School Failed Coyote, So Fox Made a New School: Indigenous Okanagan Knowledge Transforms Educational Pedagogy
SCHOOL FAILED COYOTE, SO FOX MADE A NEW SCHOOL: INDIGENOUS OKANAGAN KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORMS EDUCATIONAL PEDAGOGY by William Alexander Cohen M. Ed., Simon Fraser University, 1999 B. A. & Sc., University of Lethbridge, 1995 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Educational Studies) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) November, 2010 © William Alexander Cohen, 2010 ABSTRACT This project examines how Indigenous Okanagan knowledge embedded in traditional stories, life histories and people‘s practices, responsibilities and relationships are relevant and applicable to current and future Okanagan people‘s educational and cultural aspirations. Okanagan language proficiency, cultural and territorial knowledge and practice, provincial curriculum and world knowledge are all important elements in creating Okanagan identity. The focus of this thesis is to identify, understand and theorise the transforming potential of Okanagan pedagogy through the development of an Okanagan cultural and language immersion school where language and cultural knowledge recovery are key elements, and express a new and current understanding, through a Sqilxw- Okanagan, children centred, extended family pedagogical approach and curriculum structure for current application in schooling projects and communities. Indigenous and world knowledge that improves, complements, and is compatible with evolving Okanagan knowledge and practice is included to generate an interconnected web; a convergence that may be useful in Okanagan, Indigenous and world educational contexts. ii PREFACE My research is informed by Sqilxw-Okanagan epistemology which suggests knowledge is a continuously evolving web of relationships. By gathering bits of old and current knowledge, engaging in dialogue, action, and reflection, a new understanding emerges.
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