Starting university can be fraught with excitement and anxiety. But for many potential students in Indigenous communities, this educational journey can take on other more troubling dimensions: the difficulty of relocating to a new, distant city, and the threat of cultural erasure.
The Faculty of Education at McGill teamed up with the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nations community in northeastern Quebec to alleviate these fears by offering a Bachelor of Education degree program taught exclusively in the community by Listuguj educators.
A small cohort began the program in 2016 and is expected to graduate in June 2020.
“They are motivated. They are excited to graduate,” says Jim Howden, Director of McGill’s Office of First Nations and Inuit Education (OFNIE), which works with First Nations and Inuit education authorities in Quebec to deliver in-community teacher training.
McGill and the Kahnawà:ke Education Centre used the same delivery model – full-time study through evening courses – to launch a Bachelor of Education program in 2018. Twenty-four students make up that cohort in the Mohawk territory across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.
“We can see that cohort cohesion growing in Kahnawà:ke just as we saw it in Listuguj,” says Stephen Peters, OFNIE’s Assistant Director. “It’s very similar the way that the group supports each other.”
Giving to the Faculty of Education through the McGill Fund is allowing the development of this kind of innovative programming that can better address the needs of Indigenous communities.
The program in Listuguj is delivered in partnership with the Listuguj Education Directorate. “They wanted all of their teachers to have a full B.Ed. degree,” says Howden. “They were enthusiastic to have it through McGill, and the common vision was not to send students to Montreal.”
Karen Martin had not considered going to university before learning about McGill’s B.Ed. in Listuguj.
“What this program has done for Listuguj is ensure that students can stay in the community while earning a Bachelor of Education [degree] that is reflective of our culture, values, history and the vision of how we see education for our children,” says Martin, who will complete her B.Ed. in 2020.
“As First Nations, we not only have strong ties to family and the community at large, but also to the land we are born from,” she says. “Being able to remain in the community helps us ensure that students will continue to reside there after they’ve received their degrees. How can we build capacity if we cannot retain our educated members?”
The Bachelor of Education program is one of the first to be taught entirely in-community. Similar B.Ed. programs at other universities are taught either partially in-community or exclusively on campus, forcing students to leave their homes and way of life. “I chose this program because I did not have to move away to be enrolled in it,” says Tanya Wysote, another student in the Listuguj cohort.
Students in the Listuguj and Kahnawà:ke cohorts must fulfill the same academic requirements as their peers on McGill campus, and their course load is comparable, allowing them to graduate with a Bachelor of Education in four years. They take three evening classes a week for three hours each. Most students are generally a bit older than their on-campus counterparts.
“The motivation for in-community students in incredibly high because the intensity of the program is so high,” says Peters, who notes many have full-time jobs and families.
A donor has helped make the evening classes easier for the Kahnawà:ke students by providing funding for a daycare service on site. “It really allows them to concentrate on learning for those three hours,” Howden says.
In Listuguj and Kahnawà:ke, students must take four languages courses in Mi’gmaq and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk), respectively, as part of the program requirements.
A concerted effort has been made in Listuguj to indigenize the coursework and make it locally relevant. Indigenization steers away from the imposition of Western values and institutions on First Nations communities, instead embracing traditional modes of knowledge and nurturing and building important cultural connections between students and their tradition.
For Martin, the indigenized curriculum was part of what made the B.Ed. program so appealing. “This program is taught by our own people as much as possible. The realities of our community are intertwined into program delivery, which makes it more relevant and will be an asset in my future employment in the community.”
OFNIE is also working with its partner in Kahnawà:ke to better indigenize the B.Ed. program curriculum, Howden says.
Indigenized curricula are in part a response to greater attention being placed on improving conditions for First Nations in education. McGill launched the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education in 2016 to respond to the Calls to Action of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 report on the status and needs of First Nations communities. The Commission identified more than 50 ways that universities can better serve Indigenous students, faculty and staff.
This includes awareness and training efforts made in the non-Indigenous community. A donor contribution to the Faculty of Education created an internship program for non-Indigenous, campus-based B.Ed. students to travel to Listuguj and complete their practicum at Alaqsit’w Gitpu School, alongside Listuguj teachers and students. This field experience includes subsidized travel, housing, and a cultural sensitization workshop intended to provide non-Indigenous students a better understanding of the community they will serve.
“The most important thing is making sure our partners’ needs are met,” says Howden, “and that we’re doing our absolute best to be culturally sensitive. Not all communities can be treated the same.”