Researcher: Jacquelene Gibbs
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) calls upon the education sector to take action to eliminate educational achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students within one generation, to enable parents to fully participate in the education of their children, and to respect and honour Treaty relationships. But in what ways do assessment practices, that we currently use to monitor achievement, guide planning and allocate resources, also serve to perpetuate achievement gaps?
Kindergarten transition begins long before the first day of school and continues through the Kindergarten year as the school and family discover and create an understanding of the child as a learner. The Early Years Evaluation (EYE) contributes to this understanding in terms of predicting Grade Three reading outcomes – but what skills and understandings possessed by the child are left unidentified by the EYE?
This research project aims to develop, implement, and reflect upon a process for co-creating a transition to Kindergarten with Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Indigenous families, and non-Indigenous teaching teams that is culturally sensitive and relationally accountable to Indigenous students and families, that foregrounds local traditional wisdom and families’ funds of knowledge to create a perspective of the child that can serve as an alternative to that which is produced by assessments currently employed at Kindergarten entry in Southeast Saskatchewan.