Factors and Themes in Native Education and School Boards/First Nations Tuition Negotiations and Tuition Agreement Schooling

Abstract

The Aboriginal people adapted, thrived, and flourished for thousands of years be­ fore European occupation of North America. This overall success was largely a result of the interconnectedness of their social, personality, and cultural systems, which were notably indigenous in both spirit and character. Thereafter, these sys­tems, including institutions comprising the social system as in the case of kin­ ship, spirituality, political, economic, education, and political structures, have undergone the eroding effects of colliding Western world views and Indigenous world views, the former being steeped in the hegemonic aspirations and expecta­ tionsofEurocentricity. Thisarticleexaminesarangeofhegemonicfactorsand themes pertaining to the Indian residential school era and tire master tuition agreement eras in Canada. The article suggests that in the absence of radical chan­ges pertaining specifically to First Nations/provincial school boards tuition agree­ment negotiations and tuition schooling (where First Nations have decided this is the preferred option among various alternatives) tuition agreement schooling will continue to be noninclusive, racist, discriminatory, and assimilative in practice. The article recommends a praxis of Native control of tuition negotiations and tui­tion schooling as a strategy for intervening in the neocolonialist traditions and practices of provincial school board systems and their schools, where feasible.