Alumnus and Squamish Nation member Ron Johnston appointed director
By Alison Roach
The SFU Faculty of Education has established an Office of Indigenous Education to continue its commitment to an integrated Aboriginal viewpoint in its programs. The office will work to find new ways to support Aboriginal students in the education system and establish strong relationships with the B.C.’s indigenous community. Ron Johnston has been appointed the office’s director.
A member of the Squamish Nation himself, Johnston is an SFU alumnus, graduating with a joint major in sociology and anthropology in 2000. Since then, Johnston has worked as an apprenticeship counsellor with the provincial government, the director of Aboriginal Education and Services at Vancouver Community College, and an education advisor at Aboriginal Affairs Canada. Johnston says that his previous experience will help greatly in this new position, he said, “I think everything is sort of interconnected in one way or another . . . my work at VCC and at Aboriginal Affairs was very much in alignment with this job.”
Through these previous experiences, Johnston comes back to SFU with a large network of established contacts within the Aboriginal community, and the attitude that community engagement is of the utmost importance. The first step of the office is to gather an advisory committee comprised of various faculty representatives. They will work with Johnston to develop an indigenous framework and improve Aboriginal education services. Johnston said, “We will develop a strategic action plan to help us focus on key goals and objectives and establish outcomes.” For example, faculty members may choose to focus on K-12 and post-secondary Aboriginal student retention and success, or developing strong bonds with Aboriginal communities.
The need for work like this is apparent in some of the statistics that Johnston brings up, such as the fact that in the K-12 system, only 54 per cent of Aboriginal children graduate. “As an education and a member of Canadian society, it’s quite discouraging. I think we have a collective responsibility to work to increase those numbers.” said Johnston. He points to socio-economic considerations as one of the variables that come into play with success in education. “You’re not thinking about education when you’re worried about where you’re going to get your next meal, you go into survival mode,” said Johnston. “I’m not suggesting that all aboriginal people are in that situation, but a number . . . are marginalized in our society.” There is also a problem of difference of perspectives: while aboriginal perspectives tend to be holistic and very broad in scope, our education is more based on a European silo-type view.
Fortunately, the statistics of education completion among Aboriginal students have been improving, and Johnston has seen a trend of more Aboriginal people pursing a post-secondary education. As an alumnus, Johnston claims that he already has an understanding of the university and faculty. “I’m a firm believer of education as a change agent,” said Johnston.
