Group Writing #3

Vanessa Marcotte, Myles Ettinger, Isabella Xia, Julia Bologna

Department of Education, McGill University

EDEC 260: Philosophical Foundations

Professor Jason Lister

October 23rd, 2020

 Marie Battiste’s writing focuses on indigenous knowledge (IK), education, and the divide

between IK and western epistemologies. Put simply, she describes how the framework of

indigenous education pursues an all-encompassing and lifelong learning model which has been

disrespected and omitted by the majority of western education. Indegenous education uses a

more cooperative approach in which teachers are regarded as guides or mentors to facilitate

learning rather than merely being holders of knowledge. Additionally, Battiste emphasizes the

importance of language in the recovery and survival of IK as one of the main ways this

knowledge is disseminated is through oral traditions or symbols as opposed to being documented

in libraries or research journals. The inequalities experienced by indigenous peoples in

westernized education are explained as having resulted in underdeveloped capacities, self-esteem

and identity, as well as having halted academic achievement. Consequently, the dismissal of IK

has cultivated an immense distrust between learning institutions and indigenous people. For a

better learning system to take place, Battiste proposes a respectful exchange of knowledge

between western and indigenous education in order to create a better system for future students.

Our group agrees that it would be difficult to implement indigenous education into our

current curriculum for various reasons. This is because the system we are currently using is

systemic and formal with a wide variety of subjects that are deemed as important knowledge. In

order to change the system, everything would have to begin afresh with most of the system

discarded. This would cause a political disaster because the point of western education was to

slowly emancipate this kind of education from the world by delegitimizing it (May, 139).

Moving forward, for real change to occur, we would need to engage in creative practices to

support indigenous learners as the current system has many barriers. Examples of these barriers

being the strict curricula with many guidelines we are to abide by or standardized tests.
Furthermore, it would possibly be up to teachers themselves to do additional research in

educating themselves on how to instruct in a holistic manner as the way teachers are being taught

is also very compartmentalized. If we just look at the McGill faculty of education for example,

secondary pre-service teachers are required to choose the field or subject manner they wish to

specialize in instead of learning how all the different subjects correlate.

Considering Battiste’s view seen in her article and the difficulties posed, we believe that

it is possible to change our western learning structure in order to adapt to a more holistic

approach without collapsing the entire system. For example, we could incorporate integrated

learning classrooms in universities where western taught students would be required to

experience that kind of peer learning. In the example of changing a curriculum, knowledge

would be shared accordingly. For instance, in elementary school, one day could be an organized

science class as we are used to, while another day could be a classroom where students can

influence what they decide to learn. This technique would also make the translation gap between

indegenous and western students much more transparent since they will have both views of

learning. This could create an opportunity that creates fusion classes in which modern science

can be part of holistic learning.

 Reference

May, S., & Aikman, S. (2003). Indigenous Education: Addressing current issues and

developments. ​Comparative Education,​ ​39(​ 2), 139-145.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03050060302549