Part 1 Task: Identify a significant corpus (body of texts, or singular text) of searchable educational history-related documents in your own locale or one you are most interested in (i.e. B.C., Ontario, South Africa). You can choose a fictionalized account, non-fiction narrative, historical text, a set of related documents, a report, etc. Briefly explain why you selected this as ‘raw material’ to search for how Indigeneity and Indigenous people are represented in texts that make up our knowledge about and understanding of the history of education in the locale you chose. Explain how this text might have impacted either educational history or Teacher Professional Development.
Part 1 Response: I chose to utilize "The Politics of Curriculum Reform in Canada: the Case of Technology Education in British Columbia" by Stephen Petrina and Stephen Dalley, which can be found here. I chose this resource in particular as it appeared to be specifically relevant to the MET program as a whole, and to this course in particular. I was also extremely curious to see if indigeneity and indigenous peoples were represented or even considered linked to the future of tech-education in BC, and in particular if they were considered in the reformative curriculum aspects of this piece. As to how this piece might have impacted educational history or teacher professional development, the paper makes the "case of technology education in British Columbia demonstrates quite readily the invulnerability of teachers, as a group, to curriculum reform" (Dalley et al, 2003, p. 117).
Part 2 Task: Identify a specific question you want to answer by selecting and searching this text. What is your search intended (or hoping) to illuminate?
Part 2 Response: my specific question for this text is as follows: "Are topics of Indigeneity and/or Indigenous knowledge, communities, and decolonialization of education considered when looking at BC's technology education curriculum reform?:. My search is hoping to identify if indigenous knowledge and communities are considered or discussed when covering curriculum reform in BC.
Part 3 Task: Identify and explain the search terms you will use (any additional to the 5 identified in the example provided (Indian; Indigenous; Aboriginal; First Nations; Native).
Part 3 Response: 1st term - Knowledge; to see if the article itself recognizes non-traditional or different forms of knowledge and/or the passing of knowledge from individuals to individuals in non-technological methods (ie. oral traditions, etc.).
2nd term - Decolonization; to see if the authors acknowledge the history of colonization in education in BC.
3rd term - Community; to see if topics of community-led education or topics of community involvement or consideration are covered within the paper.
4th term - Reform; as I wish to see what levels of reform are discussed and in what manner they are portrayed.
5th term - Technology; as I wish to see what forms of technological education are considered and how they define technology education.
Part 4 Task: Create a new question, and any additional search term/terms you think might be illuminating.
Part 4 Response: My new question - "Are topics of Indigeneity and/or Indigenous knowledge, communities, and decolonialization considered when discussing the politics of curriculum reform in Canadas, and are these topics discussed when considering the case of technology education in British Columbia?".
Part 5 Task: Search and document what you find.
Part 5 Response: First documentation of note is that First Nations communities or peoples are only mentioned twice in the entire document, and both instances appear in the same paragraph, and the term aboriginal only appears once, in the same paragraph. Second documentation of note is the emphasis on "working class knowledge" throughout the report, though there is also a notation of cultural knowledge being acknowledged as well. Third documentation of note is that the term "reform" is utilized 119 times in the document, but there is no clear definition or explanation as to what kind of reform or how the authors define reform as a concept within this context. Fourth documentation of note is that similarly to "reform", the term "technology" is mentioned a significantly high number of times, totaling 198 uses throughout the document. However, unlike "reform", the authors do go in to detail explaining what they mean by the term technology and how it is used and defined throughout curriculum reform in BC.
Part 6 Task: Report the results (and limitations) of your search and your analysis of those results.
Part 6 Response: Results for "Indian, Aboriginal, Native, Indigenous, & First Nations" were extremely disappointing; as mentioned above, there were no instances of any of these terms save for two mentions of First Nations in the same single paragraph. While this paragraph does go on to lament and highlight the lack of diversity in educational institutions in general, I feel like the authors could have read into this lack of representation and discussed what may be the cause for this (they mention in passing that even predominantly First Nations schools employ non-aboriginal tech teachers). Similarly, community is only mentioned once in passing, and decolonization was never mentioned at all (though I wonder if this is due to the time period this piece was published being 2003 if the term was not in common use yet). Knowledge yielded some interesting results, as it highlighted the authors emphasis on "working-class knowledge" as well as "cultural knowledge" when discussing subjects of education and technological integration. Additionally, both reform and technology were mentioned a significantly frequent amount of times, though technology was better explained throughout the piece and reform appeared to be somewhat of a buzzword or a word utilized under the assumption that the readers of this text would have a baseline understanding as to what kinds of reform and how the term is defined within this context. Major limitations of my search was the vocabulary I utilized and was expecting to find; as mentioned with decolonization, I wonder how commonly used this term was in the time period that this document was published, and if concepts of colonialized learning and first nations or indigenous knowledge were well known enough to garner a deeper look into their effects or how they were effected by these reforms.
The following is the information for the article that was discussed in this post:
Petrina, S., Dalley, S. The Politics of Curriculum Reform in Canada: The Case of Technology Education in British Columbia. Can J Sci Math Techn3, 117–143 (2003).
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