Native Education and In-Classroom Coalition-Building: Factors and Models in Delivering an Equitous Authentic Education

Overview & Synopsis

For centuries Canadian First Nations education has been a substandard, abusive means of dealing with the "Indian Problem." In recent decades Native education has been under-funded and employed non-indigenized models. Despite these facts, many are surprised when these efforts fail another cohort of children. This article outlines Canadian Native education including attainment and attrition, curriculum, Native epistemology, and Indigenous practice and theory. Finally, a Curriculum Model designed from a 2004 mixed-method study based on Haudenosaunee student and educator responses is offered as a means to achieve reparative or equitous educational outcomes through the creation of in-classroom coalitions between educators and students. (Contains 2 figures and 36 notes.)