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- Convenors:
-
Antonella Tassinari
(Federal University of Santa Catarina)
Max Lenoy (Australian Government)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Harry Walker
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- G11-12
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 26 June, -, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
After centuries of assimilationist education policies for Indigenous peoples, we are currently faced with innovative and creative experiences of "indigenization" of schools in different countries. The panel will focus on transformative Indigenous schooling experiences.
Long Abstract:
Recently, many countries have implemented innovative and creative indigenous schooling systems and curricula that recognizes cultural values and the richness of indigenous knowledge and epistemologies.
In Australia, after decades of ethnocide schooling policy, the 2022 National Curriculum has now strengthened the Indigenous histories and cultures content across all learning areas. These changes involved extensive and effective dialogue with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and educators.
In Brazil, after the 1988 Constitution, Indigenous schooling policies now respect Indigenous languages and knowledges. This includes the design of intercultural training courses for indigenous teachers working in their communities.
This decolonial approach has produced transformative educational experiences across many countries. Gradually, schools have incorporated local knowledge systems that include spirituality, seasonal knowledges, and other local and cultural rituals or practices.
The panel intends to share these experiences of Indigenous schools and reflect on the potential opened up by decolonial approaches about schooling. We believe that the emergence of an equitable inter-epistemic dialogue, anchored in the daily lives of Indigenous peoples, empowers them to create their own dynamic education systems.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 26 June, 2024, -Sandra Frieri (Tropenbos Colombia) Maria Clara van der Hammen (Tropenbos Colombia)
Paper short abstract:
Problems such as deforestation, uprooting and generational ruptures have led colombian indigenous communities to transform educational practices in innovative ways towards the recognition of the territory and the value of local knowledge while assuring interaction and spiritual guidance by elders.
Paper long abstract:
The processes of appropriation of education by the indigenous communities has a long history of seeking autonomy to manage their own school education. This process is already showing results in the indigenous peoples of Colombia where many have formulated their community education plans on paper. It is in school practice that creative ways must be developed to decolonize education. An educational institution in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, managed by an Arhuaca community, has focused its efforts on maintaining the identity and spirit of collectivity through education. The Koreguaje people living in a deforestation zone have sought to strengthen the link with the territory through knowledge about the forest and trees, and in multi-ethnic communities in the Amazon, they seek to strengthen especially the traditional knowledge related to the territory and sacred rituals.
These cases show their particularities but also have some elements in common, such as fostering cultural identity, the use of the mother tongue, the sense of collectivity, the importance of knowledge about the territory and biodiversity to ensure physical and cultural survival, and the rooting of young people to their territory as well as respect for the elders. In these experiences, teachers are generally people with great sensitivity towards cultural permanence and curricular innovation.
In these contexts, school education and teachers and their own pedagogical strategies that articulate their own knowledge, play an important role in the governance of the territories and the construction of critical positions that allow the advancement of innovative proposals
Eleana Paola Catacora Salas (Universidad Nacional Intercultural de Quillabamba)
Paper short abstract:
This work constitutes an autoethnography of my teaching experience at the National Intercultural University of Quillabamba, located in the Amazon region of Cusco. I start from my self-identification as Aymara and my teaching experience in an intercultural university created by the Peruvian state.
Paper long abstract:
Autoethnography is understood as research constructed on lived experience that connects the personal aspect of the researcher to their social context. The students with whom I interact are Quechuas (Andean), Matsigenkas, Ashaninkas, and Yines (Amazonian), as well as mestizos. I construct this research from my everyday experience as a teacher, the interaction with teachers not self-identified as indigenous, and the experience of Andean and Amazonian students, addressing the challenges and limits of interculturality.
In this context, I reflect on the interculturality policies of the Peruvian state and their application to university life. On the one hand, in the intercultural university, there is a quota for the admission of young students from the predominant ethnicities in the La Convención province. On the other hand, the absence of teachers and professionals who are fluent in their languages questions the inclusion of many students in the educational system. Furthermore, the economic and social vulnerability of many students who leave their communities to study in the city jeopardizes their university stay because they must find work to continue their studies.
In linguistic and cultural contact with Quechua and mestizo populations within the university, a hegemonic view of Andean populations and discourses of their social and educational progress is observed, to the detriment of the knowledge of the history of Amazonian populations. Finally, I address the complex task of valuing the knowledge of the Amazonian-Amdean otherness in the educational system, problematizing ethnocentric views in explaining student dropout.
Antonella Tassinari (Federal University of Santa Catarina)
Paper short abstract:
Based on a bibliographical analysis of anthropological production on indigenous schooling in Brazil over the last 20 years, I argue that a genuine inter-epistemic dialogue has been emerging in the daily lives of indigenous villages schools, beyond the interculturality proposed in the legislation.
Paper long abstract:
The subject of indigenous schooling in Brazil, in the last twenty years, has received renewed anthropological interest, following the indigenous movement demanding schooling and access to Higher Education and Graduate Studies and the changes in legislation resulting from the 1998 Constitution. It has been a period of intense mobility between indigenous villages schools and Universities, motivated both by indigenous interest in access to academic knowledge and by affirmative action policies and the promotion of the training of indigenous teachers.
The 1988 Brazilian constitution is recognized as an important milestone for establishing that indigenous schools must use their mother tongues and their own learning processes. It initiated a series of public policies aimed at indigenous schooling, based on the principle of interculturality.
Despite the great difficulties of managing indigenous schools in Brazil, we can find several experiences that succeeded in transforming their daily routines to include non-hegemonic sources of knowledge, non-human masters and alternative teaching and learning processes. Based on a bibliographic review on indigenous schooling (2001-2021), we intend to point to the innovations and transformations of these schools.
Recent ethnographies on indigenous schools have revealed greater articulations of daily school life with several other aspects of social life, as shamanism, corporeality, personhood, gender, social and political organization, among others. I suggest that the floor of these schools is currently the true locus of emergence of a more equitable inter-epistemic dialogue, as they are rooted in the daily life of the villages, with their own dynamics and temporalities.
Daniel Kraus-Vollert (University of Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
What do indigenous projects of “civilization” mean for decolonial anthropology? This paper explores attempts by Tukanoan schools in Northwestern Amazonia at raising children into what they call “civilized people” and how this productively unsettles notions of indigenization and decoloniality.
Paper long abstract:
In the Papurí River, located in Northwestern Amazonia, Tukanoans cultivate “civilization.” On a daily basis and over centuries they have scrutinized and reworked elements of their lifestyle, sociality, and cosmology to fashion themselves into “civilized people.” This they do by recourse to the imaginaries and values of Tukanoan tradition, Catholicism, Hollywood, conspiracy theories, and Colombian popular culture. Let us call this active and deliberate project a “culture of civilization.”
Local schools have played a pivotal role in this endeavor, first because these are the institutions where ideas of “civilization” are distilled, conceptualized, and transmitted by indigenous teachers to indigenous students. Second, as their own anthropological analyses have led them to conclude, because schools are the places where “Whites” produce and reproduce themselves as “civilized.” Schools hold the promise of this transformative process.
In this paper, I will use the Tukanoan project of raising “civilization” in their indigenous schools to shake up our anthropological ideas of decoloniality and indigenization. Well beyond the usual process of incorporating Amerindian knowledge into a Western institution, indigenous schools in the Papurí speak of a higher-level inter-epistemic dialogue where Tukanoans’ vernacular anthropology has been put to work to study, understand, produce, and teach their own theory of civilization. Reduceable neither to innovation nor assimilation, this process civilizes indigeneity in the exercise of indigenizing civilization. Thus, Papurí Tukanoans see schooling as deeply transformational while empowering and grounded in their culture. Becoming civilized, as we will see, has always been the Tukanoan fate of self-betterment.
Chiu-ling Liu (University of Taipei)
Paper short abstract:
This research project aims to explore the collaborative model developed by indigenous Atayal communities and the Centre for Teacher Education and Career Development of the University of Taipei in Taiwan.
Paper long abstract:
This research project aims to explore the collaborative model developed by indigenous Atayal communities and the Centre for Teacher Education and Career Development of the University of Taipei in Taiwan. The model relates to the professional development of teachers in the field of special education. The research project involves a two-year schedule with fieldwork scheduled for each year, focused around two Atayal communities located in rural areas in New Taipei City and Yilan County in northern Taiwan. The choice of these two sites responds to, as well as adds to, earlier works by a number of scholars on indigenous and inclusive education.
The first year of study starts with the collection of Atayal knowledge about disability and special education in the contemporary world context. It then reviews theoretical approaches to special needs and disability within the field of education, including the psycho-medical approach, the societal approach, the organisational approach and the socio-cultural approach, which are juxtaposed with the current condition and future challenges of special education in indigenous communities across Taiwan. The second year of study begins with the incorporation of Atayal aspects of special education into the work of the teacher education and career development centre, such as curriculum and pedagogy, practice and training and the collaboration between school and communities, with a view to establishing a sustainable collaborative and sustainable relationship. The research results will reveal Atayal-oriented views on the collaborative relationship between Atayal communities and the Centre for Teacher Education and Career Development.
Yueh-Po Huang (Academia Sinica)
Paper short abstract:
The development of indigenous education in Taiwan has been historically linked to the social circumstances of both Taiwan and the wider world. This paper involves how to put into practice the educational goal of ‘becoming an Atayal’.
Paper long abstract:
The formation and development of indigenous education in Taiwan has been historically linked to the social circumstances of both Taiwan and the wider world. The lifting of martial law in 1989 and the ensuing educational reform which emerged in the 1990s ushered in a new era of multicultural development within Taiwan, most notably development related to the needs of indigenous people for educational autonomy and cultural sustainability. According to Article 27 of the 2021 revised Education Act for Indigenous People in Taiwan, all public schools should now take into account the multicultural approach by incorporating indigenous history and culture into their curriculum.
Although Taiwanese indigenous education has thus become more diverse and autonomous in both form and content within the context of cultural politics and ethnic mainstreaming, a number of issues started to emerge around the 1990s and local indigenous schools in a number of counties across the country are still in the process of constructing their indigenous knowledge systems. The question of how to put into practice the educational goal of ‘becoming an Atayal’, as well as how to implement, appropriate, negotiate and practise indigenous knowledge, still remains unknown. In addition, as responsibility for indigenous education policies transfers from central authorities to local government, the ways in which local governments interpret, react to and designate appropriate and feasible educational programmes has become crucial. This paper involves a two-year ethnography, with the first year collecting Atayal ethnographic materials and the second incorporating them into school curriculum and practice.
Shivani Taneja (Muskaan) Brajesh Verma (Muskaan NGO) Savita Sohit (Muskaan Ngo)
Paper short abstract:
What is the education package that enables tribal students to be rooted and strengthened in their identity, while also overcoming the inter-generational trauma they carry and equipping themselves for accessing the mainstream world, is a question that the Muskaan School has worked on, for 18 years.
Paper long abstract:
A Freirian pedagogy supported with love is the effort that is ongoing in our school in Bhopal.
Authentic expression and a faith in your own voice, your own agency is important for us. Community members come and share their songs and skills, while students on their field trips hear the elders and also examine realities through field surveys and exposure trips.
Discussions on the current realities of the marginalized groups in the country and the world and the history of marginalization supports students to understand the way the world has worked with people like them.
A multilingual approach that facilitates students to express freely in their home language while learning other languages through different approaches, also facilitating metalinguistic skills and transferring concepts to the target language, has been our approach.
Capitalist economies and deep rooted caste system have destroyed survival mechanisms of many indigenous groups. Addictions, suicides and mental health issues are symptoms. Therapeutic sessions in the form of movement therapy, counseling and relationships of love and hope, are our premise.
The school provides residential facilities for some students. Anchored within the community ethos, it is still a getaway from the situations of violations from various quarters.
These efforts have brought forth artistic expressions in the form of literature, paintings, films and theatre that is anchored in the community’s voice. Other professional choices include lawyers, teachers, mental health practitioners, researchers and social workers that respond to their community needs.
Ajeet Jogi (University of Hyderabad, India)
Paper short abstract:
Due to lack of legal recognition of indigenous people's knowledge, tribal children are facing dilemma in getting formal education. The indigenous knowledge is not being consider under curriculum. Due to which intellectual development of tribal children are being hindered.
Paper long abstract:
The Indian state Chhattisgarh is a tribal dominated state where 30.60 percent of the total population are tribals who reside in different parts of the state. Residential schools are being run for tribal children in different districts of the state, Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh is one of them. Tribal children are inheriting indigenous knowledge from their parents. Its refraction and persuasion during formal education are expected. Due to compulsion of curriculum tribal children are facing difficulties in persuasion of education in existing mode of education system, either due to languages or practices. Therefore, they are not getting the right platform from where they can start furthering their knowledge and skills. Also, there is no mechanism of the concerned government through which the knowledge and talent of tribal children can be recognized and given legal recognition. Due to lack of proper identification and legal recognition, the knowledge and talent of tribal children is not being reflected in formal education. The intellectual development of tribal children is being affected. Even the indigenous knowledge considered into the curriculum, how they will be benefited, and at what conditions. In present study it is tried to understand formal educational system in residential schools at present of indigenous knowledge that how the indigenous knowledge is reflecting into the formal education. Actions taken by the government to legal recognition of indigenous knowledge. The problem and difficulties facing by the tribal children. The primary work has been done to collect the data for this paper.
Valerie Harwood (The University of Sydney) Kathleen Clapham (University of Wollongong) Katrina Thorpe (UNSW, Sydney) Julie Welsh Cathie Burgess (University of Sydney)
Paper short abstract:
Learning from Country is a university based initiative working with pre-service teachers. The Ngaramura Project, for Aboriginal young people, is run by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation. AIME's Imagi-Nation school initiatives to connect imagination in learning.
Paper long abstract:
This paper shares three projects that set out to creatively transform school learning. Learning from Country (LFC) is a long term project with collaborators Katrina Thope (Worimi) based at UNSW, and Cathie Burgess and Valerie Harwood based at USYD. The purpose of LFC is to connect pre-service teachers, most of whom are non-Indigenous, with experiences of Learning from Country, so that they are prepared for this work when they are in school and early childhood settings.
The Ngaramura Project operates from Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation, Port Kembla NSW, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation. Led by Prof Kathleen Clapham, Aboriginal researcher, anthropologist and Director of Ngarruwan Ngadju First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, our team conducted a three year collaborative evaluation with Ngaramura (2018-2020). Since 2018 the Ngaramura “See the Way” Program has provided an alternative education service for Aboriginal young people suspended or risk of suspension from school in the Illawarra region of NSW. Ngaramura provides a unique educational and cultural learning environment that meets the needs of Aboriginal students facing challenges in their school and social environments.
AIME started in Sydney, Australia in 2005, with university students mentoring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students. AIME is focussed on mentoring and imagination, growing nationally, and internationally. This paper will present school-based work that is part of AIME's Imagi-Nation initiative. Our team of Aboriginal and non-Indigenous researchers is working with AIME on this work to creatively transform schools.
Max Lenoy (Australian Government)
Paper short abstract:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures are a priority in the Australian Curriculum. The new FIRST framework is designed to support teachers to build successful, respectful and reciprocal partnerships with First Nations Peoples.
Paper long abstract:
All Australian students should learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, and it is essential to support schools to implement this knowledge.
The Australian Curriculum has always included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Culture as a cross curriculum priority in all subjects. In the 2022 review of the Australian Curriculum, this priority was strengthened and the new Deep time history of Australia content was mandated for Year 7. This change was strongly supported during the public consultation process however many teachers shared their concerns about their lack of confidence to implement the Australian Curriculum Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures content.
In consultation with First Nations education advisors, curriculum specialists and other stakeholders, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority developed the FIRST Framework. Additional materials have been developed to support the teaching of Deep time history of Australia using cultural and archaeological approaches.
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are recognised as the oldest continual cultures on Earth, yet many teachers have limited understanding about how to effectively work with local First Nations community members to incorporate this knowledge into school planning. The Deep time history of Australia content provides teachers with an opportunity to incorporate local knowledges into their classes. FIRST is designed to support schools to find out what to teach in their local community, listen to local Indigenous voices, build respectful and reciprocal relationships, support student learning to progress and give themselves enough time to do this effectively.
Sasha Addison (University of Alaska Anchorage) Amber Perry (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates how Alaska Indigenous Culture and Native Studies are being taught at select high schools in the Anchorage School District. It also investigates natural science and home economic curricula to investigate how much of the material is dedicated to Indigenous Ecological Knowledge.
Paper long abstract:
With the Indigenous Education Department furthering the Alaska History course curricula in an attempt to better represent Alaska Native history and culture, studies need to be conducted to show both teachers' and students' perceptions of their Alaska History courses and curricula. Through this study, we hope it can help the Anchorage School District (ASD) to incorporate how students and teachers feel about current Alaska History, AKNIS, and Natural Sciences curricula, what is effective, and what can be improved in future curricula to increase educational outcomes in these topics, especially with such efforts taken place by the ASD Indigenous Education Department.