Us & Them: Being at a Residential School, Perspectives from Students, Staff and Whanau

<p>Residential special education for students with diverse learning needs continues to be one of the most complex and contested areas on the education spectrum. This thesis explores a live-in boarding school for girls with special learning, social, emotional, and behavioural needs. The participants view was sought to understand the value placed on the school by those who use and provide the services. The methodological approach was a case study design underpinned by a constructivist paradigm. Twelve participants volunteered to be interviewed. The participants were made up from three stakeholder groups these were teachers, residential workers, students‟ and parents/whānau. An inductive content analysis procedure was used to identity four overarching themes. Overall, all stakeholders thought the school served a purpose and they strongly support a continuum of services, including special residential schools. However, there is clearly a stigma attached to the school, which seems to be a barrier to the school operating in a more inclusive way. This setting the participants believed was more inclusive for the girls as they did not experience the marginalization of the mainstream.</p>

Us & Them: Being at a Residential School, Perspectives from Students, Staff and Whanau

<p>Residential special education for students with diverse learning needs continues to be one of the most complex and contested areas on the education spectrum. This thesis explores a live-in boarding school for girls with special learning, social, emotional, and behavioural needs. The participants view was sought to understand the value placed on the school by those who use and provide the services. The methodological approach was a case study design underpinned by a constructivist paradigm. Twelve participants volunteered to be interviewed. The participants were made up from three stakeholder groups these were teachers, residential workers, students‟ and parents/whānau. An inductive content analysis procedure was used to identity four overarching themes. Overall, all stakeholders thought the school served a purpose and they strongly support a continuum of services, including special residential schools. However, there is clearly a stigma attached to the school, which seems to be a barrier to the school operating in a more inclusive way. This setting the participants believed was more inclusive for the girls as they did not experience the marginalization of the mainstream.</p>

Revisiting Distant Relations

In 2000, I published Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America, a non-fiction exploration of my own family’s involvement in North American colonialism from the 1600s to the present. This personal essay reflects on the context, genesis, process, and consequences of writing this book during a decade of intense ferment in Indigenous–settler relations in Canada amid the revelations of horrific abuse at residential schools and the discovery that my highly respected grandfather had been involved with one. Considering the book from the perspective of 2021, I consider the strengths and limitations of this kind of critical family history and the degree to which public discourses and academic discussion of Canada’s history and settler complicity in colonialism have changed since the book was published. Arguing that critical reflection on family history is still an essential part of unlearning colonial attitudes and recognizing the systemic and structural ways that colonial disparities and processes are embedded in settler societies, I share a critical family history assignment that has been an essential and transformative pedagogical element in my university teaching for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

The Study of Adivasi Literature

Tribals hold all rituals and functions as a community and those include putting up a mandap. Teksingh Tekam, a scholar of Gondi language and culture, says, “Early in the morning, six or seven men leave for the forest in four bullock carts. The literature departments of some universities have included tribal literature in their curricula for purposes of study and research, but that too has been largely perfunctory – and this when Bodo and Santhali languages have been given the status of Scheduled Languages. Residential schools for tribal students have come up right from villages in the interior to cities but little has changed on the ground for the Tribals. Starvation, exploitation, displacement and mass killings continue. To understand Tribal Literature, we will first have to classify it on the basis of ethnic and linguistic diversities and geographical extent. Tribal Literature can be broadly defined as the literature of the ancestors, which, despite being in different languages and dialects, has an all-India character. Tribal Literature is thus multilingual and multicultural. Culture and traditions are often the products of the place of residence. India, with its wide geographical diversity, has given birth to many different cultures. The geographical and climatic conditions of Gondwana (the area of central India where Gond Tribes are found), Bhilanchal and northeastern states are so different that a difference in lifestyle and food is inevitable. Keywords: Bodo and Santhali, Gond, tribality, literature, Issues, Challenges

Maternal Attachment and Cognitive Distortion of Muslim Adolescents in Juvenile Rehabilitation Residential Schools: Self-Regulation as Mediating Mechanism

The increase in disorderly behaviors at the adolescent stage is a major dilemma for Malaysian society as the number ofcriminal cases committed by Muslim adolescents is increasing from time to time.These unwanted behaviors may be triggered by the quality of attachmentrelationships and errors in terms of the adolescent’s cognitive interpretation. Therefore,the aim of the current study is to explore the relationship between maternal attachment(i.e., secure and insecure) and cognitive distortion of Muslim adolescents inJuvenile Rehabilitation Residential schools mediated by self-regulation. Datafrom 440 Muslim adolescents (aged between 14 and 18) from the Juvenile RehabilitationResidential schools in Malaysia were examined using the structural equation model(AMOS). The finding indicated a significant positive relationship between securematernal attachment and self-regulation as well as the relationship betweeninsecure maternal attachment and cognitive distortion, while, a significantnegative relationship was found between self-regulation and cognitivedistortion. Moreover, the indirect effect indicated that only relationshipbetween secure maternal attachment and cognitive distortion was completelymediated by self-regulation. This study suggests that secure maternalattachment was associated with higher self-regulation, which, in turn, lowerscognitive distortion among Muslim adolescents. The results may facilitateimprovements of mother-adolescent relationship and reduction of cognitivedistortion among Muslim adolescents with the guidance of their self-regulation.

Canada protests over Indian Residential Schools expand

Significance The discovery of the bodies of hundreds of children at Canada’s former Indian Residential Schools has unleashed a wave of anger and mourning across Canada’s growing Indigenous population. More discoveries are expected, posing challenges for the country’s economic and social fabric. Impacts Public works projects may slow amid intensified disputes between the Canadian state and Indigenous peoples over lands and resources. There will be more pressure to share wealth from economic activity that directly affects Indigenous communities. Indigenous communities are likely to benefit from greater control over the design and delivery of government services. Cultural and academic institutions will increasingly prioritise and amplify Indigenous voices and perspectives. Canada’s reputation as an advocate for human rights will be affected by its handling of the residential schools issue.

"That’s my Auntie"

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called for increased access to archival material documenting the history of Residential Schools. What does this access and associated programming look like? How can archives approach sharing Residential School history in an ethical and culturally appropriate way? This project report provides examples of reciprocal approaches to archival work by drawing on a case study of the community-guided work undertaken by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA) and the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC).

Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Experiences with Residential Schools and Sixties’ Scoop, and their Impact on Emotional Knowledge for Pre-service Teachers

The purpose of this 2019-2020 exploratory study is to examine pre-service teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of Indigenous Peoples and how emotional knowledge could efficiently integrate this sensitive aspect of Canadian history into the B.Ed. Program. Shen et al. (2009) state that emotions improve learning and facilitate retention in long-term memory. Could emotional knowledge be a way of integrating Indigenous knowledge in the Bachelor of Education programs? Could Indigenous experiences with Indigenous Peoples make a difference in the perception of Indigenous Peoples in pre-service teachers? For this study, the sample available to the researcher consisted of 22 pre-service teacher students. The research instruments were a questionnaire about pre-service teachers’ knowledge of Blanket Exercises, Residential Schools, and Sixties’ Scoop, and reflection papers on the same topics. The results show that 72% of Canadian pre-service teachers, who attended elementary and secondary schools, had some, very little or no knowledge of these topics before the former Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, apologized to former students of Residential Schools for the harm inflicted to them. After listening to Indigenous Survivors and being part of Blanket Exercises, pre-service teachers’ perception of Indigenous Peoples changed in a range of 26% to 100%.