A Missing Link: Between TraditionalAboriginal Education and the WesternSystem of Education

Abstract

This article continues the ongoing discussion o f culturally appropriate education fo rAboriginal students and focuses on students' spirituality as the missing ingredientthat makes traditional Aboriginal education and the Western system o f educationcompatible. Spirituality unites the human part o f all o f us and permits the differencesto exist; through our spirituality we fin d our connectedness to one another. Thecounsel o f Aboriginal educators must be heeded if Aboriginal education is to becomespiritually grounded and thus culturally appropriate. They hold the answers to whatmore we need to know about the role o f spirituality in learning and education. Thisarticle examines spirituality in learning and education from three perspectives:(a) Aboriginal epistemology to discover the foundation fo r spirituality in learning;(b) Aboriginal educators' knowledge to understand the implications fo r teachers andtheir pedagogy; and (c) students' comments to see how they experience spiritualityoperating in a university course fo r beginning teachers.