Developing a Regionally Informed Ojibwe Immersion Paradigm: Reshaping the Educational Experience of Immersion Learners

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation in practice is to inform Ojibwe language programs through the lens of regional traditional informed ways of knowing and ways of being procured from the elders and first language Ojibwe speakers.There is much research done in Hawai’i, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Africa, and Australia regarding Indigenous immersion programs. However, there is a lack of scholarship in the US and Canada that uses Ojibwe as the primary medium of discourse to obtain information from the keepers of knowledge and wisdom – our elder and first language Ojibwe speakers. With the knowledge gleaned through research completed in other countries on Indigenous language immersion, this study shall add the knowledge of first language Ojibwe speakers. The rationale is to supplement Ojibwe language programs in Northern Minnesota and to reach out to elders and maintain a model consistent with oral traditions.- To conduct interviews and gather qualitative information from elders and First Language Ojibwe speakers in Northern Minnesota. The information shall inform Ojibwe immersion schools specific to the area and broadly to immersion The information collected in the interviews will be used to come up with ways of knowing and ways of being identifiable to the Ojibwe people of Northern Minnesota. This study takes the position that First Language Speakers are experts on Ojibwe ways of knowing and ways of being obtained through traditional teachings together with personal and professional experience. An interview will be conducted with up to six participants. Demographic data to be collected shall include the following; Ojibwe spirit names, clan membership, and geographic location of place of origin. This information is critical to the identity of the individual through gikino’amaagoowinan (teachings), the placement of family relationships through patrilineal lineage in the doodemag (clan system), and their connection to regional gikendaasowin (knowledge, ways of knowing) and inaadiziwin (ways of being).