Workshop II Breakout Group 3 (Senior Administrators 1) Hiring, Retention, Tenure, & Promotion

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”