Hiring, Retention, Tenure, & Promotion
Workshop Breakout II
Breakout Group 3 (Senior Administrators 1)
Facilitator: Ken Tourand
Note taker: Alyson Seale
We have been indigenizing for a long time
“It’s all about relationship building”
Overwhelming
- Indigenizing can be overwhelming and we will need support in order to do this successfully
Indigenization and Generosity.
- Learn to think with your heart.
- Limited resources can be stretched by generosity of heart.
Indigenization and Heart
- Learn to think with your heart.
- Limited resources can be stretched by generosity of heart.
Elders
- Just like you have an inner child within you, you also have the elder you will become in you.
- “Take council with the elder you will become”. Help yourself to become the elder you want to be.
- Involving Elders to help us better understand our student population
Indigenization being human
- Indigenization is about being fully human
- If we have love, attention and help from our neighbors, you will have generous compassion
- an invitation for you to bring your full humanness to the academy
Eurocentric thought vs indigenous thought
- Indigenising means changing mindsets and worldviews
- We are here at this conference and we are open to learning
- Indigenization, How do you operationally de-colonize 500 years of colonization?
Safety, Comfort and Security
- Indigenization means it’s comfortable, aboriginal students see themselves reflected accurately and they have the ability and the environment to express themselves
- We need to work on recruiting, creating a friendly and culturally accessible space
Cultural Accessibility
Indigenization and Identity of aboriginal students
- aboriginal students see themselves reflected accurately and they have the ability and the environment to express themselves
Danger of Temporal, superficial indigenization
- The organization needs to be structured so that indigenization does not become “flavor of the month
Structure of institution and Indigenization
- The organization needs to be structured so that indigenization does not become “flavor of the month
- Recent institutional strategic plan did not include anything about indigenization (but it did include internationalization)
- We are a very large institution that is doing good work but is not coordinating the work
- How do you work with organizations or systems that are not working towards indigenization?
Decolonization and operations
- How do you operationally de-colonize 500 years of colonization?
Indigenization, Education, Social change: liberating
- Education is the core foundation to social change
- Teaching about aboriginal history and how it relates to their experience experience can be very liberating for aboriginal students
Education
- Education is the core foundation to social change
Social Change
- Education is the core foundation to social change
- Deep rooted cynicism around change shows there is much work and healing to be done.
Strengths
Indigenous Governance
- One institution has a foundation of indigenous governance
- We have great staff, transition programs, housing programs and an aboriginal science program
Foundation
Indigenous Staff
- One institution has mostly indigenous staff, with indigenous curriculm
Indigenous Curriculum and developing indigenous curriculum
Partnering with other organizations
Consultation with business and government
Values
- Values Sets I have my own set of values, and I represent people with another set of values. I reconcile the similarities and try to come up with ways that the institution can accommodate the differences.
Humility
Traditional Knowledge
- We are focusing on diversifying our points of view by better recognizing traditional knowledge. We had begun creating a new degree of holistic health and healing based on another institutions model but have since pulled back realizing we need to take the time to create something that is “truly indigenous”.
Sharing
Celebrating
Interaction
- We have good interaction with our students
Recruitment
- We have two staff focused specifically on aboriginal student recruitment
- We are working towards increasing our aboriginal enrollment to 7% institutionally
- Through recruitment we are looking at diversifying our student group by recruiting outside the province and country as well as targeting the metis population.
- We have many non-aboriginal students registered in our aboriginal studies program
- We need to work on recruiting, creating a friendly and culturally accessible space
Reconciliation
- We have produced and disseminated a statement of reconciliation and apology to past students of residential schools.
Apology
Residential Schools
Enrollment
Programming
- Drumming Program
- Jewelry Making Program
- Music and Dance Labs
- Digital Design Programs
- Our aboriginal programing is receiving new energy and focus
- Commitment to aboriginal programing in spite of small class sizes IE; language
- If diversification is the goal how do we create programs that acknowledge multiple nations?
- Aboriginal studies and aboriginal services are very small
- Limited financial resources and support for aboriginal programs and initiatives
At Risk Youth
- We have aboriginal at risk youth cohorts within trades that takes advantage of some of their previously learned skills in the community
Trades
- We have aboriginal at risk youth cohorts within trades that takes advantage of some of their previously learned skills in the community
Skills
- We have had an aboriginal drumming program going for 4-5 years as well as aboriginal jewelry and digital design programs
- We have established short term (7-10 day) aboriginal music and dance labs that have included amazing people and have had great success
Framework for Indigenization
- To create a framework with broad consultation that spans both the academic and administrative areas is very complicated
- We are using a framework for indigenous achievement embracing four directions:
- ?
- Communities
- Academic – sharing knowledge
- Celebrating indigenous people
- Education
- Engagement of staff and faculty
- Budget
- Limited financial resources and support for aboriginal programs and initiatives
- Limited resources can be stretched by generosity of heart.
- Language
- Human resources
- Capital projects and facilities
- Student success
- Community engagement
Building trust in the Community
Challenges
Diversity of Funding
- We need to diversify where our funding comes from. Currently, we are receiving funding from federal and provincial governments and tuition, but we need to start looking at other forms of income such as endowments, corporations, etc. to free us from some constraints.
- Limited financial resources and support for aboriginal programs and initiatives
- We need to get to a place where we no longer need to rely on government funding
Conferring Degrees
- We currently rely on another institution to grant our degrees and we are working on creating other partnerships and granting some certifications/degrees ourselves.
Community Consultation,
Serving the Community,
Preservation of language
- We need to do a better job in how we consult with the communities, how we serve them and the preservation of language.
Communities
- Delivering courses in communities
- We need to do a better job in how we consult with the communities, how we serve them and the preservation of language.
- We need to better understand our role in leadership within the community
Leadership
Partnership
- Re-establishing our partnership with our degree granting institution.
- How will we ALL serve ALL aboriginal students well? We need to not think about being the best institution, rather what can we do that will be best for the student. This may mean referring students to other institutions. This will need to be negotiated between institutions
- “It’s all about relationship building”
Government funding
Eurocentric thought vs indigenous thought
- Indigenising means changing mindsets and worldviews
- Basic fundamental of indigenization and euro-centric thought that will make indigenization difficult. IE: Optimization = being the best/taking the most/doing things the fastest are euro-centric values vs. taking what you need. The most vs. getting enough does not map well. How do we make that work?
*************************************************************************************
The group had opted to continue on with their introductions and sharing of strengths and challenges of their institutions regarding aboriginal education that had been started but not completed in the morning session instead of the prescribed agenda topics.
- Indigenization is about being fully human. If we have love, attention and help from our neighbors, you will have generous compassion. Indigenizing the academy is an invitation for you to bring your full humanness to the academy. Learn to think with your heart.
- Limited resources can be stretched by generosity of heart.
- Just like you have an inner child within you, you also have the elder you will become in you. “Take council with the elder you will become”. Help yourself to become the elder you want to be.
- Indigenization means it’s comfortable, aboriginal students see themselves reflected accurately and they have the ability and the environment to express themselves
- The organization needs to be structured so that indigenization does not become “flavor of the month”.
- How do you operationally de-colonize 500 years of colonization?
- Education is the core foundation to social change
- Indigenising means changing mindsets and world views
Strengths
- The institution has a foundation of indigenous governance
- Mostly indigenous staff
- We develop indigenous curriculum
- Teaching about aboriginal history and how it relates to their experience can be very liberating for aboriginal students
- Partnering with other organizations
- Consultation with business and government
- I have my own set of values, and I represent people with another set of values. I reconcile the similarities and try to come up with ways that the institution can accommodate the differences.
- We have been indigenizing for a long time.
- Aboriginal studies and services are currently being reconnected within the institution
- We are here at this conference and we are open to learning
- We have a humble gathering space – it’s a start.
- We have a beautiful gathering space
- Nursing has an aboriginal health component
- Delivering courses in communities
- Involving Elders to help us better understand our student population
- We are using a framework for indigenous achievement embracing four directions:
- ?
- Communities
- Academic – sharing knowledge
- Celebrating indigenous people
- We have good interaction with our students
- We have two staff focused specifically on aboriginal student recruitment
- We have produced and disseminated a statement of reconciliation and apology to past students of residential schools.
- We have great staff, transition programs, housing programs and an aboriginal science program
- We are working towards increasing our aboriginal enrollment to 7% institutionally
- Our aboriginal programing is receiving new energy and focus
- We have aboriginal at risk youth cohorts within trades that takes advantage of some of their previously learned skills in the community
- We have had an aboriginal drumming program going for 4-5 years as well as aboriginal jewelry and digital design programs
- We have established short term (7-10 day) aboriginal music and dance labs that have included amazing people and have had great success
- Lots of new upper management open to new ideas and partnerships
- Commitment to aboriginal programing in spite of small class sizes IE; language
- Created a framework (currently in progress) that includes:
- Education – engagement of staff and faculty of what is needed
- Budget – responsibility to the community – IE: preserving language. How do we spend limited resources?
- Human resources – recruitment, retention, cultural awareness, collective agreement constraints
- Capital and facilities – gathering space
- Student success – indigenizing for ALL students, cultural awareness
- Community engagement and accountability
- Communication and building trust with the community
Challenges
- Diversity
- We need to diversify where our funding comes from. Currently, we are receiving funding from federal and provincial governments and tuition, but we need to start looking at other forms of income such as endowments, corporations, etc. to free us from some constraints.
- We currently rely on another institution to grant our degrees and we are working on creating other partnerships and granting some certifications/degrees ourselves.
- Through recruitment we are looking at diversifying our student group by recruiting outside the province and country as well as targeting the metis population.
- We are focusing on diversifying our points of view by better recognizing traditional knowledge. We had begun creating a new degree of holistic health and healing based on another institutions model but have since pulled back realizing we need to take the time to create something that is “truly indigenous”.
- We need to do a better job in how we consult with the communities, how we serve them and the preservation of language.
- We need to better understand our role in leadership within the community.
- We want to be able to offer our own degree which calls for a focus of resources which contrast to another one of our goals to diversify.
- Re-establishing our partnership with our degree granting institution.
- We need to get to a place where we no longer need to rely on government funding
- Basic fundamental of indigenization and euro-centric thought that will make indigenization difficult. IE: Optimization = being the best/taking the most/doing things the fastest are euro-centric values vs. taking what you need. The most vs. getting enough does not map well. How do we make that work?
- How will we ALL serve ALL aboriginal students well? We need to not think about being the best institution, rather what can we do that will be best for the student. This may mean referring students to other institutions. This will need to be negotiated between institutions.
- Recent institutional strategic plan did not include anything about indigenization (but it did include internationalization)
- We have many non-aboriginal students registered in our aboriginal studies program
- Aboriginal studies and aboriginal services are very small
- We are a very large institution that is doing good work but is not coordinating the work.
- We need to work on recruiting, creating a friendly and culturally accessible space
- Deep rooted cynicism around change shows there is much work and healing to be done.
- How do you work with organizations or systems that are not working towards indigenization?
- If diversification is the goal how do we create programs that acknowledge multiple nations?
- Lots of leadership changes
- Limited financial resources and support for aboriginal programs and initiatives
- To create a framework with broad consultation that spans both the academic and administrative areas is very complicated
- Indigenizing can be overwhelming and we will need support in order to do this successfully
“It’s all about relationship building”
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