‘They tell a story and there's meaning behind that story’: Indigenous knowledge and young indigenous children's literacy learning

• Published in: Journal of Early Childhood Literacy
• Main Author: Hare, Jan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2011
• Subjects: Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468798411417378; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1468798411417378; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1468798411417378

This research draws on the reflections from group discussions with indigenous families and interviews with early childhood educators and community stakeholders from five First Nations reserve communities in Canada whose young children participate in the national aboriginal Head Start On Reserve (AHSOR) programme. The purpose of the study was to examine the contributions of indigenous knowledge to young indigenous children's literacy learning. In the course of this examination what became clear is that there is a greater set of literacy activities in these families than is recognized by early learning settings. Further, there is a literacy orientation within their indigenous knowledge systems that, draws on oral tradition, land-based experiences and ceremonial practices that, when linked to the discourses of schooling and literacy, provide the basis for improving educational outcomes for indigenous children and families, whose relationship with schooling has been historically troubled.