Canada's economic growth is becoming increasingly dependent on the supply of skilled manpower that is able to cope with the complexities of a modern technological society. It is apparent that unless the youth of Canada are prepared, through education and training, to assume productive roles in the country's work force then all other public policy to stimulate economic growth will be to little avail. [...]

This thesis examines the cultural education programs that have been developed over the past two decades by Canada's First Peoples. These programs are designed to strengthen and maintain indigenous cultures by promoting cultural identity and by developing cultural curriculum materials for a broad range of education programs. This thesis gives particular emphasis to cultural education centres and their unique integration of a characteristic set of programs which have been designed to systematically collect, preserve and communicate indigenous cultural knowledge. Despite the effects of more than a century of colonization, and against all expectation. Native cultures have persisted. Native people are now actively communicating a renewed confidence in their own cultures, their values and their ways of doing things. Community-based self-government and the maintenance of a land base are ideologically inseparable from the retention of culture and language, and Native people today view these as integral to their survival and self-determination as distinct peoples within the fabric of the majority society. Cultural education programs and centres perform a significant communication function in the agenda of self-determination by both ensuring and affirming the continuing viability of Native cultures. This thesis explores the ideology of cultural survival and examines its current expression as a program of action directed at the damaging effects of cultural disruption. The background to the emergence of cultural goals is discussed, with reference to their central place in the socio-economic development strategies and education policies developed by Native organizations in the 1970's. A variety of cultural education programs are described with a specific focus on two cultural education centres in British Columbia. Cultural education programs, as they are defined and carried out by various Native agencies, are presented as significant innovations in the definition and management, overall, of cultural heritage. The organizational integration of these programs also represents a significant innovation in the area of community development. In this context, museological themes are explored. Native concepts of culture are contrasted to non-Native concepts of heritage, with particular attention given to some of the problems in the way non-Native museums have traditionally represented Native cultures. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

Bringing Memory Forward: Teachers' Engagements with Constructions of "Difference" in Teacher Literature Circles" explores ways in which teachers can recognize and address their constructions of "difference" individually and collectively. The study invited practicing teachers to discuss multicultural children's and young adult literature in monthly book clubs, write a literacy autobiography and engage in monthly interviews. Four literature circles were formed from the eighteen elementary and secondary teachers who elected to join; one circle was composed entirely of Aboriginal teachers. In all, twenty-one circles and seventy-two interviews occurred between January and June 2003. Departing from related studies, the dissertation combined and gave equal weight to the literature circle, literacy autobiography and the interviews instead of focusing solely on the literature discussion. This equal weighting was necessary because the primary purpose of the research was to find ways to involve teachers in reflecting on their constructions of "difference" such that the teachers would engage in that reflection for themselves. All three elements of the study worked together to "bring memory forward." In the literature circle, teachers discussed children's and young literature. The selections for the literature circle arose out of the teachers' writing and discussion of their literacy autobiographies such that literature familiar to teachers was juxtaposed with literature that was less familiar. In the interviews, teachers reflected on the relationship between the literature discussion and their literacy autobiographies, with the researcher "reflecting back" to teachers' their own words, prompting to elicit thinking and probing to encourage reflection on connections between literary response and lived experience. The title of the dissertation, "Bringing Memory Forward," draws attention to the role of teachers' memories and histories in multicultural literacy teacher education. The study begins from the hypothesis that memory, imagination and action are connected. Memory is explored through teachers' literacy history. Imagination is investigated through teachers' constructions of "difference" embedded in literary response. Action is what can follow for teachers from an awareness and recognition of the significance of memory and imagination to individual and cultural formation. Memory, imagination and action are admittedly broad concepts. In the study, they are made concrete through two related conceptualizations of the teacher: the teacher as learner and the teacher as "storied intellectual." As learners, teachers can become aware of their own "landscapes of learning" (Greene, 1978a) by asking questions such as: Where do my assumptions come from? Where can I go and who can I listen to in order to find out about perspectives other than my own? While teachers learn against the background of their own "landscapes," that landscape includes the teacher's broader role in society, which is to "transmit, critique and interpret" cultural knowledge (Mellouki & Gauthier, 2001, p. 1). The cultural knowledge most closely concerned with literacy is knowing which stories are important to tell. As the mediators of cultural knowledge, inservice teachers need to be in the forefront of societal changes. This conclusion challenges the current focus on preservice education. Moreover, initiatives at the school level are more likely to come from practicing teachers. However, if teachers feel as if they are being told what needs to be done or how to interact with one another or with texts, they will be less than forthcoming in their commitment. This study represents a departure from other studies and approaches in the area of multicultural literacy education by specifying which learning strategies and approaches teachers drew on in identifying their constructions of "difference," which settings supported their learning and why, and the role of the researcher in furthering teachers' learning processes. The study has implications for professional teacher development as well as preservice teacher education. It also contributes to scholarly literature in education on the role of memory in learning.

The lack of Indigenous cultural knowledge and perspectives in the school curriculum has been identified as a significant factor in school failure amongst Indigenous students. This thesis includes a literature review of Indigenous education, as articulated by Indigenous scholars. Issues of identity, self-determination, local control, community, culture and a return to a traditional-holistic model of education are investigated. An analysis of experiential and place-based educational models is taken as these alternative practices have shown success in addressing Indigenous students needs. The fundamental significance story, narrative and the concept of place has in Indigenous culture and knowledge development is explored, as well as the effects colonial influences have had on Indigenous story, voice and sense of place. Using self-study methodologies and the formation of a "narrative identity" through reflexive writings, the author attempts to uncover his motives and reasoning as a non-Indigenous educator and researcher in pursuing research in Indigenous education and to develop principles that understand, are respectful and conducive to Indigenous thought.

Until the mid 1960's British Columbia was dependent upon outside sources for its dental manpower. With a significant increase in population and a similar increase in demand for dental care it became apparent that British Columbia could no longer rely on the goodwill of other universities for the training of the province's dentists. As a result of two detailed studies authored by Dr. John B. Macdonald, a Faculty of Dentistry was established at the University of British Columbia in 1962 and the first undergraduate class admitted in September 1964. After ten years in operation it seemed appropriate to examine the question as to whether or not the implementation of a graduate studies program in the Faculty of Dentistry was justified. In order to provide an in-depth perspective as to the present status of graduate dental education programs a survey questionnaire was sent to all ten dental schools in Canada. The questionnaire dealt with three separate aspects of graduate dental education, namely: 1. the preparation for practice of a clinical dental specialty; 2. the preparation for a teaching and/or research career; and 3. the continued improvement of the existing professional dentist through continuing dental education. Undergraduate dental programs supply manpower to provide for the public's need for regular and routine dental care, while graduate dental education can provide qualified personnel for research, teachers for dental education, as well as dental specialists requiring the advanced skills to meet the public's need for special dental services. Consequently, the aim of both the undergraduate and graduate dental education programs is to provide the knowledge, skill and manpower to meet the dental health care demands of the community. With the advent of prepaid dental care plans, coupled with the public's growing awareness that it is their right to enjoy good dental health, it is clear that the increasing demand for service cannot be met by the undergraduate dental programs alone. Graduate dental education is the beginning of a partial solution to the problem. An analysis of the collected data, taking into consideration the dental care delivery system as it now exists in Canada, has shown that: 1. If undergraduate enrollment in dentistry is to be increased, not only in British Columbia but also in Canada as a whole, it is essential to provide the advanced training needed for personnel to staff the dental schools; 2. more research workers are needed if the answers to the major problems in the field of dentistry are to be found; 3. more clinical specialists are required if the public is to be afforded the treatment necessary in specialty areas; 4. many Canadian dentists pursue their graduate training at American institutions even though there are Canadian programs and positions available within these programs; 5. over the past five years dentists in Canada have demonstrated an increasing interest in continuing dental education programs. If the profession of dentistry is to achieve its ultimate goal of effective and economic treatment of dental disease, then it is of paramount importance for both undergraduate and graduate dental education programs to begin to deliver the professionally equipped personnel needed in Canada. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This study focuses on Canadian literature on anti-racist education and, in particular, the body of literature which acknowledges a sense of conflict between the theories, goals, and strategies of anti-racism and multiculturalism. The purpose of the study is to investigate the ways in which this body of literature addresses the Canadian context, particularly in reference to the prevalence of multiculturalism in Canada's official policies and popular ideology. The study reveals the existence of two different conceptions of the conflict between anti-racist and multicultural education: irreconcilable conflict and inevitable compromise. Each of these conceptions fails to provide practical guidance in terms of what those visions look like or how they can be resolved. Closer analysis reveals that this literature as a whole seems to rely on a standard critique of multiculturalism, failing to substantiate it with illustrations from the Canadian context. In fact, the literature fails to engage with Canadian multiculturalism with the kind of complexity it warrants, addressing it, instead, as if it is a monolithic and static entity that can be dismissed superficially. Addressing that complexity in the future can only strengthen Canadian anti-racist research.

No description available.