IN DEPTH: ABORIGINAL CANADIANS
Report on Innu school system in Labrador
CBC News Online | December 14, 2004
A two-year study commissioned by the federal government, leaked in December 2004, found serious flaws in the education system in the new Labrador community of Natuashish.
Among the report's findings:
- Only one in three Innu children in Labrador ever attends school.
- 35 per cent of children studied suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, caused when a woman drinks a significant amount during her pregnancy.
- 15-year-olds who were tested were an average of five years behind on their math and reading levels.
- Only one in three children ever attends school, and most never make it to high school.
- Since 1993, just three students out of hundreds have completed high school, and only 12 have completed Adult Basic Education.
Here are selected excepts from the report, An Educational Profile of the Learning Needs of Innu Youth.
For many youth, the disintegration of the traditional social order created overwhelming stress. A 2000 study by the Innu Band Council (Influences on the Health and Behaviour of Sheshatshiu Youth) found that close to three-quarters of youth showed high levels of distress and more than 40% had contemplated or attempted suicide. For most, attendance at school was and remains sporadic and very few Innu have managed to complete the high school curriculum. Fewer still have met with success at the post-secondary level.
In recent years, some Innu content has been introduced into the school setting. However, there are criticisms that it lacks meaningfulness out of the context of the natural environment and that it is presented more as something of historical interest rather than something relevant to current life. Because of the lack of locally developed Innu material, some content used by teachers actually derives from First Nations bands in central and Western Canada and is therefore a misrepresentation of Innu history and culture. Most teachers, being non-Innu, are unfamiliar with the language and the culture of the Innu. They acknowledge that children come to school fluent only in Innu-aimun and are met by white teachers who speak only English.
It was not the change of residence that made recording school attendance difficult as much as the absence of an effective monitoring system.
Further exacerbating the problem were poor record-keeping practices in the schools. The researchers found great disparity among how teachers recorded attendance. Some teachers recorded days present while others recorded days absent. Class lists on which attendance was based also varied significantly.
Indeed, the same educational issues that concern the Innu – attendance, achievement and high drop-out rates – are shared by other aboriginal communities elsewhere in North America.
The vast majority of those who attend school do so sporadically. While a third of the full population do not attend school at all, another 17% do so less than 20% of the time. For the population who do attend, attendance approximates 54% of total school time in Natuashish (including a 10% increase following the establishment of the new community and school)
…[O]nly 30% of Innu youth enter high school. These students attend only 20% of the time.
…[M]any students in intermediate and senior high school are parents and have limited access to daycare. Some students leave school to seek employment, perceiving school as irrelevant to career goals. Clearly, low attendance for Innu youth is symptomatic of a larger issue - a mismatch between the cultural paradigms of the school and the community. Without question, attendance issues present the most significant obstacle to education for Innu youth.
Given the low attendance rates, the researchers were not surprised that many students are performing poorly in school, and that few graduate.
…[M]ost children begin falling behind as early as the first grade and continue a clear pattern of falling further behind grade/age expectations as they continue through school. For example, 66% of seven year olds were estimated to be at least one to two years behind grade level, and this pattern of decline continued to a point where 66% of 16 year olds were at least five years behind.
Accentuating the severity of the problem is the realization that only students who actually attend school were tested. It is a safe assumption that achievement levels of the 335 of Innu youth who do not attend school would be even further behind…
The researchers have grave concern for the readiness of current students to meet prescribed graduation criteria within the next five years. This generates significant concerns for post-secondary programs, teacher-training programs in particular…
There are, however, areas of significant hope. The Innu students who attend school outside their home communities tend to perform dramatically closer to grade level…
While these students are relatively fewer in number (6% of the total Innu school-aged population), a clear trend towards grade level performance is evident. It is no coincidence that heightened achievement correlates with attendance patterns (90%)…
An assessment of abilities shows that Innu students, as a group, have average intelligence. There is, however, a skew towards the low average range…
A broader view of cognition suggests more than 80% of Innu youth show significant strengths in areas such as visual/spatial, bodily/kinaesthetic, naturalistic and inter/intra-personal intelligence. This "multiple intelligence" perspective on student cognition placed Innu students lowest in the area of verbal/linguistic abilities (68% average), an area that traditional Euro-Canadian education tends to use for both instruction and curriculum. This would seem reasonable given that English, the language of instruction, is a second language for Innu students whose first language is Innu-aimun.
There are several possible sources of learning difficulties, including social/emotional distress and substance abuse. Readiness to learn and social adjustment issues are of particular concern and should be the focus of future research…
The researchers found that approximately 35% of Innu youth display learning difficulties consistent with FAS/E [Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects]. It is suspected that this rate would be equal to or higher among the population of youth who do not attend school, many of whom are older and are reportedly involved in solvent/substance abuse…
Despite this rate of risk, Innu youth are not seen by teachers as having significant behavioural problems. A consistent observation on the part of assessors was that the children were co-operative, friendly and capable of hard work…
Given the contemporary media's often disparaging portrayal of Innu youth, this is an important finding.
The teachers identified four areas of mismatch between students' cultural background and the context of the curriculum.
Language
Most Innu children live in homes where Innu-aimun is the predominant language used for conversation (75% of parents and 67% of students reported that they mostly, or only, speak Innu-aimun at home)…
To most, English is a foreign language. However, fewer than 2% of teachers in Sheshatshiu and Natuashish are certified to teach English as a Second Language (ESL), and only 10% have any ESL training…
Although schools hire Innu interpreters to help students understand and converse with their English-speaking teachers, 44% of teachers report rarely, or never, using this service…
Because language is fundamental to all learning, it is essential that their teachers be trained in the effective use of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) techniques in order to assist students acquire proficiency in English, and so that they can collaborate with their Innu aides in planning, delivering and evaluating lessons. Equally important, Innu-aimun needs to play a central role as a medium of instruction. Teachers would benefit from opportunities provided to learn Innu-aimun.
Environment
A second contributor to poor achievement is the school environment. Teachers are aware that most Innu students dislike the structured environment of the school. If students are uncomfortable with the school's structure, it is quite probable that they will avoid it rather than learn how to function within it…
Ideally, children would enter an Innu-friendly environment at school, gradually transition into the more structured mainstream classroom model.
Culture and Geography
A third contributor to poor student achievement relates to culture and geography. It is difficult for students to understand content that conflicts or stands in contrast to their personal life experiences.
Instruction Models
A fourth contributor to poor student achievement relates to the reliance on methods of instruction which, in some ways, may be considered inappropriate…
Teachers observed that students gravitate toward activity-based projects, art, music reading and extracurricular activities. Curriculum content and instructional strategies need to embrace the broad range of strengths that Innu youth bring to the classroom.
For Innu who are strongly attached to traditional ways, the school often clashes with their language and culture. Despite this, parents, as well as students and teachers, want education to produce bicultural youth capable of achieving in their traditional language and culture as well as in contemporary mainstream society. More than 90% of parents who responded to the surveys want their children to be fluent in English and Innu-aimun and to retain their traditional lifestyle…
Only 65% of parents and 63% of students feel that school is successful in preparing youth for careers. In contrast, only 38% of teachers feel that the school is facilitating career preparation…
Only 51% of students report high school graduation as a goal, despite the fact that 80% of parents and 87% of teachers view this as a goal.
Perhaps, the most significant contribution schools can make is to help the current generation of youth develop stable cultural identities. Unstable cultural identity is the root of community instability…
The current assimilative model would need to be replaced by a culturally-defined model of inclusive education where Innu culture and language are highly visible. Schools must place as much value on Innu-aimun and traditional knowledge and practices as they do on the English language and mainstream knowledge and culture.
The assessment data clearly indicates that the school system as it exists at present is failing Innu youth. It is essential to create a school that validates and nurtures Innu language, culture and knowledge in order to provide Innu youth with the knowledge and skills they need for a range of career choices. At the same time, education must strive to prepare students to study and work collaboratively in the more individualistic, compartmentalized and regulated structure of mainstream society.
Innu youth are of average ability, consistently display diverse strengths and abilities, and lag in formal school achievement levels due in large part to poor attendance…
The learning needs of Innu youth are profound and urgent. They can only be addressed by fundamental change. Tinkering with the existing system will have little if any effect. By the time the futility of half-measures is realized, another generation of youth may be lost. While this report identifies areas for significant change, it withholds specific recommendations, preferring that there be a dialogue among the stakeholders, most importantly inclusive of the Innu themselves, before decisions are made…
The research team strongly recommends that a consultative process begin immediately to examine the appropriateness of recommendations in each of at least five core areas: language/literacy, curriculum, teaching environment and instructional methods, staff development, and administrative structures.
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Total population of Canada: 31,414,000
Total people of aboriginal origin: 1,319,890
Origin
North American Indian:
957,650*
Métis:
266,020*
Inuit:
51,390*
More than one aboriginal origin:
44,835
Reserves
People of aboriginal origin living on reserve: 285,625
People of aboriginal origin living off reserve: 1,034,260
People of non-aboriginal origin living on reserve: 36,230
(Source: 2001 Census, Statistics Canada)
*includes people of a single aboriginal origin and those of a mix of one aboriginal origin with non-aboriginal origins
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