In search of chiefly authority in ‘post-aid’ Acholiland : transformations of customary authorities in northern Uganda

This paper investigates the complex relation between protracted donor interventions and the production of customary authority. More specifically, the paper analyses the impact of post-conflict donor interventions (and their withdrawal) on the position of customary chiefs in the Acholi region in northern Uganda. As important brokers between international aid agencies, the Ugandan government and Acholi communities, customary chiefs became key actors in post-conflict peacebuilding programmes. Using the concepts of extraversion and development brokerage, the paper demonstrates how dwindling access to external donor funds has strongly affected Acholi customary authority. To secure their authority and legitimacy, customary chiefs re-shifted from an 'outward' to an 'inward' orientation, a process that we call 'introversion

Coming Full Circle: White, Euro-Canadian Teachers’ Positioning, Understanding, Doing, Honouring, and Knowing in School-Based Aboriginal Education

Comprend des références bibliographiquesThis narrative study contributes to the field of school-based Indigenous education by exploring the central research question: What are the decolonizing processes of practicing teachers involved in a provincially funded initiative to improve schooling for urban Aboriginal students? Excerpts from teachers’ narratives are organized using the Anishinaabe medicine wheel, anchoring the exploration of the following five directions and associated decolonizing processes: teachings from the centre/positioning, teachings from the east/honouring, teachings from the south/understanding, teachings from the west/doing, and teachings from the north/knowing. This paper concludes with a discussion of how White, Euro-Canadian teachers’ decolonization informs the fields of Indigenous education, teacher education, and narrative inquiry

Weaving the Braid of Culturally Responsive Leadership Within Policy and Governance to Improve Indigenous Student Success

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores a Problem of Practice (PoP) that highlights the need for why the Board of Education and the Senior Administration team within the Raven Bay School Division (RBSD, pseudonym) would benefit from using a culturally responsive leadership approach when making decisions and how this may be achieved through policy and governance to guide their practice. The goal of this OIP is to examine why this leadership approach would be relevant for the Board of Education and the Senior Leadership team when they are making any policy and governance decisions, as it relates to Indigenous Education and how this leadership approach could positively support the improvement of educational outcomes and opportunities for Indigenous learners across the RBSD. The recommended solutions found within this OIP are intended to show how the RBSD can weave together a culturally responsive braid of policy and governance to address their goal of improving Indigenous learner outcomes found within their strategic. If this OIP is implemented, the solutions could be turned into strategies that work towards positively closing the current achievement gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners within the RBSD. Thus, beginning to shift the negative narrative of the culture of low expectations for Indigenous learners within the RBSD to a positive narrative of equity and success through the lens of culturally responsive leadership. Keywords: Aboriginal, Aboriginal Learning, Aboriginal Rights, Assimilation, Colonization, Culture, Decolonization, Educator, Emotional Intelligence, Ethical, Experiential Learning, First Nations, First Peoples, Holistic Education, Indigenizing Education, Lifelong Learning, Reconciliation, Social Emotional Learning, Transformative Change, Worldvie

Two-Eyed Seeing to Support Indigenous Education

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its 94 ‘calls to action’ to address the atrocities of residential schools, while providing guidance to support reconciliation. Education was identified as one area where reform is necessary. Within the Nikosis Public School Division (NPSD) (a pseudonym), Indigenous students experience significantly lower academic results than their non-Indigenous peers. The colonized approach to education founded heavily on Eurocentric ideology lacks cultural connections that relate to Indigenous students. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) will focus on Buffalo Elementary (a pseudonym) and look to support stronger cultural connections as a method to provide a more welcoming and engaging environment. This idea is based on the premise that if students feel more welcome and accepted, then there is a greater opportunity to thrive academically. This OIP will look to increase Indigenous Knowledges and culture within the school so it is valued alongside the Westernized perspective. A critical social justice lens will be used as a framework given its foundations in supporting marginalized and oppressed populations to work toward more equitable solutions. The change leader will draw from authentic and culturally responsive leadership approaches to strengthen relationships between the school and the Indigenous community as this relationship will be critical. The intent of the OIP is to eradicate the achievement gap at Buffalo Elementary that currently exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students with the goal of implementing successful practices into other schools in the division

Deconstructing Development

Whether it is being praised or excoriated, defended or condemned, the concept of development shapes and dominates our thinking about the Third World. Indeed development has evolved into an essentially incontestable paradigm with such a hold on our collective imaginations, that it is almost impossible to think around or beyond it. This article, however, interrogates development to its very core, demonstrating that although it is presented as something that is universal, natural and inevitable, in truth it is part of the Western political and cultural imagination. Moreover, the interlocking ideological assumptions that support this paradigm are inherently hierarchical and by definition privilege certain societies, cultures and institutions while disparaging others. This critique traces how development began, how it has evolved and expanded in theory and practice over the last fifty years, and the evolution and influence of the institutions that determine its content. It also considers the implicit ideology that underpins development, as well as how and why it has come to feel almost inevitable and natural despite its short and disappointing history. While no new meta-narrative is posed, we nonetheless turn to imagining a world that does not demand that people 'develop' into something other than what they are.

An Exploration of the Nursing Leaders’ Experiences Addressing Indigenous Health in University Undergraduate Nursing Programs in Ontario

Introduction. Although there are serious health inequities experienced by Indigenous people compared to non-Indigenous people in Canada and racism and discrimination continues to be rife in health care environments, there remains a general lack of attention to Indigenous health (IH) in health professional education programs. In response, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has recommended this be addressed within health profession education, including nursing (Truth and Reconciliation Canada, 2015). However, there is a paucity of evidence describing the challenges and facilitators to incorporating IH into nursing education. Methodology and Methods. This qualitative study employs interpretive description approaches informed by post-colonial theoretical perspectives to explore the experiences of eight academic nurse leaders in incorporating IH and addressing the TRC’s recommendations in their respective schools of nursing. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews over video conference and an interpretive analysis was employed. Results. An inductive iterative analysis produced five high-level analytic themes: (a) Doing the Right Thing, the Right Way; (b) Building Program Capacity; (c) Addressing Institutional Inequity; (d) Disrupting the Status Quo: Challenges and Facilitators; and (e) Journey Toward a Vision. Within these themes, findings are further divided into subthemes that reflect the challenges, facilitators, and opportunities experienced by nursing leaders in incorporating IH and the TRC recommendations into their schools. Recommendations. Findings indicate that doing this work in a genuine way means avoiding tokenism, engaging in critical self-reflection, threading Indigenous content throughout curricula, and building meaningful partnerships. In addition, cultural safety training for nursing faculty and staff, future research to address the efficacy of that training, and a genuinely collaborative approach across Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to inform strategies designed to address the TRC recommendations in a meaningful way are recommended

A STUDY OF RECONCILIATION FOR GRADUATE COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS

The current research project investigates a previously undiscovered part of the underlying process of how non-Indigenous Counselling Psychology graduate students make sense of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. This Grounded Theory study sheds light on how the participant's core processes stabilize and destabilize social constructs and thinking. The current study reflects the developing themes for emerging adults in Canada's system. The present work argues that reconciliation on a societal level begins with questioning and creating new narratives individually. However, reconciliation also focuses on a system approach to truth and how this relates to settler/White denial issues. Six processes reveal the factors that facilitate and hinder the potential for societal reconciliation in the Canadian context.: indigenous peoples, reconciliation, emerging adults, meaningful participatio