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April 11, 2007
CANADIAN EDUCATION SPECIALIST TO VISIT WOU
“All Intertwined and Diamond�: Community-University Partnerships for Indigenous Research and Education in Canada
Dr. Jessica Ball, University of Victoria
April 25th, 2007
7:00-9:00 PM
Hamersly Library 107 Crawford Classroom
Western Oregon University, Monmouth
Partnership has become a buzzword in Canadian university research and community development. How do we journey from where we are situated, historically, culturally, politically, and in terms of reward structures, to be open to what a partner might want or need? How do we set up a partnership? How do we know when we have achieved an authentic partnership? And once we’ve achieved a partnership, can we ever leave?
In this lecture, Jessica Ball will map this exciting and challenging terrain with reference to community-university partnerships in Canada to support Indigenous community development. She will describe a post-secondary diploma program delivered in First Nations communities and involving tribal Elders co-constructing the curriculum. Called the First Nations Partnerships Program, this successful innovation has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the world’s ‘best practices’ in incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into professional training.
Dr. Ball will also describe a program of community-university research focused on Indigenous children and family development in Canada. Called the Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships Program, this research has been internationally recognized for completing the first studies in Canada of First Nations English dialects and First Nations fatherhood. Dr. Ball will highlight some lessons learned about forging mutually beneficial partnerships. She will cast this work within an agenda for social justice and equity for all young children and their families.
WHO IS JESSICA BALL?
Dr. Jessica Ball has been working on training, research, and community projects on Aboriginal early childhood development for the past 10 years. She coordinates the ‘First Nations Partnership Programs’, which is a community-based, culturally focused Early Childhood Education certificate program in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria (www.fnpp.org).
Jessica is currently the principal investigator of a program of research involving partnerships with Aboriginal communities to build understandings of Aboriginal peoples’ goals for children’s development and to create resources for Aboriginal children’s programs (www.ecdip.org). Jessica lived for many years in Southeast Asia, where she worked in training, research and policy about children, youth and community development.
Jessica is a developmental-clinical psychologist by training, as well as a specialist in public health education and research. She completed a BA in Psychology from the University of British Columbia. She earned three post-graduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, including an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology and a Master of Public Health degree focusing on maternal and child health. She has published extensively in journals, books, and popular resources for parents and practitioners. She is a frequently invited speaker on Indigenous research, family development, early childhood, and fatherhood.
Jessica now lives in Victoria, where she is a Professor at the University of Victoria, an avid grower of non-GMO edible plants in her garden by the sea, and a proud mother of two teenagers. She is passionate about social justice and equity for children, and about increasing understandings of how our histories and our futures are intertwined and could be diamond if we had the political will and personal commitment to make it so.
Posted by smithr at April 11, 2007 4:18 PM