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Lane 218: Indigenous Educational Leadership & First Peoples Studies

IAIP Research
outreach--n-renaud-concordia

Lane 218: Indigenous Educational Leadership & First Peoples Studies

Parent Issue: miadisabelle/Etuaptmumk-RSM#216
Child Issue: miadisabelle/Etuaptmumk-RSM#218
Date: 2026-06-01

Research Focus

First Peoples Studies programs as institutional forms; leadership frameworks; sovereignty and relational accountability in Indigenous education.

Key Findings

1. What Are First Peoples Studies Programs?

First Peoples Studies programs are undergraduate and graduate degree offerings nested within Canadian universities that center Indigenous knowledge, history, and leadership. They function as bridge institutions—spaces that translate Indigenous knowledge into academic currency while maintaining relational accountability to Indigenous communities.

Concordia Model: BA in First Peoples Studies investigates "history, current situation, and changing needs" within Quebec context. Core framework integrates:

  • Medicine Wheel as pedagogical organizing principle
  • Decolonization & decoloniality as analytical lens
  • Indigenous thought and knowledge systems as epistemological foundation
  • Language revitalization (Haudenosaunee, Algonquian, Inuktitut)
  • Community empowerment as directional outcome

2. Two-Eyed Seeing (Etuaptmumk)

Origin: Mi'kmaq Elder Albert D. Marshall & Murdena Marshall + Cheryl Bartlett

Framework: Indigenous institutional engagement operates through dual epistemological lenses—"strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing" + "strengths of Western ways of knowing," held in deliberate tension rather than hierarchical integration.

Application: Programs teach from Indigenous perspectives while occupying Western institutional space. Leadership models weave Indigenous relational ethics into institutional governance structures. Knowledge sovereignty is protected through careful gatekeeping.

3. OCAP® Principles (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession)

Institutional Relevance: OCAP® establishes data governance standards for First Nations information. Programs integrate OCAP® as operational framework for:

  • Research ethics (community ownership of knowledge generated)
  • Student projects (students learn to research with communities, not on communities)
  • Institutional protocols (universities adopt OCAP® training before Indigenous projects)

Key Principle: Communities set protocols for who uses/accesses information; access guided by cultural values and community priorities.

4. Indigenous Transgressive Leadership

Definition: Leadership that draws from Indigenous epistemological/relational ethics while strategically confronting colonial, hetero-patriarchal structures within universities.

Core Moves:

  • Strategic willfulness — intentional, constructive resistance to whitestream institutional logic
  • Reflection + Relationship + Reciprocity — Indigenous leadership pedagogy
  • Collective knowledge ownership — moving from individual credentialing to community-rooted expertise

Sources