A major problem of education in isolated, predominantly First Nations communities in Ontario’s far north is that prescriptive statements and ideological preferences assume discussions about the purposes of schooling in these communities. Frequent suggestions, sometimes implicit, and sometimes explicit, indicate that the ideal condition for effective schooling must reflect the social, political, and economic characteristics of Eurocentric societies. Very closely linked with such a notion of schooling is the suggestion that education represents a single, final state of affairs, namely, excellence, measured by a Eurocentric gauge and analyzed in the units of its standards, that everyone should try to emulate, and the most successful should reach. Certainly, many discussions of schooling in First Nations communities have not occurred at a genuinely conceptual or theoretical level but involve mere word juggling because they do not carry the viewpoints and voices of First Nations people. This study examines the viewpoints of First Nations and Euro–Canadian teachers on the nature and aims of schooling, its guiding principles, its practical functions, and its role in First Nations society. The findings suggest that the idea of schooling is to develop and implement a two–way education that encourages a cross–fertilization of insights, practices, and mental prototypes of both Eurocentric and First Nations traditions and cultures.
