A Discussion with Stephanie Roy, Executive Director of Kenjgewin Teg Educational Institute, M’Chigeeng First Nation, Ontario, Canada
With: Stephanie Roy Berkley Center Profile
June 8, 2015
Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Fellowship, in June 2015 student Caitlin Snell interviewed Stephanie Roy, executive director of Kenjgewin Teg Educational Institute (KTEI) in M’Chigeeng First Nation in Ontario, Canada. KTEI offers numerous educational programs and services that are accessible to members of M’Chigeeng First Nation. In this interview Roy reflects on the aims and values of KTEI, as well as what encouraged her to get involved in education.
What are your responsibilities as executive director?
I think we here at KTEI are in a unique organization, or some would call, what we've called institute, because we really look and approach learning in a different way, and I think our viewpoint that makes us unique than any other system is we look at lifelong learning, and what lifelong learning means as Indigenous people is the whole spectrum. So whether we're infants to 4-year-olds to 16-year-olds to 80-year-olds is that we really look at education and training throughout that whole spectrum, and we never stop learning, so we say from cradle to grave, and that's really what we believe here at KTEI.
What is the mission of KTEI?
I think when we look at what my role is in moving forward in First Nations education as the director, it really is laying out that blueprint for how we're going to advance in education and training and what does that mean within the whole continuum of lifelong learning, and I really think the values are really central to how we deliver our education and training. When we look at the values that guide us in delivering all of the services that we do that surround education and training, we know that we've come up with those values as a community. They weren't developed by one person, but we came together over several days and said, “Here's the principles that we feel as staff, as community members, as representatives in our communities,” because Kenjgewin represents eight communities. You know, we said that these are the ones we collectively agree upon, and these are the ones that will guide our work of what we do each and every day, and we as a staff believe strongly in what those values are. They range from things that everybody would use from creativity, being creative in how we deliver service, but also realizing that we're not stuck within the boundaries. I think that education and training places on us, but that we're able to work within those parameters and really be creative in how we teach the knowledge and skills that we want our learners to have.
What are the key values of KTEI?
Respect. We want to show all of our learners that we respect them as much as we expect them to respect us as service providers. So, you know, that's a two-way street, and it's very basic, but it's a principle that we stand by. Education. You know we deliver education, and that is what we endeavor to do, everything related to learning, and we believe that learning is lifelong, so always making sure that we stick to the premise that that is what we deliver: we deliver education. Of course, we're always looking at resources. We believe that having that efficiency of making the best use of our resources is something that we do, and I think that's a challenge we all have working in education, doing the best with what we can in terms of efficiency, and I think that's something we do quite well given the resourcing that we have.
And then we have honor. I think honor is one of the backbone values that we have, and that's really to be able to include and honor who we are as Anishinabek people, Indigenous people, and we want to make sure that's central within the learning pathway of all of our students, so it's really being able to not only say it, but how do we do it, so that's why it's important, and that's why it came out as a value. So when we look at those values, those values guide everyone that we work with here, and we believe that we're a family. We're with each other eight hours of the day, and we support all of our learners the best way that we can, and those learners can be 3-years-old or they can be 80-years-old, but that's something that as a collective that we all believe we're contributing to in terms of the greater good of advancing the communities.
How has your background prepared you for your position?
I think what I've had the opportunity to do in having a background in business and management and being able to look at different education models within my undergraduate degree and graduate degree is you can take a step back to look at what are the models out there, what models work for us, and what models don't. I think having that background to be able to say, when I'm able to provide that leadership in an organization such as ours, I can look at what model would work and having that paternalistic model that we've just tended, whether it's been imposed or adopted over time. I think we have to realize at some point that the leadership has to incorporate a model that works with our people, for our people, and by our people. I really believe that that works in a collaborative shared leadership within an organization like us, like Kenjgewin Teg, and to be able to say we're in this together, and we'll work through our strategic plan together and we made it together, and it's not something I’d say, “I've done [it],” but “I've done it with my whole team,” and the whole collaborative leadership piece is critical if we're going to get buy-in in our communities. Because if we look at our history, our history says that we've been marginalized and we've been oppressed, and how are we going to move forward and advance in a way that we feel we're able to be proud and own that.
You said you have a bit of a business background. How did you get involved in education?
I think one of the ways that we advance as a nation is we have to be able to understand that education is one of the most powerful tools that we can use to overcome poverty, and I know that's been said over and over again, and when we look at statements like that from Nelson Mandela, we can really know what that means when we have been so marginalized. But I know it goes back from my upbringing, understanding that getting your grade 12 is a way out of poverty, and once we're able to obtain a minimum grade 12—because having less than 30 percent of our students graduate from grade 12 is very concerning—and having that statistic for the last 50 years, and you know we don't seem to be making very many improvements there. We have to be thinking, “Okay, what does that mean?" But for me, it was looking at making sure education has always been important going through grade 12, and then going to college and university, and then coming back and working in my community in the field of education, and then realizing as a practitioner in education, working as a teacher in local schools, was really eye-opening in terms of what the realities are.
I think the biggest piece was understanding the role poverty plays in learning and being able to say, now that I’m able to look at and work as a practitioner, going on to graduate school was really seeing and being able to research and investigate: are the models working? And they're clearly not working, so being able to study the different models of education and realizing that we don't fit within a mainstream model, and if we continue to do the mainstream model we're going to get the same results. Moving into a leadership position we're able to say that we have to do something different, and merrily accepting a curriculum where there's no interest, and what are the different system changes that we need to have in place, and as we advance, putting into place what those system changes mean for us in our communities.
I think we here at KTEI are in a unique organization, or some would call, what we've called institute, because we really look and approach learning in a different way, and I think our viewpoint that makes us unique than any other system is we look at lifelong learning, and what lifelong learning means as Indigenous people is the whole spectrum. So whether we're infants to 4-year-olds to 16-year-olds to 80-year-olds is that we really look at education and training throughout that whole spectrum, and we never stop learning, so we say from cradle to grave, and that's really what we believe here at KTEI.
What is the mission of KTEI?
I think when we look at what my role is in moving forward in First Nations education as the director, it really is laying out that blueprint for how we're going to advance in education and training and what does that mean within the whole continuum of lifelong learning, and I really think the values are really central to how we deliver our education and training. When we look at the values that guide us in delivering all of the services that we do that surround education and training, we know that we've come up with those values as a community. They weren't developed by one person, but we came together over several days and said, “Here's the principles that we feel as staff, as community members, as representatives in our communities,” because Kenjgewin represents eight communities. You know, we said that these are the ones we collectively agree upon, and these are the ones that will guide our work of what we do each and every day, and we as a staff believe strongly in what those values are. They range from things that everybody would use from creativity, being creative in how we deliver service, but also realizing that we're not stuck within the boundaries. I think that education and training places on us, but that we're able to work within those parameters and really be creative in how we teach the knowledge and skills that we want our learners to have.
What are the key values of KTEI?
Respect. We want to show all of our learners that we respect them as much as we expect them to respect us as service providers. So, you know, that's a two-way street, and it's very basic, but it's a principle that we stand by. Education. You know we deliver education, and that is what we endeavor to do, everything related to learning, and we believe that learning is lifelong, so always making sure that we stick to the premise that that is what we deliver: we deliver education. Of course, we're always looking at resources. We believe that having that efficiency of making the best use of our resources is something that we do, and I think that's a challenge we all have working in education, doing the best with what we can in terms of efficiency, and I think that's something we do quite well given the resourcing that we have.
And then we have honor. I think honor is one of the backbone values that we have, and that's really to be able to include and honor who we are as Anishinabek people, Indigenous people, and we want to make sure that's central within the learning pathway of all of our students, so it's really being able to not only say it, but how do we do it, so that's why it's important, and that's why it came out as a value. So when we look at those values, those values guide everyone that we work with here, and we believe that we're a family. We're with each other eight hours of the day, and we support all of our learners the best way that we can, and those learners can be 3-years-old or they can be 80-years-old, but that's something that as a collective that we all believe we're contributing to in terms of the greater good of advancing the communities.
How has your background prepared you for your position?
I think what I've had the opportunity to do in having a background in business and management and being able to look at different education models within my undergraduate degree and graduate degree is you can take a step back to look at what are the models out there, what models work for us, and what models don't. I think having that background to be able to say, when I'm able to provide that leadership in an organization such as ours, I can look at what model would work and having that paternalistic model that we've just tended, whether it's been imposed or adopted over time. I think we have to realize at some point that the leadership has to incorporate a model that works with our people, for our people, and by our people. I really believe that that works in a collaborative shared leadership within an organization like us, like Kenjgewin Teg, and to be able to say we're in this together, and we'll work through our strategic plan together and we made it together, and it's not something I’d say, “I've done [it],” but “I've done it with my whole team,” and the whole collaborative leadership piece is critical if we're going to get buy-in in our communities. Because if we look at our history, our history says that we've been marginalized and we've been oppressed, and how are we going to move forward and advance in a way that we feel we're able to be proud and own that.
You said you have a bit of a business background. How did you get involved in education?
I think one of the ways that we advance as a nation is we have to be able to understand that education is one of the most powerful tools that we can use to overcome poverty, and I know that's been said over and over again, and when we look at statements like that from Nelson Mandela, we can really know what that means when we have been so marginalized. But I know it goes back from my upbringing, understanding that getting your grade 12 is a way out of poverty, and once we're able to obtain a minimum grade 12—because having less than 30 percent of our students graduate from grade 12 is very concerning—and having that statistic for the last 50 years, and you know we don't seem to be making very many improvements there. We have to be thinking, “Okay, what does that mean?" But for me, it was looking at making sure education has always been important going through grade 12, and then going to college and university, and then coming back and working in my community in the field of education, and then realizing as a practitioner in education, working as a teacher in local schools, was really eye-opening in terms of what the realities are.
I think the biggest piece was understanding the role poverty plays in learning and being able to say, now that I’m able to look at and work as a practitioner, going on to graduate school was really seeing and being able to research and investigate: are the models working? And they're clearly not working, so being able to study the different models of education and realizing that we don't fit within a mainstream model, and if we continue to do the mainstream model we're going to get the same results. Moving into a leadership position we're able to say that we have to do something different, and merrily accepting a curriculum where there's no interest, and what are the different system changes that we need to have in place, and as we advance, putting into place what those system changes mean for us in our communities.
Opens in a new window