Aboriginal Educators Discuss Recognizing, Reclaiming, and Revitalizing Their Multi-Competences in Heritage/English-Language Use

Abstract

This project was designed to bring Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educators intodialogue (Shields & Edwards, 2005) and networks to consider what in theirestimation would promote Aboriginal students' educational success with respect toheritage/English language use. This article is a preliminary analysis and report onthemes gleaned from the interviews. The situating stories that introduce the articleillustrate that the initial development of a way of talking about, a discourse aboutrecognizing, reclaming, and revitalizing (Smith, 1999) aspects of experience ishighly subjective and personal. This discourse development is conceptualized as adialogue in a zone of Aboriginal education (Atleo, 2008) in a Canadiansocio-historical context. The data suggest an initial development of a decolonizing,internal dialogue, which precedes the process of recognizing, reclaiming, andrevitalizing bicultural academic development. Participants were able to articulate thenature of the detriment of such experiences to Aboriginal students' success.Aboriginal educators share their stories/journeys and understandings of the effects ofmulti-competences that heritage language provides for Aboriginal students' academicsuccess: Successful Aboriginal students are associated with early-life experiences ofthemselves in languages and cultural contexts. This provides a ground for a narrativeof lifelong personal development facilitating formal educational achievement despiteprevailing adverse conditions. Certainties of multilingual education policy andpractice (Hornberger, 2009) grounded in Indigenous research are employed in thesummary conclusions.