Education Canada Winter 2009-2010
Our latest issue features a collection of breathtaking photos in the article, Digital Storytelling: Preserving a Cultural Tradition (PDF). This story recaps how a group of Canadian educators traveled to a small village in Tanzania, armed with digital cameras, which they placed in the hands of local villagers to complement and enhance their storytelling culture. A special thank you to Jeff Young of the Village Galleries project, who agreed to share his work with us.
Featured Article: Beyond Doing School: From ‘Stressed-out’ to ‘Engaged in Learning’ (PDF)
Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, shares insights and approaches developed by the Challenge Success Initiative, a research and intervention project she co-founded in 2004 to address the widespread disengagement and poor physical and mental health issues facing secondary students in the U.S.
From the Editor
Seeing With Both Eyes
One Sunday evening, several months ago, I saw a story on the 10 o’clock news that made me catch my breath. A group of Canadian educators had traveled to a small village in Tanzania. They were armed with digital cameras and printers, which they placed in the hands of local villagers and – after some minimal instruction – stood back and watched.
The idea was to use the new technology to complement and enhance the storytelling culture of the Maasai, to capture images of the things and the people that the villagers felt were most important to their lives.
The results were breathtaking. And so imagine my pleasure when, a couple of days later, Jeff Young of the Village Galleries project agreed to share his work with the readers of Education Canada. In words and – most spectacularly – in photos, he lets us see into the lives of the Maasai as they honour their traditional culture, combining digital technology with storytelling and an enthusiasm for learning.
This honouring of traditional cultures isn’t something that comes naturally to most of us. After all, Canada’s Aboriginal peoples are also storytellers with an enthusiasm for learning. But we haven’t taken much notice. As Marie Battiste points out in her article, “Learning: Our Purpose in Life,” we have ruthlessly suppressed traditional knowledge systems and the Aboriginal Learning Spirit in Canada. We see them as exotic oddities – tucked away in the pages of history books and irrelevant to our present lives.
But wait. Just as our technologically and scientifically advanced society struggles to meet the social and environmental challenges facing us, Battiste tells us, Indigenous Knowledge is experiencing a renaissance worldwide. Scientists are beginning to recognize the value of a knowledge system based on place, cultural tradition, and relationships. The challenge, as always, is to find a balance – what Elder Albert Marshall called Two Eyed Seeing – so that both Indigenous and conventional perspectives and knowledges are available to all people.
As we look at their faces and the places that matter to them, we hope that – as they move inevitably into the digital age – the Maasai of Tanzania can find their way to Two Eyed Seeing without suffering the indignity and loss of cultural pride that were inflicted on the Indigenous people of North America. And as Canadians continue to confront both their own history of cultural domination and a future of unprecedented challenges, we hope that the Learning Spirit will help us all move forward with both eyes open.
Paula Dunning
Contents
Features
Beyond ‘Doing School’: From ‘Stressed-out’ to ‘Engaged in Learning’ (PDF)
DENISE POPE
La technologie au service du développement professionnel (PDF)
JOCELYNE HAMPTON ET JEAN LAROUCHE
Nourishing the Learning Spirit: Living our Way to New Thinking
MARIE BATTISTE
Digital Storytelling: Preserving a Cultural Tradition (PDF)
JEFF YOUNG
Exceeding All Expectations: Student-led Initiatives in a North Delta School
GURVEEN GREWAL, JASKARAN CHAUHAN, PUNEET BHATTI, AND SHEENA SACHDEVA
Le sport, une priorité éducative
CORINNE CÉCILIA
Beyond the Stereotypes: An Inside Look at Canada’s Emerging Millennials (PDF)
REGINALD W. BIBBY
School Boards: Emerging Governance Challenges
PATRICIA BRADSHAW AND RACHEL OSBORNE
Educational Research: A Look Back
From the Archives of the Canadian Education Association
WITH COMMENT BY PENNY MILTON
Environnements Constructivistes d’Apprentissage :
quand les activités collectives et individuelles permettent
aux apprenants de construire leurs connaissances (PDF)
MARC TRESTINI ET GILLES LEMIRE
Holding on to our Kids in a Peer Culture
GABOR MATÉ
Departments
FROM THE EDITOR / LE MOT DE LA RÉDACTION
Seeing With Both Eyes / Double Regard
AT ISSUE / ENJEUX
Back to the Future: John Dewey, Jacques Delors, and the New Brain Science
Retour vers le futur : John Dewey, Jacques Delors et la nouvelle science du cerveau
CHRISTA FREILER
PROMISING PRACTICES
The Perfect Storm: Moving a Teacher Education Reform from Vision to Reality
MARK HIRSCHKORN, PAULA KRISTMANSON, ALAN SEARS, KATHY WINSLOW, AND SHARON RICH
ETHICALLY SPEAKING
Ethical Leadership in Public Education: Living an Ethic of Criticality
DUANE BROTHERS AND BRIAN O’LEARY
NOTRE MONDE D’AUJOURD’HUI
Le rôle de la résolution de problèmes dans les apprentissages mathématiques :
questions et réflexions
ANNICK FAGNANT ET JOËLLE VLASSIS
BOOK REVIEW
Leading to Learn
A review of Leadership Mindsets: Innovation and Learning in the Transformation of Schools by Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert
HARRY JANZEN
END NOTES
Becki Got Brave
BROOKE MOORE