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The Challenge of Indigenous Education: Practice and Perspectives ■ Millions of people in the world are still denied the right to education and indigenous peoples are among the most affected and THE CHALLENGE OF disadvantaged. However, the right of indigenous peoples to education is often mistakenly interpreted in terms of access to non-indigenous education. As a result, educational materials providing accurate and INDIGENOUS EDUCATION: fair information on their cultures and ways of life are all too rare, and history textbooks frequently depict them in negative terms. In PRACTICE many cases, educational programmes fail to offer indigenous peoples the possibility of participating in decision-making, in the design of curricula, the selection of teachers and teaching methods, and the AND PERSPECTIVES defi nition of standards. Linda King and Sabine Schielmann ■ Indigenous communities across the world are today demanding educational provision that respects their diverse cultures and languages, while not excluding them from broader participation in national education systems. Current trends in Education for All towards both decentralization and diversifi cation of education provision are offering new possibilities for indigenous education. Innovative approaches are also being promoted in the fi eld of intercultural bilingual education as well as with the establishment of indigenous peoples’ own educational programmes and institutions. ■ In this book, the challenges facing both the providers of education for indigenous peoples and indigenous communities themselves are discussed and placed within a framework of good practice in quality indigenous education. Part I deals with the challenges and obstacles in indigenous education including legal and political contexts. Part II focuses on the key areas of concern that affect the quality of indigenous education. In Part III, different education programmes concerned with indigenous peoples worldwide are analysed in detail in terms of the new ways they have developed to address the issues of access and quality. This book offers insights for education policy makers, researchers and all those concerned with educational provision for indigenous peoples. www.unesco.org/publishing UNESCO PUBLISHING ......... Education on the move Couv_challengeIndig.indd 2 13/04/04 16:46:19 The Challenge of Indigenous Education: Practice and Perspectives The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Published in 2004 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy F-75352 Paris 07 SP Typeset by IGS-CP - 16340 L’Isle-d’Espagnac Printed by Jouve, Mayenne ISBN 92-3-103934-2 © UNESCO 2004 All rights reserved Printed in France THE CHALLENGE OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION: PRACTICE AND PERSPECTIVES Linda King and Sabine Schielmann Education on the move UNESCO PUBLISHING PREFACE Education is one of the six mandated areas of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and an area on which we have much to say. The Third Session of the Forum in 2004 will devote a good deal of time to education and culture, in addition to human rights, and this publication will make an important contribution to that debate. I was an indigenous child myself once – a long time ago. I would like you to come with me on a journey and to imagine the life experience of the indigenous child. You arrive at school with a rich cultural background only to find out that there is an expectation that you should have already accessed pre-school education. But of course you had no access to such things – even access to basic education is a luxury. On your first day you discover that the teachers do not speak your language, in fact, they don’t even want you to speak your language. You may even be punished for doing so. The teachers know nothing of your culture; they say ‘look at me when I speak to you’, but in your culture it may be disrespectful to look at adults directly. Day by day you are torn between two worlds. You look through your many textbooks but find no reflection of yourself, your family or your culture. Even in the history books your people are invisible. They exist only in the shadows – or worse, if they are mentioned at all it is as ‘obstacles to settlement’ or simply as ‘problems’ for your country to overcome. But children are tough and somehow you survive in this environment. However, you notice as you reach secondary school that many of your 6 THE CHALLENGE OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION: PRACTICE AND PERSPECTIVES indigenous brothers and sisters have dropped out. Did they fail school or did school fail them? By senior high school you are the only one left. The teachers say ‘but you are not like the others’, but in your heart you know that you are. All too often this is the educational experience of indigenous children – those who have the luxury of access to formal schooling. Many do not. In the Second Session of the Permanent Forum in 2003, many indigenous representatives discussed common education issues including poor retention and attainment and graduation rates throughout the compulsory and non- compulsory years of schooling. Many also discussed overt and systemic racism and marginalization as root causes of educational underachievement faced by indigenous young people. Some representatives emphasized the link between access to and success in early childhood education and ongoing success in later schooling and life. Indigenous communities face many challenges in education. We live in a world that is increasingly multicultural, and the traditional understand- ing of the content of curricula and ways of teaching, even for those states that are organized on the assumption that they are culturally homogenous (Rodolfo Stavenhagen has coined the term ‘ethnocratic’ for these kind of states), simply does not work anymore. The world is more uncertain than ever before, as observed both by the World Commission on Culture and Development (the De Cuéllar Commission) and the International Commis- sion on Education for the Twenty-First Century (the Delors Commission). Furthermore, indigenous peoples and minorities are largely ignored in most countries in both the design of curricula and the organization of teaching. In fact, in many countries the basic principles of multilingual and multicul- tural education as established by UNESCO have been barely implemented. And lastly, there is always the question of resources. We are poorest among the poor. Even in developed countries, indigenous communities are not able to offer their children adequate education – and especially not an education that meets the aspirations of the peoples themselves. But indigenous peoples do not come only with problems that need solving – we come with our own answers and ask your assistance in ensur- ing these solutions are systematically and fully implemented. Quality in education is not an absolute and static concept, because education relates to the culture and community it is supposed to serve. The aspirations of the world’s indigenous peoples in the field of education is so far best reflected in Article 15 of The United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: PREFACE 7 Indigenous children have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State. All indigenous peoples also have this right and the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning. Indigenous children living outside their communities have the right to be provided access to education in their own culture and language. Our cultures and our knowledge must be included in the curricula for indigenous children and youth at all levels of education. There is no quality in an education where everything is based on a culture other than ours. Our cultures have a rich reservoir of knowledge. We want to preserve and develop this – and we want to share it for the benefit of all human kind. For indigenous peoples, it is the knowledge of the interconnectedness of all that was, that is and that will be – the vast mosaic of life and spirit and land/water forms, of which we are an intricate part. It encompasses all that is known as Traditional Knowledge. Indigenous cultural heritage involves a holistic approach, where tra- ditions and knowledge are embodied in songs, stories and designs as well as in the land and the environment – the intangible interlinked with the tangible. For Indigenous peoples, sacred sites and intangible cultural heritage are intimately woven together and cannot be easily separated. These allow us to balance development with our environment, which we have occupied since time immemorial. This knowledge indeed forms the central pillars of our culture; pillars that also sustain the Earth. Deviation from this knowledge has grave consequences for the world and for human kind. But we do not want to limit ourselves to our own knowledge. We want to combine the best of our own traditions with the best of Western and European traditions. This is quality in a true sense. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, Mr. Rodolfo Sta- venhagen, has pointed out that our ‘cultural specificies are also contributions to a universal culture and not mere relics of a disappearing past’. This means that elements from our cultures and our knowledge should be included within education for other peoples as well as our own.

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