I am reflecting on Lorna Williams's 2007 podcast Weaving Words and her 2007 article Schalay’nung Sxwey’ga Emerging cross-cultural pedagogy in the academy. She also posted slides of her presentation at http://www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/Minerva/CCLMinervaLornaWilliamsMarch2008.pdf

I will also reflect on the implications of her ideas for myself as a person, as a student, as a teacher, and as a blogger.

 I am a father and husband of four daughters and a granddaughter. I live in a small town in northern BC called Prince Rupert, and have married recently into an extended family extending from Bella Bella, Hartley Bay, and Prince Rupert. I have married into the Wolf Clan.

I was living in large urban centers such as Toronto, and worked in Szczecin, Poland, for six years as an English language teacher. I came to live in Prince Rupert to move from the busy-ness of the large city.

I first began working in Northwest BC four years ago, and moved through Prince Rupert to teach in Lax Kw'alaams, a remote First Nations community, a community of about 1000 people with no direct road.

I am finishing up my Master's degree in educational technology. I am interested in using blogging as a tool of inclusion for aboriginal learners.

This is a starting point for inviting discussion, and I humbly pass along this knowledge to others in a spirit of sharing. I invite correction and feedback, as my understanding may not be what had been intended by the teller I refer to. I recognize my view of the knowledge shared is partial, guided and even distorted by pre-conceptions. I am interested in the use of blogging for individual learners, and seeking ways to facilitate and guide other learners interested in using blogs as a tool. Please accept this gift of sharing in the spirit of respect and reciprocity.

Two concepts I found strong resonance with as a human being, a student blogger and educator of adult learners were cwelelep (being in a place of dissonance, uncertainty and anticipation), and kamucwkalha (the energy that indicates an emergence of a group sense of purpose).

I felt that things were quite different when I first began teaching in the community. There was an inner tension between connecting with others, and remaining separate. The conditioning of a cosmopolitan, multi-cultural and impersonal society clashed with the expectations of living in a small community. There is such an emphasis on connectedness, of needing to walk alongside others. It is hard to undo the conditioning of remaining aloof, of distancing self from others. The ties of kinship were quite strong, and I found myself experiencing cwelelep. I referred to this experience as liminality, as being betwixt and between, and encountered this sense of being before while living in Poland as an expat, immersed in the culture and language and economic transition during the mid-1990's. But while the feelings of cwelelep were confined to learning a whole new language, and acclimatizing myself to a chaotic economic, social system, my core being remained unchanged to a large extent. The same rules of conduct remained the same: social stratefication, class structures, hierarchies, and a socialist/capitalist hybrid economic system. The religious system is Roman Catholic, which was the same as my own early religious upbringing. The move to the First Nations community, however, led to a more profound shift in perspective. I experienced cwelelep in a more profound way, because little of my previous experience was anchored in what I encountered.

kamucwkalha (the energy that indicates an emergence of a group sense of purpose) is a concept I find myself resisting. I have had to spend a great deal of time adjusting to other cultures, while retaining a sense of self-identity. I lived in a multi-cultural society immersed in a set of relationships for years that could be described as impersonal, functional, and shallow. In exchange for shifting through different cultures, learning three different languages, encountering a number of different life settings, I found myself detaching my self from the events and settings. So as not to be overly influenced by the barrage of changes I would need to adjust to the series of environments I found myself in, I needed to develop a core set of values, keeping these to myself when in conversations with others.

Imagine my confusion when I lived in a small community of Lax kw'alaams. Several situations occurred when I was spoken to on the street or in the classroom about private matters, about family disputes. The talking with others was not something I felt comfortable with. The experience with cwelelep I had is described by Williams:

Williams also talked about the need for learners to work alongside one another, to celebrate giftedness, and learn through service. She described the importance of k'e, which is the "understanding of interdependent, compassionate relationships as they manifest in life".

She explained that truly meaningful learning also involves the spiritual element. One needs to learn through group experience freed of social stratification and standardized assessment. One needs to contribute through service, through particuipation in ceremony, through reflection, and through mentoring with the guidance of mentors, parents, peers, and teachers.

An interesting point she also describes is the need for learners to have a network of suipport, with helpers who are mentors, peers, family and friends, Elders, knowledge experts, even parents. This support network involves connections between generations, and between age groups. Using these networks of support, learenrs can more easily transition the experiences of cwelelep, and in turn contribute back by talking with others and fostering, nurturing and re-connecting to others.

To what extent can we all contribute towards incorporating some of these ideas into the development of blogging as a tool of inclusion?

Reference:

Williams, L. and Michele Tanaka Schalay’nung Sxwey’ga Emerging cross-cultural pedagogy in the academy Educational Insights, 11(3).
[Available: http://www.ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v11n03/articles/williams/williams.html]