First Nations perspectives on transforming the status of culture and language in schooling / Seth Agbo. [electronic resource]

One of the challenges facing Aboriginal education is how to enhance Aboriginal students' achievement through culturally responsive pedagogies. The issue involved is not merely that of methods of teaching and learning but of acquiring the necessary tools for shaping and implementing a socially and culturally oriented curriculum that recognizes Aboriginal local resources in context and reinforces and maximizes their use in education to make school learning an integral component of the social and cultural context of Aboriginal children's heritage. The paper is about First Nations' perspectives, opinions and attitudes about the status of language and culture in schooling and their suggested strategies to revitalize and preserve First Nations cultures. The paper concludes that the issue involved is not merely one of cultural education of students but also of helping Euro-Canadian teachers to attain the necessary cultural tools for determining and putting into practice a socially and culturally oriented program.