LITERATURE REVIEW

THE LITERATURE ON INUIT-CENTRED CURRICULUM AND TEACHING APPROACHES

Prepared for the National Committee on Inuit Education

Frances Abele and Katherine Graham[1]

March 24, 2010

Introduction and Scope of the Research on Inuit-Centred Curriculum and Teaching Approaches

This paper presents the results of a literature review on Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching approaches. An annotated bibliography of the 53 Canadian and international sources that formed the basis for this review is appended. The bibliography is a sub-set of over 200 sources compiled on bilingual education, post-secondary education and Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching approaches. This report highlights the predominant themes in the literature and summarizes key sources on this last topic.

The literature on Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching approaches has largely emerged over the past twenty years. It has developed within and alongside a larger literature on Aboriginal education that has focused on curriculum and teaching. This literature has been developing in Canada and internationally, including in the circumpolar North. We have a found are relatively large body of literature on Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching approaches, especially relative to that on post-secondary education. A considerable amount has been written by individuals with experience as educators in Inuit Nunaat – some of this emerging in the form of Masters’ theses or doctoral dissertations. Much of the literature focuses on Nunavut and Nunavik, while some reports on the Alaska case. There is nothing specific on Labrador and only one source that deals with Inuvialuit education in the NWT, a case study of the changing meaning of education and attachment to formal schooling in Tuktoyaktuk (Salogangas 2009). Most of the literature consists of one-time observations, rather than systematic longitudinal study.

Our review revealed three dominant themes in the literature concerning Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching approaches:

  • The importance of understanding the broad social and economic relations which shape curriculum;
  • Analysis and recommendations regarding pedagogy for Inuit-centred teaching and curriculum; and
  • Policy and governance issues affecting Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching.

Each of these will be discussed in turn. This is followed by a discussion of gaps in the research. The paper concludes by identifying some implications of the literature reviewed and apparent gaps for practice and for policy.

Literature on the Broad Social and Economic Relations that Shape Curriculum

There is considerable literature on the importance of understanding the broad social and economic context in which schooling occurs and in which curriculum becomes established. In the broadest context, this literature is (understandably) rooted in the quest for renewed self-determination. It analyzes the history of the North and Northern education. It situates Inuit in colonial and in transformative states. The colonial state is generally characterized by loss of Inuit control over education and replacement of traditional education within institution-based delivery and Euro-centric curriculum and teachers. Watt-Cloutier provides an excellent description of this process:

People and decisions from far away places began to have more impact on our lives than the people around us and the disciplines of the land that we knew and understood….seeing that we did not have schools, people from the south concluded that we needed them. The idea of institutional learning was new to us, and it was difficult for many of our people to understand and appreciate. However, if schools would help prepare our children for the changes they were facing, then most parents were willing to let their children be educated in the southern way. For those not willing togo this route, the government held back family allowance cheques, making it difficult for parents to feel they had any choice in the matter.” (Watt-Cloutier, 2000, pp.114-5)

Watt-Cloutier’s description fits squarely in the broader Canadian and international literature regarding the legacy of colonialism in Indigenous education and the need to regain control over education (often termed, ‘decolonizing’ education)as a first and fundamental step in improving the situation of Indigenous peoples. The website provides a good list of sources related to decolonization and indigenous peoples. Other sources focusing on the Canadian case include Chance (1973), Brant Castellano, Davis and Lahache (2000), Rasmussen (2001) and Binda and Calliou(2001).

Within this body of work, we find some nuanced ideas about transformation to a new curricular foundation. For example, Watt-Cloutier suggests caution in rejecting the “rigour” of southern education methods and curriculum. Concurrently, she warns against conceiving of traditional education as “crafts.” She writes of a model of education that treats community needs (“self-government; culture preservation and development; and development of community and regional infrastructure”) and personal needs (“self-management skills; heritage skills; global cultural access and analytical skills; and community and economic skills”)as essential and inseparable to achieve renewed self-control.

Kanu has looked at efforts to de-colonize curriculum in a comparative context. Her analysis focuses on the construction and self-identification of “the other” in the Eurocentric context of dominant curricular content and delivery. Looking at Aboriginal people in Canada (2003), she proposes a model of curricular reform that focuses on “hybridity” or creating a “third space” that embodies fluid, pragmatic and multiple power relations, unlike the relations of Euro-Canadian domination.

Literature on Pedagogy

There are three basic clusters of literature on pedagogy and the school experience. The first focuses primarily on teachers and curriculum developers. The second deals with learners. The third cluster focuses on the whole school and the relationship between the school and the community. Each cluster will be discussed in turn.

Teachers and Curriculum Developers

The literature that focuses primarily on teachers and curriculum developers deals with the formative influences on teacher behaviour, on classroom needs and on the need for teachers to be aware of the impact of different types of curricular materials.

Bleese (1997) examines Aboriginal teacher experiences in the Northwest Territories. She finds that Aboriginal teachers who have had significant socialization and cultural development in their own cultures are more likely to incorporate traditional practices, as well as perceptions and attitudes when developing their classroom learning environment and curriculum. She argues that the learning environments and approaches used by these Aboriginal teachers should be incorporated into teacher training for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teachers.

Wilson (2003) focuses on the transformation of traditional knowledge in the academy, culminating in some acceptance in academe of the value of indigenous perspectives. His analysis of the three stages of development in an indigenous research paradigm is generalized but is relevant to the type of research that underlies curriculum development. They are: stage 1 –Indigenous researchers are forced to separate their indigenous and academic lives due to conflicting world views; stage 2 – marginalization of indigenous world views within the academy; and, stage 3 – awareness of indigenous world views and some acceptance.

Berger (2007) focuses on Qallunaat teachers. He attempts to define “caring” behaviour by Qallinaat teachers. In his view, this requires systemic change to Inuit control over the education system. More specifically, he argues that Qallinaat teachers should be informed by Inuit and become committed advocates for Inuit and Inuit-controlled education. This represents a “caring” model of Qallinaat teacher behaviour.

Looking at classroom needs, the literature, once again, is dominated by arguments for a holistic culture-centred approach. Berger and Epp 2006 discuss the dangers of using Qallinaat teaching strategies that may be “effective” but are counter to Inuit culture and tradition. They explore two specific practices: the use of strict discipline codes and praise and reward systems. They argue that these techniques may achieve the desired outcome on the surface but, depending on one’s cultural perspective, may be interpreted differently or lead to undesirable or unintended consequences. They also found that Elder and parental involvement in schools has a positive impact on finding cultural balance. They conclude that until there is Inuit control over education in Nunavut, teachers and administrators must approach all aspects of teaching, from curriculum choices to classroom management and discipline with caution and openness. Looking specifically at the curriculum of management programs in Nunavut, Wihak (2005) asserts the importance of involving Elders and incorporating traditional knowledge into management curriculum. She sees benefits in terms of student learning and cultural appropriateness.

Finally, there is a literature that deals with the strengths and pitfalls of using different types of materials in the Inuit-centred curriculum. Specifically, Iseke-Barnes and Sakai (2003) suggest caution in using Internet texts as curricular material, even when they are Inuit-focused. They argue that such texts may perpetuate stereotypes and inadequately deal with cultural losses of Inuit and the value of cultural knowledge. At a minimum, they argue that educators have a responsibility to mediate distance-learning materials. The issue of open anddistance education is very central to education in the circumpolar Arctic. The International Review of Open and Distance Learning is currently soliciting for a special edition, “Frontiers in Open and Distance Learning in the North.” This initiative may well provide useful material. (see,

Learners

The literature that focuses primarily on learners includes results of ethnographic and social psychology research, as well as development of curricular models and techniques with assessment of their impacts on students. Much of this work focuses on students at the elementary level.

Clifton and Roberts (1988) examined the social psychology dispositions and academic achievement of Inuit and Non-Inuit students at the elementary school level. They found that Inuit students scored lower with regards to their social attitudes and self-concept than non-Inuit students. This finding led them to suggest that teachers create personalized classroom environments to positively affect these two dimensions and thereby enhance academic achievement among Inuit students.

Eriks-Brophy and Crago (1992) undertook an ethnographic study of Inuit classroom interactions and discourse patterns in selected Inuit-taught Kindergarten and first grade classrooms in Ungava. Their work reports the positive transformational effects of the incorporation of culturally-congruous social interaction patterns and the promotion of traditional values in students’ classroom conversations. Similarly, Greenwood, Leeuw and Fraser (2007) argue that early child education for Aboriginal children in Canada should be the focus as the pre-cursor to further educational attainment. They link early childhood development to a range of factors, including community support, parental involvement, health, nutrition and language.

Kort and Reilly (no date) focus on the general emotional state of students. They develop a learning model for pedagogy in developing nations. This model (The Emotion Model) is intended to relate to the phases of learning that reflect the emotional state of students and the ups and downs of learning as students move from a state of anxiety to one of confidence. Again, this model focuses on elementary students. Iseke-Barnes (2008) looks at the specific responses of Aboriginal students to activities that are explicitly intended to help them understand the systemic structure of colonization. She concludes that it is important to engage students in Indigenous pedagogies so that they can then find support for the transformative understandings of Indigenous literatures and develop opportunities and strategies to decolonize education.

Looking at learners, the findings of the multi-year study of e-learning in selected coastal Labrador communities by Philpott, Sharpe and Neville (2008) were somewhat in contrast to those of Barnes and Sakai. Philpott et al. found that high school students found the curriculum content and e-learning mode of delivery beneficial. Benefits included less isolation, as a result of on-line connections with students in other communities, and a sense of personal achievement, as curriculum was mastered.

Finally, there is a literature on specific efforts to develop Inuit-centred curriculum. Dicker, Dunbar and Johns (2009) discuss the collaboration between two linguists and a teacher in the Labrador public school system to develop a database of stories for teaching of Labrador Inuktitut as a second language. They describe the generally positive results of this collaboration and assess the potential of wide dissemination of this database using distance learning techniques. Joan (2006) provides an example in the literature of a case study on the impact of culturally responsive curriculum on student behaviours. In this case, the subjects were teachers in the Nunavut Teacher Education Program. They were asked to peer teach a musical activity that adapted some of the concepts, materials and skills of Inuit culture. Students responded with materials that revealed a connection to the land in ways not seen in Eurocentric curriculum, contributing to a corpus of useful curriculum tools.

The Whole School and the Relationship between the School and the Community

The literature on Inuit-centred curriculum and teaching that focuses primarily on the broader interaction of schooling and the community presents general models of community-based education (Lee 2007) and more focused experience in northern communities (Okakok 1989, Douglas 1994, Douglas 1999).

Lee (2007) argues that community-based programs are a way of achieving Indigenous self-determination in education and returning to traditional Indigenous education approaches. She uses a Community-based Education Model (CBEM) to demonstrate the positive effect on students in terms of engaging them academically and making connections to their realities and home communities. For her, CBEM is a model that attempts to stimulate students inmath and science through a focus on their application to Indigenous government and community. Applying her model to Canada, she focuses on land-based education. Her case studies of CBEM in the U.S. and Canada lead her to the conclusion that education should reflect community concerns and issues and be relevant to students. She attributes increased interest and motivation among students receiving their education through a CBEM. Their cultures and values were validated by education controlled by and reflective of their home communities. Further, they expressed interest in higher education.

Okakok (1989) reports on innovations that occurred in Inupiat education in the North Slope of Alaska following the Alaska claims agreement in the 1970s. The innovations and struggles that occurred were on many levels but she does deal with a number of initiatives at the community level, including: enabling community members to act as teachers in the classroom, fostering one-on-one learning experiences, nurturing individual interests and using them in practical roles in the community, inclusion of cultural activities and parental involvement.

Douglas (1994 and 1999) offers a snapshot view of the relationship between the community and the school in Arctic Bay over a five-year period. Her 1994 article reports on the transition to more locally managed education in the community. She argues that one important result was the expansion of “formal schooling” beyond classroom values and practices to include relationships at all levels of the community. In 1994 she observed that increased Inuit input had created a cultural rapport, enabling two-way transaction between culture and education in Arctic Bay. She suggests that integrating Inuit values and practices into the school system seems possible. Her 1999 review of the situation in Arctic Bay is a little more sobering. She concludes that Inuit have been able tomaintain their basic social organization, based on kinship traditions, in the community. However, social and inter-relational experiences learned by younger Inuit contradict some of the tradition-based activities and responsibilities that Inuit adults are asked to perform at school. She concludes that school, and its socialization processes, increasingly impinge on the values, social relations and cultural practices of the community.

Literature on Governance Issues Affecting Inuit-centred Curriculum and Teaching

The literature on policy and governance issues in this area emerges at many levels. First is a literature that focuses on government performance in according Indigenous peoples control over their education, thereby enhancing the cultural relevance of curriculum and teaching. Secondly, there are related analyses of the broader conditions that have enabled Indigenous control over education. A third stream of literature emphasizes needs related to the policy and governance capacity required to bring about improvements in realizing Inuit-centred education objectives. Finally, there is a literature on standards and approaches to evaluation of performance in realizing culturally responsive education. This last cluster is distinct from that focusing exclusively on government performance, as its focus extends to students, educators, schools and communities.