Education
Governance Initiative

Our education governance initiative supports Listuguj’s ongoing efforts to reclaim, control, and deliver education programs and services grounded in Mi’gmaw worldviews and concerns for the well-being and best interests of Listuguj learners, their families, and the community.

Mi'gmaw
Education Standards

Living Standards Governance 2022 - illustration icon of 3 Feathers

Educators'
Mantra

Education Initiative Timeline

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About

Listuguj is in Gespe'gewa'gi, the seventh district of Mi'gma'gi. The territory of Gespe'gewa'gi extends from the present-day Gaspé Peninsula (in Québec) to the Miramichi watershed area (in New Brunswick). Mi'gmaq have lived, used, and occupied the lands, waters, and resources of Gespe'gewa'gi, Mi'gma'gi, since time immemorial.

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In 2020, LED launched its educational governance initiative. The purpose of the education governance initiative is to:

Ensure Mi'gmaw worldviews, values, and protocols are part of education management structures.

Support Listuguj in reclaiming and strengthening their education.

artworks created on april 28 2022 as part of the living standards campaign the growth of a tree

Objectives

Center and honour Mi'gmaw Worldviews and values

Conduct research and engage with the community

Create and implement Mi'gmaq Education Standards

Articulate a Mi'gmaw rooted, community-based, Education Law

Establish a community-based Education Authority

We are guided by the principle and practices of Ms't No'gmaq. Everything is related and connected. Ms't No'gmaq involves strengthening and building healthy relations with one another, land, waters, ancestors, and thinking ahead for those who are coming.

Mi'gmaw

Education Standards

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Mi'gmaw Education Standards Living Standards

Introduction

The Listuguj Education Directorates (LED) manages and delivers educational programs and services primarily to Mi’gmaq learners.  Ms’t No’gmaq (All My Relations) is an important principle that guides education.
Ms’t No’gmaq speaks of creation and our connections with one another, land,
and Mi’gmaq knowledge. LED’s vision statement informs this work:

Vision Statement

Siawinnui’sulti’gw, Siawimegitesulti’gw, Siawignu’tmasulti’gw

We (ginu) continue to speak our language,
we (ginu) continue to take pride in who we are,
and we (ginu) continue to learn. 1

The Mi’gmaw Education Standards support the well-being and success of Mi’gmaq learners along a holistic and lifelong learning pathway. 2 LED Governance facilitated, co-created, and drafted the Mi’gmaq Education Standards with learners, educators, parents/guardians, and staff (Appendix A). The Mi’gmaw Education Standards are intended for all LED programs and services. The purpose of having Mi’gmaw Education Standards (principles we uphold and are guided by) is to ensure that education programs and services are culturally relevant and meet the needs of Mi’gmaq learners. The Mi’gmaw Education Standards are intended to help guide the rebuilding and vitalizing of Listuguj’s educational system in a manner that recognizes, supports, and rebuilds Mi’gmaw knowledges, ways of being, knowing and doing.

The Standards were approved by the Listuguj Mi’gmaq Development Council on April 29, 2022. LED’s Education Governance presented the Education Standards to the Listuguj Chief and Council at a “Lunch and Learn” on June 6, 2022.

The Education Standards are framed by the Mi’gmaq Creation Story ‘MESTIGISTAQANMINU’. The Creation Story is used to help ground this work in Mi’gmaw ways of being and knowing.

The standards include an Educators’ Mantra. The Mantra is intended to encourage lifelong learning where teachers: Facilitate, Accommodate, Collaborate, Communicate, and Motivate.

The Mi’gmaw Education Standards project was conceptualized and implemented by LETE staff Tammy Barnaby, M.Ed. (Associate Director) and Amy Chamberlin, Ph.D. (Governance Policy Associate).

Standards - Education's Mantra

WHY THE MI’GMAW EDUCATION STANDARDS ARE REQUIRED

There is a need for Mi’gmaw Education Standards to ensure that education is rooted in Mi’gmaq ways of being and knowing: worldviews, values, knowledge, and language. This work sheds light on the ongoing impacts of colonial history and schooling. Indian Residential and Day Schools were used to assimilate and eliminate Indigenous peoples and knowledge.3 The Mi’gmaw Education Standards project supports the broader work of reclaiming and rebuilding education for Mi’gmaq learners of Listuguj. Mi’gmaq of Listuguj (Gespe’gewa’gi) have inherent and Treaty Rights over their knowledge systems, Mi’gmaw language, ways of being, knowing, building, and sharing knowledge.4

As one LED staff observed, the Mi’gmaw Education Standards
“honour” Mi’gmaw ways of living and being:

We need to honour the things passed down through the generations and use those as a base for where we need to go. You cannot build on colonial ways. We were forced into those systems and have not thrived; we have survived. There needs to be acknowledgement. And we need to ask: What is important to us, to our children? What has made us strong? We need to go from where we are, from our worldview, from Mi’gma’gi, and what that means for us as Mi’gmaq.

The Mi’gmaw Education Standards are living: the standards will continue to change and evolve as part of living Mi’gmaw ways of knowing, being, building and sharing knowledge.

MI’GMAW STANDARDS – FRAMED BY MI’GMAW CREATION STORY

The Creation Story, “Mestigisitaqanminu”, frames the Mi’gmaw Education Standards. Starting with the Creation Story is one way to center and honour Mi’gmaq Worldviews, values, protocols, language, ways of being and knowing. Sharing and building understandings about Mi’gmaq ways of being and knowing through practices, ceremonies, oral stories, and living practices was, and continues to be, valued within and amongst Mi’gmaq families, communities, and throughout Mi’gma’gi.

Creation Story

MESTIGISTAQANMINU
(Our Creation Story)

MI’GMAW EDUCATION STANDARDS

Living Standards

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Educator-learner Relationships

MI'GMEWEI TLI'SUTI

Educator-learner Relationships

Create authentic educator-learner relationships as part of lifelong learning.

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EDUCATOR-LEARNER RELATIONSHIPS

Create authentic educator-learner relationships as part of lifelong learning.

Get to know the students outside of school. Build those relationships with them: go to their dance show and show an interest in who they are.  
Humour, have fun, do not take things too seriously! Practice humility.   
Create safe and positive learning spaces. 
Build authentic relationships that are holistic (Mind/Body/Spirit/Emotion).  
See the strength in students: build resilience first, care for them,
and connect with their spirit. 
Make student identity and belonging part of the learning. Empower students by enabling them to take ownership over their learning (passion projects, options, connecting with their interests).

Educator-Learner Relationship

STRENGTH-BASED

Take a strength-based approach that recognizes, encourages, and honours learners’ unique gifts.

Provide the students opportunities to experience success, to build confidence, to try things they may struggle with; show them how to use their strengths.  
Choice/options/autonomy over learning.   
Offer options for assessments: “Show me” (the skill/knowledge/practice) in the way you feel most comfortable. 
Recognize diverse ways of learning. 
Give learners responsibilities.

Strength-Base

MI’GMEWEI TLI’SUTI

Angwiasultinej, apaqonmatultinej, aq megit’tmnej aq siawigweg Mi’gmewei tli’suti. Nourish, support, and value the use and growth of the Mi’gmaw language.

Mi'gmewei tli'suti

Mi’gmewei tli’suti – the language strengthens identity, sense of pride, and deep history.  
Work on speaking, hearing, and understanding first, reading and writing comes later.    
Encourage, foster, and practice collaboration amongst educators
(share knowledge, resources, and skills)    
Create opportunities for learners (clients/students) to see/hear/feel Mi’gmaw language in their daily interactions (e.g., Word of the day, posters, use of everyday and frequently used words in Mi’gmaw).  
Experiential learning is an integral part of language acquisition. Learners need to hear a word spoken many times, in many separate locations, for long-term retention.

LAND-BASED

Learn on and with the land. Weave together outdoor and indoor learning. Experiential, hands-on, and holistic approaches to learning.

LOVE! Land-based learning brings life back into the learner and gets them excited about school. Not liking school is a learned behaviour/attitude that we must combat.  
Create connection to the land by using the language for the environment around them (experiential learning). 
Place-based learning involves extended families and community organizations, local history, and Mi’gmaq practices.

Land based

CENTER MI’GMAW WORLDVIEWS

CENTER MI’GMAW WORLDVIEWS in the learning environments, teaching methods, content, resources, and educational supports; with care, include other theories, methods, and knowledges. 2

Center mi'gmaw worldviews

Ms’t No’gmaq. We are a collective; we all work together.  
We must ensure that educational services and programs (delivered by the community or collaboratively with a province) come from a worldview that is Mi’gmaq; carefully include other theories and knowledges
(e.g. Western knowledge). 
With care, intentionally and ethically work within and across knowledge systems.  
Acknowledge and work to counter the impacts of colonialism and the painful legacy of the omission, denial, and denigration of Indigenous knowledge systems in the building of settler Canada.
Continue to strengthen Mi’gmaw (Indigenous) worldviews and concerns, as Indigenous Peoples and as non-Indigenous allies.

RELATIONS

Involve extended families (caregivers/Elders/knowledge holders) in the learning by creating positive and supportive school-home connections.

The connection between youth and Elders is so essential. Let us reconnect our kids [students/learners/clients] with Elders, knowledge holders, language speakers, and organizations in the community of Listuguj as part of learning.
Create a relationship with learners’ family/community outside of school (positive support system)
Make positive contact with caregivers, extended family, and the community.
Build those connections [with families, organizations, community]. It can be difficult, and you do not always get it, but keep trying no matter how hard it is.

Anchor 1

POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Create a positive environment for learning:
Safe, inclusive, supportive, collaborative, and caring.

Try to make the space (in the classroom) as comfortable as possible for learning. It is essential to ‘wrap students’ (learners/clients) with positive experiences: hopefully, the positive experiences will outweigh the negative experiences
that they encounter. Educators can build relationships by modelling and showing students
how to communicate with one another in a healthy way.

LEGACY OF COLONIALISM

Name and address colonial history and trauma ethically without causing more harm.

Anchor 2

Anchor 3

Educators must be aware of our past and what we carry forward: as Indigenous Peoples, as Settler Peoples.
As an institution/educator, we must have an honest conversation about the connection between trauma and education. We also need to understand what the truth means. [Indigenous peoples] are survivors of those places [residential and day schools], which had a history of violence and abuses.
That trauma still exists. We need to discuss to understand the ongoing impacts of colonialism. Learn about and implement trauma-informed teaching practices from an
Indigenous lens. Build awareness and understanding about concepts and words used to name ‘trauma’: Colonial Trauma, Historical Trauma, Soul Wound, etc. Build awareness and understanding about the lasting harms of colonialism and actively create safe and inclusive spaces for ‘healing’ and transformation. Take proactive and informed approaches to lateral violence; adopt practices that contribute to positive and empathetic learning environments. Colonial trauma includes but is not limited to institutionalized racism and
biases, ongoing colonialism, and ignoring or dismissing Indigenous knowledge in education systems. Promote and encourage wellness and cultural safety when
addressing colonial trauma.

LIFELONG LEARNING

Encourage and promote lifelong learning.

Engage in professional development opportunities (training, workshops, sessions) to stay informed, and collaborate.
Share ideas about “better practices” to best meet learners’ evolving and changing needs in all aspects of education and training (i.e., Resources, Curriculum, Teaching Methods, and Learning Environment).
Keep learning how to learn.

Lifelong Learning

Educators'

Mantra

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LED Educators' Mantra

LED’s Educators’ Mantra is a reminder of the skill and art involved in creating a supportive, comfortable, and nurturing environment for learning. It is crucial to pay attention to the ‘how’ – ways of sharing, doing, and building – knowledge.

Facilitate

Accommodate

Collaborate

accommodate

Anchor 4

Communicate

Anchor 5

Motivate

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Motivate

Education

Initiative Timeline

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Living Standards timeline - illustration icon of a clock

Over the past several decades, the Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government (LMG) and community members have worked to reclaim and strengthen education in Listuguj. In 1992, the LMG government of the day, with the support of the community, decided it was in the best interest of the students to “bring them home” to Listuguj for educational programs and services. LMG created the Listuguj Education Department to oversee the delivery of “culturally enriched education programs.”

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