Indigenous Education in the public school system

Systems.

System’s are not meant to be broken or sometimes even challenged. Like anything, everything has a positive and a negative side. It has been normalized to only look at negative side of things- it’s always a competition- who’s better, who has more credentials?

I start with the juxtaposition of positive and negative because something I try to see in all situations are both sides. It may take me longer to see both sides because of my bias or it could be that I am not ready to see the positive side of the negative. When we base our thinking around ideas that are not aligned with our own, the struggle is real.

The struggle.

The struggle is real because forcing oneself to think beyond our capacity is hard. We strive to be right and sometimes superior in our ways of thinking because that is how we are encouraged in this society.

From personal experience, I did apply for a local school district job, having never taught in their system under them (I did teach in one of their schools but under our Nation). The experience of the interview was interesting. I did go in not knowing if I was all in, however, I knew that after the interview I would know more about how I felt about the actual job, based on the people in the room. I know I’ve only worked for our Nation but I walked into that job interview with a panel of 8 people and the immense job description expectations of the position. I also did go in with jitters and not doing my "homework" of becoming familiar with the district.

I think if they interviewed me when they initially were going to interview me I would have been more inclined to do my homework and highly consider the job, if it was offered to me. But 4 weeks past the original interview time, was enough time for me to pursue my other options and think about my interview approach.

My interview approach was to show up because I was shortlisted and scope out the local district my son attends school in. And to ask challenging questions because what was I to lose?! What is anyone ever to lose when they stand in their beliefs. I also know that job interviews are supposed to be a "tell all" for both parties but I did not want to go in and "sell" myself to prove that I was the best candidate.

I checked every single requirement for the job, and I was the first Squamish Language speaking educator to walk in their doors to apply for a job in their district. According to them they do not have access to language speakers and Squamish Language is an area they struggle in to support language teaching in their district, yet, I sat there in front of them with all the required credentials, and they still were unsure.

I did ask some challenging questions to them, and their lack of response told me that Indigenous education is not a high priority and that they weren’t looking for someone like me......

They asked to have a debrief meeting with me after I was informed I did not get an offer, I thought, what is the point but I went anyways to see the positives of the negative. I showed up online to my scheduled meeting and no one showed up.

Hmmmm, is that right. WOW!

I got ahold of the receptionist and re-scheduled another meeting because now I was interested in what they were going to say to me. She told me I didn’t have enough experience, which I thought was odd but sure, and then she implied they’d love to employ me to get me some more experience before going into the higher levelled job. ummm...no thanks. And then she tells me that they did not even hire for the job, so a non-indigenous Principal is pulling the weight of a job that could have been filled by me.

I am proud of myself- for just going and being myself, whether they thought it was school district worthy or not, I know who I am and where I come from and their loss is my gain. I know I don’t have to be someone I am not to get a high-levelled job and I realized my gain is their loss, as I said in the interview, this district is still failing our kids in this system and I would have been good for them. It’s definitely not a gain for our kids in the school system but as someone said to me, maybe they’re just not ready for you and that system is not going anywhere.

Ain’t that the truth!

The struggle of Indigenous education in the public school still continues and it seems that not much has changed since I graduated in 1996. A sad reality of an unchanged system. Meh - cheers to the ones who are trying to make a difference - but in order to make a difference hire local Indigenous educators in "jobs that matter."

The negative they didn’t hire a local indigenous educator: the positive - I don’t have to teach people who are not ready to learn or change for the betterment of Indigenous learners stuck in a system that is not meant for them.

Do you think that local school districts represent local Indigenous Nations to high standards?

• 0%yes
• 0%no