Sustaining Indigenous Language Growth in Elementary Schools: nēhiýawēwin Teachers and Assessment
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This qualitative study explores teachers’ understandings of growth with children learning nēhiýawēwin for brief segments of time in elementary school contexts. The study draws upon nēhiýaw wisdom and constructivist philosophy to understand the experiences nēhiýawēwin teachers practicing in Canadian elementary classrooms. Three aspects of learning nēhiýawēwin at school are considered. First, how do nēhiýawēwin language teachers understand and experience language learning growth in schools, and what implications does this have for ongoing language learning? Second, what types of student activity, expression, and reports from other school staff and caregivers inform teachers’ perceptions of language growth, and how does this influence their instructional practice? Third, what implications do these experiences, perceptions, and understandings have for sustaining and inspiring future language learning? Demographic data shows that there has been a steady and growing trend toward the regular use of Ancestral languages in the homes of about half of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis population (Norris, 2018). Although this is good news, it also indicates that the other half of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis population has limited exposure and opportunity to learn and experience their Ancestral languages. Teachers and schools across Canada occasionally attend to this disparity, sometimes at the community’s insistence and at other times with limited community support, by providing First Nations, Inuit, and Métis language learning opportunities for elementary children. The impact of these teaching and learning efforts on teachers and children is underexplored, particularly regarding language growth and the potential contribution to overall language reclamation. This study examines how teachers nurture and foster ongoing nēhiýawēwin learning in contested spaces. Historically, schools were used as tools to erase First Nations, Inuit, and Métis languages in Canada; however, contemporarily, they have become potential places of opportunity to learn those same languages. This study also examines the impact of contextual challenges, including time constraints and limited access to various learning resources (human, print, digital, experiential, and land-based), on language growth in the immediate context and beyond. There are significant gaps in the empirical research exploring the roles and practices of teachers who nurture and sustain First Nations, Inuit, and Métis languages in contested spaces, particularly when these are learned periodically and, as is commonly the case today, as a second, additional, or new Ancestral language. This research can potentially inform pedagogy and planning for future First Nations, Inuit, and Métis language development in schools. Preparing children to learn their Ancestral languages in ways that stimulate sustainability is integral to preserving and growing languages and supporting the well-being of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people into the future.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.015 | 0.006 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".