Issues of Respect: Reflections of First Nations Students' Experiences in Postsecondary Anthropology Classrooms

Abstract

First Nations students discuss negative responses to participation in anthropolo­gy classes. After contextualizing anthropology courses in the undergraduate curriculum of the Native Indian Teacher Education Program at the University of British Columbia, in connection with Indian control of Indian education, this article explores those negative reactions. A first analytic procedure is the applica­tion of Agar's (1986) discussion of perspective and voice. The issue is identified as one of unreconciled claims to authority to describe and define First Nations is­ sues. The position is adopted in this article that the students speak with authority about their reactions, and speak with authority as well about First Nations issues. Some of the students' discussion is categorized and presented in a request to people in the discipline to engage in reflexive examination of underlying premises about authority in anthropological discourse in the broader context of respect. Respect is an issue both in the way research about First Nations peoples is con­ ducted and in the way those issues are presented to students.