Now what is my next learning? Some areas I could explore next include: - Learning more about specific Indigenous cultures and communities to better understand their unique educational needs, philosophies, and practices. Getting input and perspectives directly from Elders and knowledge keepers. - Researching how various inclusive models have been implemented in Indigenous schools/communities and their effectiveness based on feedback from students, families, and educators. Looking at both successes and areas for improvement. - Exploring how inclusive models and Indigenous knowledge and practices can be most authentically and respectfully integrated into mainstream classroom settings with diverse student populations. Gaining practical strategies and lesson ideas. - Continuing self-reflection on my own assumptions, biases,

1. How Does
Inclusive Education
Suit Aboriginal
Students Needs in
the Classroom
By: Brittany Leonard
For: Lillian Morton
EDTE 430: Issues in Aboriginal
Education
Date: 2 April 2014

2. Purpose
What do I want to learn? Understand? Consider?
What did I learn?
What do I understand at this point?

3. What do I want to learn?
Understand? Consider?
 I am interested in understanding models of teaching that create a learning
environment that is adequate and comfortable for aboriginal learners. I am aware that
there is no one quick-fix solution to the ongoing issues in Aboriginal education, but
believe that doing something in attempt to mend the gap between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal learners is much better than ignoring the issues. It is also important to
me that the strategies I find are either relatable to my current philosophy of teaching
or have enough meaning that they would change my philosophy of teaching to
include them.
 After reading “A Missing Link: Between Traditional Aboriginal Education and the
Western System of Education” by Lynda A. Curwen Doige, I was struck by the
parallels she describes about the needs of Aboriginal learners for a spiritual
connectedness within learning and the focus of inclusive education models.
 By exploring a variety of inclusion models, I will have a better understanding of
methods of creating an inclusive classroom. I will also reflect on which of these
models are similar to those recommended by Aboriginal communities and would be
beneficial to Aboriginal learners as well as non-Aboriginal learners.

4. What did I learn?
 I decided to focus on three models of inclusion to begin
my research. These included The Virtues Project,
Tribes Learning Community, and The Circle of
Courage.
 During my journey I came across many other similar
models and extended my goal to include resiliency-
building strategies. Each resource I found introduced
new programs I had not heard of that I was interested
in inquiring further into.
 I will focus my presentation on the three main models I
started my research with and will briefly summarize the
projects I found that were similar in nature.

5.  The goal of The Virtues Project is to give a
positive focus for children and adolescents to
make a difference with.
 The project calls on virtues because they are
elements that are universally recognized by all
cultures, as opposed to values whose
importance changes from person to person and
from one culture to another.
 To implement the project, the handbook
recommends to follow First Nations’ Four
Medicines: The power to see the virtues in each
student. The power to hear students. The power
to speak of the virtues. And the power to act with
virtues, role-modeling them for students.
 By using the virtues to acknowledge good
behaviour, guide behaviour in a preventative
manor, and to correct misbehaviour, students
will begin to become conscious of their words
and actions and can build up their own ability to
acknowledge, guide, and correct their own
behaviour.
 Uses proven methodology, and contains
resources to establish each virtue.
 The next page includes the Virtues and the
Strategies included in the project.
The
Virtues
Project
What did I learn?

6. The Virtues Project
The Five Strategies of the
Virtues Project
 Speak the Language of
the Virtues
 Recognize Teachable
Moments
 Set Clear Boundaries
 Honor the Spirit
 Offer the Art of Spiritual
Companioning
The Virtues
 Assertiveness, Caring, Cleanliness,
Commitment, Compassion, Confidence,
Consideration, Cooperation, Courage,
Courtesy, Creativity, Detachment,
Determination, Diligence, Enthusiasm,
Excellence, Flexibility, Forgiveness,
Friendliness, Generosity, Gentleness,
Helpfulness, Honesty, Honor, Humility,
Idealism, Integrity, Joyfulness, Justice,
Kindness, Love, Loyalty, Moderation,
Modesty, Orderliness, Patience,
Peacefulness, Perseverance, Reliability,
Respect, Responsibility, Self-discipline,
Service, Tact, Thankfulness, Tolerance,
Trust, Trustworthiness, Truthfulness,
Understanding, Unity
What did I learn?

7.  Tribe’s mission is: “to assure the healthy and
whole development of every child so that
each has the knowledge, skills, and
resiliency to be successful in a rapidly
changing world.” (Gibbs)
 The name “Tribes” respectfully relates to
tribes in First Nations culture. It
encompasses a feeling of family or belonging
to build on virtues important to both cultures
of respect, responsibility, and relationship
building.
 Tribes has an abundant amount of strategies
to be used in the classroom to build different
social, emotional, physical, and spiritual
aspects of human development. Many of
these strategies can be interwoven with
curriculum, ensuring that there is often an
academic relevance while using tribes in the
classroom.
 Tribes underwent many changes throughout
the past thirty-five years, developing the
process based on the research on outcomes
from the version before.
 The next page contains the Tribes
Agreements and Tribes Trail.
Tribes Learning
Communities
What did I learn?

8. Tribes Learning Community
What did I learn?

9.  The Circle of Courage integrates
Aboriginal philosophies on child-
rearing with current research in
resiliency and self-worth.
 The Circle contains the necessary
pillars that must exist in a child’s life
to be happy, healthy, and available to
learn. These include a sense of
belonging, mastery, independence,
and generosity.
 The proof of this model is not only in
its implementation in schools and
research to establish it, but is also in
the history of connectedness that
exists in Aboriginal communities that
often lacks in Western society.
 The next slide includes a description
of each of the four quadrants of the
circle, along with the research
Western society is now finding that
matches Aboriginal tradition.
Circle of
Courage
What did I learn?

10. Circle of Courage
What did I learn?

11.  DRUMBEAT – created to address poor peer
relationships, low self-esteem, dislocation from
school, and alienation, which are common
factors in the lives of at-risk youth. This
program uses drums to explore different
themes of resiliency. The only information I
could find supporting the effectiveness of this
program was by the program coordinator and
manager.
 Restorative Justice programs – an alternative
to zero-tolerance (suspensions and expulsions)
to working to solve problems as a community,
placing the student responsible for past,
current, and future actions. A facilitator assists
in a discussion among the people involved in
an issue, ensuring they have the opportunity to
express themselves, acknowledge the other
person’s feelings, and offer a change that they
themselves can make to prevent a similar
incident from occurring. This approach has
research showing positive results for this type
of program.
Other
models
What did I learn?
• Listening to Students Circle – the students of a
school sit in a circle inside of a circle of all of
the staff. The staff are required to be silent with
the exception of prompting questions to the
students. The students express themselves on
positive experiences in the school and what
needs they have that are not being met, along
with suggestions on how to improve the school.
This is really successful as long as the school
(staff and students) come up with solutions and
implement them in an effective and timely
manner.
• Re-Education – developed to help youth with
emotional or behavioural disorders to focus on
their strengths instead of their weaknesses. It
was developed on the basis of research done
by its creator and is used throughout the world
to help youth with these issues in a positive
manner.

12. What do I understand at this
point?
 Beginning this inquiry, I understood the following points about Aboriginal learners’
needs in education:
 A recognition of respect for other people and the world around us.
 Communication with others; dialogue and meaning behind learning; exploration of ideas,
thoughts, and feelings within self and with others.
 Concurrent learning of virtues, resiliency, character traits necessary to work with others
(e.g. belonging, hearing and being heard), and to build on ones self (e.g. self-esteem,
persistence), in conjunction with curriculum taught within a school.
 These are also the foundation of many of the inclusion models I’ve researched in the
past few weeks. Successfully incorporating Aboriginal values and learning needs into
the classroom is not as far-fetched or difficult as society has made it seem up until
this point. The methods Aboriginals would like put in place in schools are already
formulated and available. They are models that benefit all learners, and demonstrate
that a separation need not be made between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners,
though these methods do need to begin to be implemented in schools to ensure the
success of all learners not just academically, but also in growing successful citizens
of tomorrow.

13. Current impact
So what does this tell me about the world? Myself;
personally and professionally?
So what resonated or struck me about the learning?

14. So what does this tell me about the
world? Myself; personally and
professionally?
 These models have taught me that inclusive education is
something that fits the human mind and being. It is something
that benefits every child worldwide and is based on the innate
needs of every person. Each of these methods have similar
roots, implementation, and results, that have been tested in
many countries across the world.
 Inclusivity is an extremely positive and useful tool to have in
my pedagogical practices as it helps to develop the multiple
intelligences and social/emotional skills of students. I will feel
as though I am doing everything I can for a student if I know I
am making every effort in using methods to accentuate
students strengths in other ways than just through academics.

15. So what resonated or struck you
about the learning?
 It truly shocked me that almost every one of the models
researched had its roots in First Nations methods and
values. I find it ironic that while a hundred years ago
Western society believed that Aboriginal people were
savage and needed to be civilized, today this society
applauds their values and traditions and they are
ingrained in upcoming methodologies of pedagogy.
 Although I knew that Aboriginal Education focuses on
community and inclusivity, I did not expect to find such
prominent parallels between Aboriginal Education and
current Inclusive Education methodologies.

16. Next steps
Now what impact will this have on me as a professional?
Now what will I do with this?
Now what is my next learning?

17. Now what impact will this have on
me as a professional?
 This process has reminded me that focusing on the “other” can take away
from integrating people as a whole. I began this with the intension of
finding out how inclusive education could fit into the needs of Aboriginal
learners. In doing so I neglected the need of them and other learners to
not be labeled into categories.
 By the time it came to summarizing my findings, I figured out that
“Indigenous education is inclusive education.” (Rolheiser) And that
inclusive education is something that every child, adolescent, adult, or
learner needs to have regardless of race, history, upbringing, or learning
style.
 It will impact not only the placements I will have in the next few years of
the education program, but will also be extremely helpful when I move
back to Toronto and am challenged with creating inclusive environments
for a large variety of learners.

18. Now what will I do with this?
 This has given me a variety of tools and perspectives on
inclusive education that I never would have taken the
opportunity to explore otherwise. I will definitely
incorporate these models into my future classroom and
will remember that learners are learners, no matter where
they come from or what learning style they have.
 The Virtues Project has given me the language required
to create a safe and caring space. The Circle of Courage
has given me a framework to create balance within the
classroom environment. The Tribes Learning Community
has given me activities and resources to work from
inclusion to creating a community of learners.

19. Works Cited
 Bernard, Bonnie, and Sean Slade. “Listening to Students.” Handbook of Positive Psychology in
Schools. Ed. M. Furlong, R. Gilman, and S. Heubner. 352-369. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
 Brendtro, Larry K., Martin Brokenleg, and Steve Van Bockern. "The Circle Of Courage And Positive
Psychology." Reclaiming Children & Youth 14.3 (2005): 130-136. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
 Faulkner, Simon. "Drumming Up Courage." Reclaiming Children & Youth 21.3 (2012): 18-22. Web.
19 Mar. 2014.
 Gibbs, Jeanne. “Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities.” Las Vegas: Creel Printing,
2006. Print.
 Hanson, Thomas., Jo Ann Izu, Anthony Petrosino, Bo Delong-Cotty, and Hong Zheng. “A
Randomized Experimental Evaluation of Tribes Learning Communities Prevention Program.”
WestEd. (2011). Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
 Kavelin Popov, Linda. “The Virtues Project Educator’s Guide.” Torrance: Jalmar Press, 2000. Print.
 “Re-ed.” Positive Education Program. Positive Education Program, 2008. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
 Restoule, Jean-Paul. “Everything is Alive and Everyone is Related: Indigenous Inclusive Education.”
Inquiry into Practice: Reaching Every Student Through Inclusive Curriculum. Ed. Carol Rolheiser,
Mark Evans, and Mira Gambhir, 2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
 Sumner, Michael D., Carol J. Silverman, and Mary Louise Frampton. “School-Based Restorative
Justice as an Alternative to Zero-Tolerance Policies: Lessons from West Oakland.” University of
California. (2010). Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
 Warhuus, Lisa, and Leslie Poynor. “School Climate for Learning.” Alameda Country School Health
Services Coalition. 2009. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.