This text is part of the special section Indigenous Development
In partnership with First Nations communities, the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (UQAC), the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) are piloting projects that promote the knowledge and realities of these communities. Portrait of three projects in the education and mining industry sectors.
The First Nations Education Council (FNCE) recently created basic training in teaching in an indigenous environment for teachers without a teaching certificate, but who teach classes in a community. Without leading to a certificate, this training is inspired by the professional skills of the Quebec Ministry of Education while modeling itself on the vision of the CEPN.
“UQAC has expressed to CEPN its interest in recognizing this training by granting three credits for an optional course to students who, after completing it, continue in a teaching program leading to the patent at UQAC,” explains Annie. Gros-Louis, director of educational services at CEPN. With this initiative, UQAC, the first university to recognize this training, highlights the CEPN’s expertise in education in indigenous environments.
Through the Nikanite Center, which has the mandate to provide university education for the Indigenous people of Quebec, UQAC is also the only university, with UQAT, to offer teaching programs leading to the certificate reserved for entirely indigenous cohorts. These programs are “a great continuation of CEPN training,” indicates Danielle Rousselot, head of relations with First Nations at UQAC.
Teacher training
The result of a collaboration between UQAC, UQTR and UQAT and involving members of the First Peoples, the Mobilization and valorization of indigenous knowledge, realities and perspectives in teacher training project wishes to pool the expertise of these universities in terms of training in teaching and psychoeducation dedicated to indigenous communities to integrate it into the training of all teaching programs. “As many Indigenous students attend our institutions, we have developed knowledge that we wish to share with professors so that they can integrate it, voluntarily, into initial teaching training,” mentions Christine Couture, professor in the Department of educational sciences from UQAC.
Enriching the training of future non-native teachers in this way is an opportunity to develop their sensitivity to the culture of the First Peoples. “They will be better able to support the indigenous students in their charge and will more easily contribute to overcoming prejudice and racism. »
This project, which benefits from a grant of nearly $440,000 from the Ministry of Higher Education, will also contribute to the training of indigenous teachers “proud to transmit their language and culture to young people in their community,” adds the professor.
The director of the CEPN Denis Gros-Louis welcomes this news with joy, but also with the hope that this project traces the path towards the official integration of competency 15 of the professional skills framework for teaching in initial training at the teaching, a skill which aims to value and promote knowledge, world view and history of indigenous culture.
Establishing Anishinaabe businesses
Laundries, caterers, drilling and geophysics services, the services that a mining company requires to operate are numerous. In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, “even if mining companies increasingly want to award contracts to Anishinabe service providers, the opportunities to do so seem limited,” underlines Joanie Caron, professor at the School of Indigenous Studies of the UQAT and principal researcher in the Strategies for Creation of Anishinaabe Service Businesses in the Mining Sector project.
This three-year project, involving Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Indigenous Services Canada, Sayona and the Anishinaabe communities of Pikogan and Lac-Simon, aims to respond to this demand by supporting participating communities to set up service companies meeting the needs of the mining industry, thereby helping to minimize employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The project also wishes to maximize economic benefits within indigenous communities since, even if Abitibi-Témiscamingue is one of the main mining regions in Quebec, “there have been fewer benefits for Anishinaabe communities historically than in other main mining regions in Quebec,” says the researcher.
Through stages, which range from the evaluation of success factors linked to the creation of indigenous businesses to the actual start-up of businesses, the project will strengthen relations between communities and the mining industry. The principal investigator also expects that the results will be transferable to other First Nations communities and other regions. “Our objectives will be achieved according to what the participating communities wish to achieve. At the School of Indigenous Studies, our projects align with their interests,” she concludes.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.