open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/b.edu.127.77

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/64079

Content and Philosophy of My Teaching at Hokkaido University : Indigenous Education, Intercultural Understanding and Qualitative Research Amidst an Environment Imbued with Ainu Elements

日本語

Educational praxis

2016-12-20

北海道大学大学院教育学研究院

北海道大学大学院教育学研究院紀要

127

77-90

This paper sets out to describe the author’s educational undertakings as an Associate Professor serving in the School of Education and teaching content-based classes in English for general education programs for undergraduates at Hokkaido University, a tertiary institution located in the very center of Ainu country. While purportedly to do with the author’s teaching at Hokkaido University, the mainstay of the article actually deals with the characteristics of tertiary education for Indigenous peoples, as summarized by Barnhardt (1992), and as experienced by the author during his Master’s Degree coursework at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, in 2004～2005. In short, tertiary education for Indigenous peoples tends to blur the boundaries between university and community by imbuing university education with traditional Indigenous knowledge and traditional Indigenous teaching practices, especially in the form of whole-person education under the tutelage of Elders, and through extensive community-based learning. It tends to be committed to the needs of the community, and can often center around community-participatory research approaches. Indigenous education at the tertiary level also often tends to seek to create a congenial environment for Indigenous students leaving the comfort of their families and communities for the first time. The author has striven to replicate such conditions amongst the students under his tutelage by inviting numerous Ainu guest teachers to speak at the university, by providing as many opportunities as possible for his graduate students to engage in fieldwork by attending local Ainu community events, and by providing a role model of himself doing service to the Ainu community. On the intercultural education front, he disseminates information as much as possible about public Ainu events to mainstream students, as well as by teaching students about the unique rights of Indigenous peoples as victims of processes of colonization and assimilation. The precarious state of current Ainu policy and possibilities for change via citizen activism are also touched upon.

紀要論文

Version of Record

1882-1669