers, include Indigenous family and community in education, and authentically embed Indigenous culture within school communities and teaching practices.
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Importantly, implementing the FNMI Itinerant Teacher model would facilitate social capital among Indigenous communities and families in the form of trust, mutual understanding and reciprocity, as well as common value and norm consensus with that of the school. Social relationships among students, parents and adults within social institutions (such as schools) and the larger school community is considered a form of social capital and, thus, an educational resource for parents and children (Coleman, 1988). Coleman and Hoffer (1987) document the role of intergenerational community norms in successful educational outcomes. They examine achievement measures among three sample groups of students and find that better academic performance can be attributed to the strength of community values. Community norms exist within “functional communities” (pg. 6-8) where parents, children, teachers, children’s friends and their parents are part of a network with shared common values that facilitate compliance with behaviours that are seen to effect school performance. Coleman and Hoffer argue that this network of supportive relationships connecting the community, home and school, provides social capital due, in part, to a value consensus around teaching and learning. This shared valued
consensus is believed to inspire academic achievement and may be encouraged vis-à-vis the FNMI Itinerate.77
6.7 Discussion
Interviewees described barriers to meaningful school involvement of Indigenous families and to the successful implementation of Indigenous focused schooling initiatives. Interviewees saw these barriers as directly influencing the educational experiences of Indigenous students and the connections that Indigenous parents have with schools. Barriers may include perceptions of inequality associated with Indigenous programming, distrust of school personnel, and distrust of schooling more generally due to legacies of racial discrimination. Barriers may also consist of non-Indigenous educators remaining unaware of, or uncomfortable with, Indigenous focused curriculum requirements and school initiatives. Unwelcoming school working environments for Indigenous educators and support workers also contributes to negative perceptions and attitudes towards schooling.
The East Haven summer program is an example of one successful Indigenous focused initiative. This program facilitated: positive connections between the school and Indigenous families and community; active participation of Indigenous parents and community in children’s education; cultural sensitivity and understanding among non-Indigenous students and educators; and
capacity building pertaining to the ability of non-Indigenous educators to incorporate Indigenous content into their teaching. Recall, social capital is a resource based on relationships and includes the connections that parents have with teachers and the school. Cultural capital refers to the interaction between individual behaviours and attitudes and the expectations that educators have of parents, which includes developing relationships with schools/teachers based on comfort and trust, and displaying positive attitudes towards schooling. I argue the East Haven program contributed to overcoming barriers to strong family-school relationships by way of promoting positive attitudes towards schooling as well as comfort with schooling and educators. Also, by
77 Researchers have argued against this argument. Davies (2013) found that Catholic schools in Ontario fare better
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encouraging non-Indigenous educators to develop cultural awareness and understand appropriate ways to integrate Indigenous content into the classroom, this program may not only reduce instances where information about Indigenous peoples is misappropriated or misrepresented in the classroom but also contribute to a more positive work environment for Indigenous educators. In general, I argue the program facilitated the development of stronger connections between the school, and Indigenous parents and community.78
However, the case presented in this chapter is an example of one initiative that experienced success. In general, my findings suggest that non-Indigenous teachers struggle with how to embed Indigenous content into the classroom, ensure all school personnel have cultural awareness and sensitivity, and establish strong connections with Indigenous families. Existing research supports these findings. Wotherspoon (2006, 2008) found varying teacher responses to reforms oriented to improve educational experiences of Indigenous students. While some educators increased sensitivity to Indigenous students, curricular and programming, and wanted to implement change in curriculum content and instructional methods, other educators remained fixated on teaching their subject along a universal standard curriculum mandate and believed that all students should be treated the same (2006, pg. 683). Further, there are challenges of having “truly” authentic Indigenous content in schooling. Most Indigenous content may be, by
necessity, highly symbolic and expressed through contemporary equity and diversity
frameworks. It would be impossible to truly re-fashion curricula to reflect the true diversity of First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures and histories. The majority of Indigenous schooling content may reflect a standard formula of highlighting historical injustices, showing formal signs of respect to the culture, and inclusion of some Indigenous stories, artifacts, art, crafts, and dances. This approach may ease many tensions that existed in old fashioned classrooms but whether this approach makes a dent in schooling achievement and attainment is unclear. Lareau and Weininger (2003) suggest that institutional mechanisms to improve disadvantages that have historically permeated the schooling system may, in fact, be ineffective due to the existence of different family based cultural resources (e.g., attitudes, skills, knowledge, abilities). Lareau and Weininger argue, “the institutionalization of home-school relations can serve to create new avenues for the influence of social class to impact children’s education” (Lareau and Weininger, 2003, pg. 382). In Canada, sources of educational inequality among Indigenous communities have been acknowledged within school policy and practice. Mechanisms have been implemented to “harmonize” these disparities, such as Indigenous education policies of inclusion (e.g., The Ontario Policy Framework). Education policies of Indigenous inclusion potentially may serve as a mechanism to improve family-school relationships and reduce the impact of educational inequality among Indigenous students and, therefore, lead to increased levels of Indigenous student achievement. However, based on Lareau’s and Weininger’s argument, and
78 I am unable to measure whether or not inclusionary initiatives, such as Indigenous focused school programming
and Indigenous content embedded incorporated into the curriculum, penetrate the student learning process and impact student achievement. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that such initiatives contribute to student self- confidence and self-esteem which may contribute to student educational experiences and, indirectly, student achievement.
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the findings presented above, it is possible that sustained tensions and distrust between
Indigenous families and academic systems may create barriers for the potential “ameliorating” capability of strategies developed to meet the particular educational needs of Indigenous
students. Educators’ own perceptions and responses regarding Indigenous inclusion policies may also create barriers to implementation. Further barriers may reflect the institutional environment of schooling and organizational dilemmas within which the policy is implemented.
Fundamentally, while new curricula and educational initiatives may have some symbolic benefits, they may do little to forge strong family-school connections and ameliorate associated educational disparities.
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