Relationships with Staff & 'Authority'

Educators need to understand, to have the cultural knowledge and awareness to sensitize themselves into giving effective caring instruction, and to fit their knowledge into the value system of their students. Vygotsky would say that unless students are invested in the process, unless they have an active role in the process, and unless they perceive certain cultural values in the process, they will not learn. Learning, he would say, is grounded in the very culture in which people function (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1985). What better reason for linking instructional effectiveness with cultural awareness? (The Professor / Student Relationship: Key Factors in Minority Student Performance and Achievement, Peggy Wilson, University of Alberta, n.d. PDF)

Although only 28 of the 60 students who were interviewed were self-identified as being Indigenous, every one of the twenty-eight referred to relationships with teachers and professors as important. A student from a small isolated northern community referred to a negative experience that he was having, "I don't really like the professor, I don't really care about him, and I don't like the distance and the big crowd in the classroom and so it just turns me off to the class." Another student interpreted the lack of relationship between professors and students as the professors' lack of caring, "In so many of the classes, I really have no relationship with the professor. It's very sterile. What I know of the professor is what I see up in front of the room and that's it. What you hear is their lectures, you don't know anything about the person. It's so impersonal. But then I guess that's because they don't care." Students spoke often of good relationships with teachers in their villages as a strong contributing factor in their decision to come to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF). In contrast, they saw limited relationships with professors as a contributing factor in their lack of success there. The description of relationships that students referred to can be divided into two main categories, those of accessibility, approachability and availability, on the one hand, and an ability to show genuine, human caring on the other hand.

"Are you confident you can design a curriculum which will equip me to live in my world?... I am five years old and I am sitting in one of your classrooms today" (Beare, 2002, "I Am the Future's Child," no para.).

The idea of teachers and students as curriculum makers fits well with the philosophies of both 21st century education and Indigenous ways of knowing. 21st century education is often connected with a focus on creativity and collaboration (Jacobs, 2010). When teachers bring subject matter to life through collaborative meaning making in read alouds, conversations and other activities, the classroom is a place of creativity. Shared knowledge making, such as is developed in conversations like the one in this Grade 2 class, promotes a collaborative approach to learning. (Decolonizing Aboriginal Education in the 21st Century, Elizabeth Ann Munroe, Lisa Lunney Borden & Anne Murry Orr, St.FX University, McGill Journal of Education, Vol 48 N.2, Spring 2013)

When teachers quietly and respectfully acknowledge the unique strengths of each individual student, students know they have an important place in the classroom. For many Aboriginal students, bragging and boasting are not considered culturally appropriate so it is important for the teacher to find ways to acknowledge students, without focusing unwelcome attention on them. (Our Words, Our Ways: Teaching First Nations, Metis and Inuit Learners, Alberta Services, Learning and Teaching Resources Branch, 2005, PDF)

Educators need to understand, to have the cultural knowledge and awareness to sensitize themselves into giving effective caring instruction, and to fit their knowledge into the value system of their students. Vygotsky would say that unless students are invested in the process, unless they have an active role in the process, and unless they perceive certain cultural values in the process, they will not learn. Learning, he would say, is grounded in the very culture in which people function (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1985). What better reason for linking instructional effectiveness with cultural awareness? (The Professor / Student Relationship: Key Factors in Minority Student Performance and Achievement, Peggy Wilson, University of Alberta, n.d. PDF)

Although only 28 of the 60 students who were interviewed were self-identified as being Indigenous, every one of the twenty-eight referred to relationships with teachers and professors as important. A student from a small isolated northern community referred to a negative experience that he was having, "I don't really like the professor, I don't really care about him, and I don't like the distance and the big crowd in the classroom and so it just turns me off to the class." Another student interpreted the lack of relationship between professors and students as the professors' lack of caring, "In so many of the classes, I really have no relationship with the professor. It's very sterile. What I know of the professor is what I see up in front of the room and that's it. What you hear is their lectures, you don't know anything about the person. It's so impersonal. But then I guess that's because they don't care." Students spoke often of good relationships with teachers in their villages as a strong contributing factor in their decision to come to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF). In contrast, they saw limited relationships with professors as a contributing factor in their lack of success there. The description of relationships that students referred to can be divided into two main categories, those of accessibility, approachability and availability, on the one hand, and an ability to show genuine, human caring on the other hand.