| Summary: | Contemporary literature on Native education attributes the failure of education for Native
children to the negligence of educational policy analysts to obtain grassroots understanding of
Indian education from Native perspectives, and that providing successful education programs for
Native students should entail an understanding of the purpose and priorities of education from
the viewpoints of Native people. The premises for this study were that, first, the failure of
education for Indian children was, partly, due to the failure of researchers to analyze education
concepts within a framework which fully interprets Native people's perspectives about schooling.
Second, that Native people are capable of acting to improve their school system.
This study had a dual purpose. First, it was to examine how the present system of
education provided for Native children in the Indian reserve of Cat Lake, Ontario, might have
been inadequate in terms of the expectations of the Indians living in the reserve. Second, the
study was to serve as a basis of helping community people to mobilize themselves for action on
educational issues. The study documented what Native people perceived were the shortcomings
as well as priorities for their school system, and proposed strategies for the improvement of
schooling. The objective of the study was to collaborate with the people of Cat Lake to identify
problems, and priorities for their school system and find strategies by which to act on both the
problems and priorities for the improvement of the school system.
The research strategy for this study drew on participatory research, an alternative
research approach to social science and educational research. The methods of investigation
included document analysis, workshops, public meetings, recorded observations in the form of
field notes, and semi-structured interviews involving the use of open-ended questionnaires with fifty-eight respondents. The various sources of data and procedures employed in their analysis
promoted both the verification and cross validation of the results. The researcher's position as
principal of the school in Cat Lake provided deep insight into understanding, interpreting and
analyzing the data for the study.
The results of the study indicated that although community people perceive schooling as
an institution alien to the traditions and values of Indian people, they deem it important for their
children to obtain quality education and attain standards comparable to children in the
mainstream Canadian society. This study showed that community people lacked understanding
of the meaning of local control and the processes involved in school governance. The study also
indicated that among the factors that hinder an effective provision of quality education for Native
children are, the poor general social and economic environment of the Indian reserve, and
attitudes of community people towards schooling. Finally, the study highlighted community
people's priorities for schooling in the reserve, and strategies they suggested for their
implementation.
This study concluded that: (1) a two-way or bi-cultural approach to education, that is,
children maintaining the Indian way of life, while at the same time being competent in literacy
and numeracy skills, is a way of making education relevant to the Native child; (2) in order to
enhance the quality of school programs for Native students, Indian schools should minimize their
reliance on mainstream Canadian school curricular products and develop a new school concept
which emphasizes the traditions and culture of Native people; (3) priorities for the education
of Indian children should include a re-conceptualization of local control, the articulation of a new
meaning and purpose of education, the development of a suitable curriculum, and the provision of adequate support and maintenance facilities for the school system; and (4) for local control
of education to be beneficial to Native students, politicians and education policy analysts should
clearly redefine objectives concerning local control and the devolution of power should
necessitate the empowerment of local people to maintain control under conditions of increasing
and multiplying awareness of a philosophy of education that is capable of improving the social
and economic lives of Native children. I have discussed the implications for policy, practice and
further studies, as well as recommendations arising from the research and concluded with a
summary of the study. === Education, Faculty of === Graduate
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