Early Childhood Education for Aboriginal Families

Early Childhood Education for Aboriginal Families

Aboriginals have been endangered by the system imposed by the settler populations for many years. There has been a loss of many Aboriginal languages in ancient Canada. The primary cause for the loss of these languages is the history of restrictive colonial policies which proscribed the use of mother tongues. The best way to support the revitalization of the indigenous people’s language is by adapting it into early learning and childcare programs. Many Canadians are biased when there is a controversy about the Canadian education school system. The reason for their subjective thoughts on the Canadian education school system may come from having either a lack of knowledge on the topic or being influenced by the government and educational professionals. Thinking subjectively is not a fair way of critiquing the school system since it does not provide solutions on fixing the system, hence does not consider what is best for the students. It is vitally important to view early learning and childcare program for aboriginal families as a significant part of embracing the culture, promoting the development of the indigenous families as well as enhancing reconciliation.

First, provision of care and early learning programs as an essential part of child’s development and education in aboriginal families is a way of giving speakers knowledge regarding their culture and helping children to develop a sense of belonging through their cultural identity. To keep a language alive, the young generation must be fully integrated within its cultural base and ethnicity. Each language contains unique philosophy, ideas, important details, and points of view of culture for a community, including everything from the ways of life such as community and family relationships.

Moreover, children who are exposed to learning a second language stand a better chance of developing better skills in critical thinking and problem-solving.  Fraser, therefore, suggests that promoting languages such as Cree, Mohawk, Ojibway, Mi’kmaq, Oji-Cree, Inuktut and Michif is a way of giving children knowledge on culture and helps develop a sense of belonging through cultural identity. Furthermore, through the development of a transformative framework which complements the Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care, children will gain culturally strong and high-quality learning. This will act as a significant way of providing children with adequate knowledge of their culture (Government of Canada, 2019). This will also go a long way in fostering cultural preservation and promoting a sense of belonging to aboriginal families.

Secondly, these early learning programs for early child development in aboriginal children significantly prevent the extinction of these languages and cultures. These languages are on the verge of extinction hence need revitalization. For instance, Fraser contends that many languages are already endangered due to the shortage of speakers (Fraser, 2019). Moreover, in his article, Fraser also mentions that a professor at St.Thomas University, Andre Bear Nicholas, admits that indigenous languages and culture are endangered, especially because there are no child speakers. Additionally, Kinzel, in her research, depicts that most educational frameworks in post-secondary institutions favour western Europe pedagogy; hence the traditional knowledge systems of indigenous learners are unrecognized (Kinzel, 2020, p.20). Such education systems promote the extinction of indigenous languages and cultures. This, therefore, emphasizes how important it is to have early childhood education for aboriginal families. For this reason, immersion schooling should be encouraged. Therefore Fraser insists on the need for curriculum development, as well as training of teachers in order to adequately immerse children in the language (Fraser, 2019).

In response to the danger of indigenous languages becoming extinct, early childhood learning is the best approach because it serves as a reconciliation process to allow the aboriginals to heal. The Government of Canada (2019) shows the extent to which the aboriginals have suffered through the existing gaps in education and employment sectors. This was significantly attributed to the Indian Act, which coerced the ancient people to abandon their indigenous languages in an attempt to accommodate the native people into Canadian society. As a result, any school students within the Canadian community found expressing themselves in these languages were penalized. Long after the schools shut down, the fear of speaking the native languages and the loss of the knowledge in languages still went on, inhibiting the passage of these languages to other generations. This loss of communications and immense suffering calls for efforts by the Canadian government aimed at maintaining the Aboriginal languages through early learning programs.

Correspondingly, Kinzel contends that the current early stage of learning does not consider the societal and systemic oppression inherent in dominant epistemology and pedagogy that precedes indigenization. In her research, most of the participants suggested that indigenous content be infused within the system instead of changing it as an attempt to reconciliation (Kinzel, 2020, p.24). Reconciliation is essential since the past discrepancies on aboriginal families, especially on the educational systems, have led to inequality between immigrant and the indigenous population. These were clearly depicted from Kinzel’s research which brought participants to realize the inequitable power structures between these two populations (Kinzel, 2020, p.24) Therefore there is a need to explore the concept of reconciliation, which the present system of education does not accommodate. Kinzel’s research shows that more efforts towards reconciliation need to be done, especially by the federal government (Kinzel, 2020, p.24). It is rather a shock that the government for so long remained silent on the impact they have had on the indigenous people. They in a substantial way have made the language, culture and history of indigenous people challenging to come by or understand (Kinzel, 2020, p.24). Hence, creating a huge rift among the populations. Therefore, the Canadian school systems, as well as the governments, should take it upon themselves to build bridges of reconciliation. This can be done by embracing the Aboriginal communities’ culture and language in the Canadian school curriculum, especially in early childhood learning. Nevertheless, without ridding the school’s curriculum style, which forces Aboriginal children to abandon their own culture, and not fixing the horrid outcomes that residential schools cause on Aboriginal children’s schooling, then,  there will always be inequality. Thus, any efforts toward reconciliation will be futile.

Language defines one’s cognitive perception of reality. The language in any community provides the real issues attributed to the people in the society. For instance, the language in a society portrays human behavior and the belief that affects how people do their things or behaves in a certain way. As a result, the loss of language by a community means the loss of a specific cognitive perspective. For a language to survive in a given society, it must be incorporated in the social structure with a viable environment for people to live in as well as the right to practice the language in harmony. Languages are considered to be at the risk of dying when they reach a point where they are not transmitted to future younger generations. As the number of fluent speakers drops, the likelihood of transmission declines as well resulting in the loss of the language. With deteriorating numbers of language speakers, there is a unique need for the immediate imposition of immersive language-based programs.

Maintenance and development of the Aboriginal languages are very crucial in preserving a country’s’ cultural heritage. It is essential to develop a system of maintaining and keeping the indigenous languages. This is true because native languages help in the maintenance of culture in a community, reducing educational disadvantage, and giving a sense of identity for a society in a country. It is a serious concern that aboriginal languages are facing extinction in Canada, and there is a need for revitalization through adopting early childhood learning programs.

 

 

References

Fraser, E. (2019, April 11). Indigenous languages should be part of early childhood education, the professor says. CBC News. [Online] Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/indigenous-language-equal-rights-bill-c-91-federal-government-1.5093959 Accessed on (February 10, 2020)

Government of Canada. (2019). We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. [Online] Retrieved from Delivering on Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action: https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524495412051/1557511602225 Accessed on (February 10, 2020).

Kinzel, C. (2020). Indigenous Knowledge in Early Childhood Education: Building a Nest for Reconciliation. Journal of Childhood Studies, 19-29. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/193