NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, educational evaluation

Objective(s): To explore the lived experiences of teachers as they aim at attaining the educational outcomes through culturally responsive teaching.

Project Description: The objective of this research project is to explore the lived experiences of teachers as they aim at attaining the educational outcomes through culturally responsive teaching. Interviews of six teachers will be done who will answer open-ended questions. A 5-member focus group shall be used to confirm or disconfirm the data from the interviewees. There shall be two sessions of interviews, which will be about 90 minutes each. The Principal Investigator (PI) will attempt to visit the participating teachers that in person, as a sign of respect, but mainly, the PI will apply SKYPE or do Go-to-meeting, if need be as the teaching term may be hectic. The sampling shall be purposive, and criterion-based, of non-Indigenous teachers in the Northwest Territories. Participant recruitment shall be achieved through writing to the superintendents of the school divisions who may need to be informed first as a sign of respect. FirstClass emails shall be sent with the help of Northwest Territories Teaching Association (NWTTA) to any teachers who may be willing/volunteer to participate and fall within the criterion of non-Indigenous shall be made to sign a consent form to participate. This study is about the stories of teachers’ concerning how they teach Indigenous students culturally responsively in the Northwest Territories. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study is to describe, analyze, relive and retell the story and thus restory the narratives presented by six cross-cultural teachers of K-12 of Indigenous students of the Northwest Territories about how they teach culturally responsively. There shall be a focus group of equally (or perhaps more) experienced teachers who would confirm or disconfirm the evidence presented by the interview participants. The restoried stories would help create an understanding for new teachers to learn from others’ experiences. Newly-recruited teachers who would join much later, would as well learn from the stories, how they have to see their careers as teachers in the light of joining the drive in the challenge of reducing the gap in graduation and dropout rates of Indigenous students. This need becomes even stronger if the statistics are compared with students from other non-Indigenous populations of the rest of Canada. Reading these stories will set up a solid understanding and help teacher-student relationship, directed under culturally responsive education, which propels the Education Renewal and Innovation initiative. The PI will welcome the help of Aurora Research Institute's community outreach and publishing resources. Results will also be communicated through the NWTTA and also through the school divisions. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 25, 2016 to December 29, 2016