Improving School Health for Aboriginal Children in Canada
Can health programs in schools across Canada be redesigned to better meet the needs of Aboriginal children?
That question has been at the heart of Shirley Tagalik's work in Canada and internationally. Tagalik, an education consultant, recently helped redesign Nunavut's education system based on Inuit traditional knowledge - or Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. She is now working with the NCCAH and partners to help rebuild school programs in Canada and more broadly.
Tagalik said many school-age First Nations, Inuit and Métis school-age children face such pressing issues as suicide, drug abuse, disengagement and teen pregnancies, yet receive little appropriate support in a mainstream education system that is not informed by Aboriginal culture and practice.
"I think this is a problem within education generally -- that we have a curriculum and a system that is not in tune with an Aboriginal way of being. The question is: how do you embed Indigenous values and beliefs in the mainstream system, and not just paint those beliefs on top of the exiting curriculum?"
A Framework for Indigenous School Health
The NCCAH partnered with the Canadian Association for School Health (CASH) and the Canadian Council on Learning – Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre in a 2009/2010 national project supporting school health initiatives that are culturally relevant to Aboriginal communities, schools and students. One of the central documents produced under this partnership is "A Framework for Indigenous School Health: Foundations in Cultural Principles."
The framework was released in 2009 after three years in development, and has received national and international attention. Tagalik will present the document in 2010 in a keynote presentation at the 20th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion in Geneva, Switzerland.
Tagalik earlier presented the document at the American School Health Association conference in the United States in 2009 to gain validation from different Indigenous perspectives.
"We began an international dialogue last year when we saw similar work was being done in New Zealand and Australia. We wanted to bring those voices into the conversation," said Tagalik.
"We are now asking: how can we make this framework practical? How do we use it? Do you see this as being useful in your practice? We hope people and organizations will come forward and apply the framework so that we can begin to evaluate it in practice."
A National Training Program for Educators
Doug McCall, executive director at the Canadian Association for School Health (CASH), observed that among educators, researchers, and professionals in Canada, "there is a great deal of interest and a level of concern about the health of Aboriginal children." As a result, CASH established an active national community of practice Network on Aboriginal Health.
Five webinars (hour-long web/phone-based seminars presented by research experts and practitioners) on various topics in Aboriginal school health took place through November and December 2009. These typically drew more than 100 participants from across the country. This series focused on engaging and empowering Aboriginal youth, and featured Dr. Claire Crooks, of the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health at the University of Western Ontario, who co-authored the newly released "Engaging and Empowering Aboriginal Youth -- a toolkit for service providers."
Tagalik said the toolkit is a good example of how principles in the school health framework can be used to create programs that meet real needs. "We find that what is provided in the Indigenous school health framework is just really good teaching for all children."