This thesis examines the relationship between the community and school in Arctic Bay in north Baffin Island. The objective is two-fold: first, to provide insights into the interaction between Inuit community members and school, and second, to describe and analyze the internal changes that school effects among community members. The central concern underlying the thesis is the ongoing process of Inuit cultural change. / This thesis expands the framework for studies in educational anthropology in two ways. First, the thesis examines the interaction between the community and the school from the perspective of the community, rather than from that of the school. Second, it applies anthropological understandings of social structure, social control and social personhood as analytical categories in examining the two cultural contexts. The thesis illustrates the fundamental contradictions in worldview between Inuit and the institution of schooling. / Observations of contemporary life illustrate that Inuit have been able to maintain the organizing principles of their kinship system in the transition from pre-settlement life to the community. Observations of socialization in school illustrate that the social norms and interrelational processes young Inuit learn in school contradict some of the organizing principles of Inuit kinship. Moreover, the responsibilities that Inuit adults are required to undertake as parents of school children impinge on their kinship obligations. The thesis concludes that although Inuit have maintained authentic, albeit modified, cultural practice in the community, the socialization of school, a culturally foreign institution, increasingly impinges on their normative values and social relations.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate Inuit values and needs in Inuit Adult Education. These can only originate from the Inuit themselves: those attending and employed in Adult Education Centres in Nunavik, graduates of both vocational and academic adult education programs, Elders, local education committee members, directors of Northern educational institutions and community leaders. This study examined values in Inuit adult education of one Inuit community's educational and community representatives and students, and how these educational needs may be met so as to respect Inuit traditions. In this qualitative study, research methods included: filmed interviews, surveys and open-ended questionnaires, field notes, and participant observation. It was found that the Inuit are in effect finding themselves between two cultures and two education systems. There is a gap in knowledge between the Inuit vision of education and the non-Inuit vision of education. It was concluded that there is a perceived need to integrate the teaching of traditional Inuit skills and knowledge with contemporary curricula: to unite both into a curriculum that embraces the advantages of both traditions and cultures.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2010. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 276-295).

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the shift in focus of control from a centralized administration towards an Inuit board of education as a result of the decentralization efforts of the Northwest Territories Department of Education. The study additionally investigated the consequences of this shift as well as the satisfaction levels of the client group. A questionnaire was used to gather data from the board as a whole and an interview protocol was used with a group of key informants. It was found that a shift in locus of control towards the Divisional Board of Education had taken place. This had resulted in higher satisfaction levels in terms of the overall system and improved outcomes in terms of participation in decision making, consultation processes, flow of information, services to communities, and conflict resolution. It was concluded that while these outcomes had been realized the board was constrained in its actions and in the exercise of its authority by the limited decentralization that had occured, by the lack of direction, and by the lack of an informed membership.

No description available.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Marlene Scardamalia.

Education is a critical social process and is the responsibility of the society of which a child is a member. Education and Schooling promote the cognitive development and professional skills acquisition that produce economic development and positive socio-economic outcomes. In the modern world, education is strongly correlated with employability, access to food, housing, social status and associates strongly with measures of individual health and wellbeing. However, despite moderate gains in education outcomes for Inuit students, school engagement and graduation rates remain low across Inuit Nunangat in the K-12 system, and entry into post-secondary education has increasingly lagged behind that of the rest of Canadians. All the while, Inuit remain the most socio-economically disadvantaged people in Canada. At the root of this education gap is the collision of two cultures and world views. In the last sixty-five years (roughly just two generations), Inuit non-monetary social and economic systems, as well as teaching methods, have been eroded and replaced by dominant Western pedagogical and economic practices. This has caused tension between Inuit and Western pedagogy and provoked re-examination of what gets taught in the dominant Western education system in order to prepare Inuit students to participate in Canadian society. This study narrates the experiences of six Inuit students' education journeys and explores how they navigated cultural tensions to successfully reach and complete their post-secondary education. Findings indicate that the presence of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Inuit epistemology), or rather its prescriptive Guiding Principles (the branch of Inuit social epistemology) when practiced, supported their success. Further, the lack of these Principles, evident in microaggressions from educators, segregation, racism, suicides, and lateral violence from peers all served as barriers to their educational goals of being able to participate bi-culturally in both the Inuit and Western ways of living.

Les difficultés scolaires des jeunes Inuit du Nunavik sont une préoccupation de longue date pour les organismes de la région et pour les deux paliers de gouvernement. Ces difficultés s’inscrivent dans un ensemble de problèmes socioéconomiques avec lesquels le Nunavik est aux prises, dont une crise du logement, la pauvreté, la violence conjugale et la toxicomanie. Ces problèmes ont poussé certains chercheurs à décrire le Nunavik comme une société anomique qui, en plus d’avoir des besoins criants en termes de ressources humaines et matérielles, souffre de l’absence de normes sociales fortes et communes. Partant de cette piste de réflexion, nous avons posé la question : quel est l’impact de l’école sur les normes sociales au Nunavik ? Nous avons constaté dans la littérature une diversité de cadres d’analyse et une diversité de solutions proposées, mais peu de communications entre ces cadres. Adoptant une approche herméneutique, nous avons utilisé les trois cadres théoriques les plus importants, identifiés comme la théorie dominante (discordance culturelle), les théories alternatives (dysfonction normative/culturelle) et les théories critiques en éducation, afin d’analyser la situation du Nunavik et proposer des interventions pour pallier ces problèmes. Par la suite, nous avons comparé ces analyses afin d’en faire ressortir les complémentarités et identifier des pistes de solution pour le futur. / The academic difficulties of young Inuit in Nunavik have been a long-time preoccupation for organizations working in the region and the provincial and federal governments. These difficulties are part of a set of related socioeconomic problems facing Nunavik communities: a housing crisis, poverty, domestic violence and substance abuse are the main ones. These problems have pushed certain researchers to describe Nunavik as an anomic society which, on top of having urgent needs for more human and financial resources, has to cope with the absence of strong and common social norms. Starting from that reflection, we inquired: What is the effect of schools on social norms in Nunavik? In the literature, various answers to this question are suggested, along with suggestions to fix the issue, but these different theories rarely communicate with each other. We therefore used a hermeneutical approach by using the three most important theories, i.e. the cultural discontinuity/mismatch theory, the normative inversion theory and the critical pedagogy theories, to analyze the situation and suggest interventions. After treating the theories separately, we compared them to reveal their tensions and similarities and suggest further solutions for the future.