Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit

Marie Battiste, Decolonizing Education: Nourishing Learning Spirit. Saskatoon, SK: Purich Publishing, 2013. 224 pages. ISBN 978-1-895-83077-4. $35 paperback.Marie Battiste builds upon her previous work in Aboriginal education with Decolonizing Education: Nourishing Learning Spirit. The book points to urgent need to decolonize education in Canada, especially for Aboriginals, who are not doing as well as non-Aboriginal students in mainstream curriculum. Intertwining personal stories with research findings, Battiste takes reader through issues of pedagogy and curriculum as they are today in Canada.The personal stories provide insights into Battiste's passion for Aboriginal education and creation of a environment that will decolonize and restore Aboriginal cultures, languages and ways of learning. Battiste argues that love of learning, or what she calls learning spirit, must be nurtured in order for Aboriginal students to succeed in mainstream education system. This spirit she describes as the entity within each of us that guides our search for purpose and vision (18). She argues particularly need for a spiritual connection to quest for knowledge, in which practice appropriate background and time must be set aside by educators to allow all students, especially Aboriginal students, to include their own spirituality in their journeys. Everyone must challenge existing system in order to design meaningful and honourable education for Aboriginal people...instead of biased fragmented concepts of culture buried in Eurocentric discourses (30).Indigenous knowledges and languages are unique and diverse. Battiste argues that there is a need to respect all Indigenous knowledge systems, of which language is a system unto itself that is too often neglected. She devotes a chapter to language and immersion programs because such initiatives, she suggests, will not only help Aboriginal students to connect to curriculum, but will ensure that future generations do not lose knowledge that is deeply embedded in all Aboriginal languages. Battiste provides ways to plan for and evaluate success of Aboriginal language revitalization programs.To achieve an Indigenous renaissance in education, Battiste argues that non-Indigenous allies in a wide variety of fields are vital to ensure that reclamation is true and on an equal footing to non-Indigenous knowledge systems. Yet to reach this first goal, Battiste notes that Indigenous scholars must begin to build bridges and make connections in order for non-Indigenous allies to work in collaboration for Aboriginal education and knowledge systems. This work should happen at various levels and within a variety of institutional systems in order for Indigenous methods to be accepted and applied. Although Indigenous methodologies are currently thought of as alternative to Western methodologies, in order to gain allies, decolonize education, and revitalize spirituality and language systems, Battiste argues that it is necessary for everyone involved to understand Indigenous methodologies and pass them on to emerging researchers, educators and curriculum developers in mainstream. However, because there is no one-size-fits-all Indigenous worldview, she argues it will be necessary to make particular curriculum changes by region as well as generally across board. …

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