Lakeheads’ UAEP: Honouring Community Collaboration, Seeking Systemic Shifts Lisa Korteweg, Lakehead University and Sherri-Lynne Pharand, Lakehead DSB at the 5 th Annual Ontario Education Research Symposium February 18, 2010

To address the Ministry of Education’s policy goal: Increasing Aboriginal parents’ and students’ engagement in education—the Lakehead Public School Board has worked diligently to establish Community partnerships to regularly and consistently collaborate with their Aboriginal partners

Guiding Vision of the Program Components of the Lakehead UAEP (Urban Aboriginal Education Project): All students, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to be successful need to see their lived experiences, worldview and culture in schools, curriculum materials and pedagogies.

Research processes of the Lakehead UAEP: Research is Indigenous respectful with a focus on narrative or sharing circle methodologies. How can the research help shift the thinking of all board members to become “responsive” to Aboriginal students’ needs, issues, and gains while working towards our shared history and collective future?

Knowledge Mobilization (school board-university research): KM requires research capacity in both organizations. Universities need to understand the board’s position and organizational culture while maintaining a third party distance. School boards require a funded internal position to move research along and integrate it seamlessly into professional development, community work, curriculum design, administrative and school projects.

In board-university partnerships, we cannot be afraid of what the research reveals: We know, as non-Aboriginal educators working in predominantly non-Aboriginal organizations, that we will make mistakes. The Board’s Aboriginal council and the community participation in the research will notify us of the “mistakes” while guiding the systemic shifts needed by a non-Aboriginal organization (school board) to represent Aboriginal voice and perspective everyday in classes and curriculum.

Recommendation for a provincial Urban Aboriginal Education Project: We recommend supports for school boards that attend closely to community needs and respond directly to local Aboriginal groups and their needs/realities and beliefs/cultures. Each school board needs representation and role models from their local Aboriginal community—Aboriginal teachers, principals, superintendents, youth workers, counsellors, etc.— where Aboriginal heritage is a qualification given their role-model capacity and community knowledge.