Research 2006
Aboriginal Education
for the Teachers of Tomorrow
Brian Rice
Assistant Professor, Education
“More and more, teachers are required to teach Aboriginal content in the curriculum,” says Assistant Professor Brian Rice.
Rice studies Aboriginal education, perspectives, and history. He has written two books: Seen with Aboriginal Eyes: A Four-Directional Perspective on Human and Non-human Values, Cultures and Relationships on Turtle Island and more recently, Encounters between Newcomers and Aboriginal People in the East, which he wrote for history teachers from across Canada who attended the 2005 Historica Secondary School Teachers’ Institute at The University of Winnipeg.
A third book, Encounters between Newcomers and Aboriginal People in the West, will be published this year and he’s currently converting his manual on indigenous environmental science into a book.
“I write my books for my teaching,” says Rice. Rice teaches his students —the teachers of tomorrow—about Aboriginal culture, history, and global issues from an Aboriginal perspective. Through his research and teachings, Rice helps teachers to better understand Canadian Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal students.
“Teachers are afraid that they are going to go into a classroom and do something wrong, something that’s inappropriate,” says Rice. “They want to know what they can and can’t do. It’s just as important to share my work with non-Aboriginals as it is with Aboriginals.”
Rice also works internationally with other indigenous people. He’s visited the Bedouin in Israel, the Makuche and Wapashan in Guyana, and the Karen in Thailand. During his stays, he teaches Native Studies courses or gives lectures on Aboriginal issues in Canada and the United States. Some of the indigenous groups he visits are still living a subsistence lifestyle. Others are struggling with advanced stages of colonization.
“I hope that by understanding where we are today with Aboriginal education in Canada, after going through that whole residential school stage, that they’ll understand that there is the possibility of not having to lose everything,” says Rice. “They no longer have to give up everything about who they are in order to fit into the modern western society.”
Rice plans to delve more into experiential learning by encouraging students to move beyond text and theory and into the environment with naturalist skills such as tracking. As with all of Rice’s teachings, this approach is for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.
“We can all share together. It’s a universal knowledge, a knowledge that we all shared at one time” says Rice. “Developing better relations with one another is the key for these types of studies.”
For more information about research on Aboriginal education, contact University of Winnipeg faculty member Brian Rice at b.rice@uwinnipeg.ca