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Lernstil, Lern(er)typ oder auch Intelligenztyp sind verbreitete Begriffe innerhalb des pädagogischen Diskurses über effektive Möglichkeiten der Förderung der Schülerinnen und Schüler sowie der Entwicklung individueller Fähigkeiten. Verschiedene Modelle und Theorien zur Thematik (Vester 1975, Allinson/ Hayes 1996, Vermunt 1992, Herrmann 1989, Gardner 1982) werden untersucht und mit weiterführenden Ansätzen wie dem ganzheitlichen Lernen oder der emotionalen Intelligenz in Verbindung gebracht. Auch Ergebnisse aus der Gehirnforschung geben Hinweise auf einen erfolgreichen Lehr-/ Lernprozess. Eine Untersuchung der Bildungspläne hat ergeben, dass der Unterricht in den deutschen Bundesländern an die individuellen Lernvoraussetzungen bzw. Lernertypen angepasst sein soll. Zur Analyse des Beitrages des „Primary and Elementary Métis Awareness Programm“ (Inkster 2006) zum ganzheitlichen und lernertypengerechten Unterricht wurden insbesondere die Ansätze und Messinstrumente von Armstrong (1994) und Gardner (1982) (Theorie der multiplen Intelligenzen) angewandt. Die Aussagekraft der Untersuchungsergebnisse soll durch eine Kombination von quantitativen und qualitativen Messmethoden erhöht werden. Die Auswertungen zeigen, dass das Lehr-/ Lernprogramm von Rene Inkster (kanadische indigene Pädagogin, Künstlerin, „Elder“ und Autorin) über Materialien für die verschiedenen Lernertypen verfügt. Die Erhebungen dieser Studie zielten auf die Untersuchungen von alters- und geschlechtsspezifischen Aspekten ab. Die Untersuchungen an Schülerinnen und Schülern der Jahrgangsstufen 7 und 9 an deutschen Gymnasien konnten nicht nachweisen, dass die Lernenden Aktivitäten/ Materialien entsprechend ihrer individuellen Lernertypenprofile bevorzugen. Allerdings zeigten die Untersuchungen, dass eine erhöhte Motivation aufgrund der ganzheitlichen und lernertypenorientierten Konzeption des „Primary and Elementary Métis Awareness Program“ erreicht werden konnte. Dies trifft inbesondere auf die Probanden der Jahrgangsstufe 7 zu.

The Syilx Okanagan environmental ethic is a philosophy expressed in the practice of Indigeneity as a social (cultural) paradigm and is identified by an inter-reliant experience in the land, as demonstrated in land-use practice which is shaped by the land’s realities as observed, learned and communicated to succeeding generations. Syilx Okanagan Indigeneity reflects an epistemology that optimum human wellbeing cannot be achieved through a human centered ethic but must focus on the optimum ability for the environment to regenerate itself. Syilx Okanagan stories convey the social experience and act as a records system to preserve, maintain and transfer the knowledge of the land. On one level, captikwl contain essential specific environmental knowledge as an oral documentation method, while on another level, as literature, captikwl reconstructs the ethos of interdependency specific to the ecology of the Syilx Okanagan territory through reenactment of nature’s interactions. captikwl in the Nsyilxcen language mimics the dynamic aspects of nature’s required regenerative principles to each succeeding generation, and acts as a feed-back loop reconstructing the social paradigm as an environmental ethic. captikwl might be seen as a distinctly Indigenous human adaptive response scheme within a natural system as it constructs the Syilx Okanagan world and results in behavior with sustainable outcome in the environment. captikwl is a distinct oral artistry that must be read through a literary framework cognizant of oral memory device, structure and Syilx Okanagan context. Okanagan author Morning Dove’s collection of Okanagan stories, as well as, the Mattina and DeSautel bilingual collections and other original version captikwl were consulted. Captikwl demonstrates the concept of tmixw which better translates as a life-force. The word for land is tmxwulaxw, which translates better as a life-force-place, rather than land as location or ecology type. Syilx society demonstrates an “ecological conscience” as the common text through captikwl which is enacted in their social institutions in the manner theorized by respected American conservationist Aldo Leopold, as desirable to achieve within society. The Syilx environmental ethic, rather than a sustainable human ethic of utility, is a willingness to live within a strict imperative to continuously sustain a unity of existence through societal knowledge and reverent practice of respect toward all life-forms. The Syilx environmental ethic diverges from ecocentrism, as articulated by Callicott, in recognizing a fundamental distinction between non-life forms and life forms, in their ability for self-regeneration through inter-reliance, as the focus for delineating moral considerability. The Syilx environmental ethic differs from biocentrism, as articulated by Taylor, in recognizing moral considerability as resting with the on-going life form which is capable of regeneration within its ecology, rather than the singular biological unit. The Syilx environmental ethic also differs from the concept of the ethics of place, as articulated by Berthold-Bond and characterized as an ethical bioregional human utility of a location. Tmixw is the life-force which makes up the tmxwulaxw or life-force-place and the humans are only “placed” as a life-force themselves through Indigeneity as a social paradigm within a criteria of full reciprocity in the regeneration of all life forms of a place. The Syilx environmental ethic also differs from the ethic of sustainability proposed by Daly as a steady state economic model of human utilitarianism, in the positioning of nature treated as capital, to be prudently developed in a way that off-sets depletions of renewable and non-renewable resources in meeting human requirements. The Syilx Okanagan view of economy, while structurally a sustainability model, does not construct value based on human utility as a defining line in decision-making as to which life forms are to be devalued and displaced. Syilx Indigeneity is guided through a societal dialogue practice of Enowkinwixw, a process of decision-making structured to include living within the requirements of the land to fully regenerate. Syilx Okanagan Indigeneity frames an environmental ethic from a tmixwcentric position and offers a model proposing an ethic of re-indigenization as a path to sustainability. The thesis proposes a common text for human society in the form of such literatures, since literature is widely accessible, which demonstrate, imbed and advocate a regenerative land ethic towards the re-indigenization of place.

Until today most social, historical and cultural studies of the American postwar era have contributed to the myth of a relatively homogeneous society and culture. Even though they understood these years as a turning point for modern American society, they failed to encompass the polyvalence and heterogeneity of American society. Focussing mostly on white and middle class males, these studies formed a onedimensional picture of sociocultural conformity, a picture in which issues of gender, race and class were largely absent. Crossing the boundaries of feminist, cultural and historical studies this dissertation starts from identifying the gaps and problems in current academic research. Those sociopolitical structures that affected non-white women are then juxtaposed with the dominant postwar discourse of womanhood. The literary texts by women of color show them grappling with the conflicting demands of socioecnomic realities and pervasive role definitions. On the surface these literary interventions seemed to submit to dominant ideologies while opposing them at the same time. Thus they are both anticipatory and antagonistic. The dissent and criticism in writings by women of color seem to have become a catalyst for the deep social transformations in the following decades.