Base de données de recherche des TNO

Régions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, North Slave Region

étiquettes: education, health promotion

Objectif(s): To describe the short-term impact of the new Northern Studies 10 course in terms of: promoting a healthier relationship between Northern families and the school; and, the promotion of a healthy personal and collective identity for the student.

Description du projet: The objective of the present research is to provide reliable, objective, scientific data that describes the short-term impact of the new Northern Studies 10 course in terms of: promoting a healthier relationship between Northern families and the school; and, the promotion of a healthy personal and collective identity for the student. To meet the research goals, the focus will be on answering the following questions: 1. Do the new Northern Studies 10 curriculum material and methods lead to a constructive change in parent attitudes and beliefs about school? 2. Does taking the new Northern Studies 10 course lead to a constructive change in the personal and collective identities of students? The research team plan to conduct this research with grade 10 students in the fall semester of 2014 in Inuvik, Yellowknife, N’Dilo and Fort McPherson, NWT. To assess the impact of the course on parent attitudes towards school and student identity, the research team will compare classes of grade 10 students taking the new Northern Studies course with those that are not taking the course over the semester. A class at each school taking Northern Studies 10 will be considered the experimental group, whereas two classes (one at the Yellowknife high school and one at the Inuvik school) not taking Northern Studies 10 will be included in the study as a control group. This research can be separated into two sections (attitude data collection and identity data collection) and two phases. Experimental Group Data Collection Collection of Attitude Data in September: Part of the suggested Northern studies 10 course activities is an interviewing exercise, where students are first taught in-class how to conduct an interview, and are then asked to go home and ask their parents (or elder) course-relevant questions. This activity forms part of the first module of the course and as such, would take place in September. After arranging class times with teachers, researcher (s) will travel to each research community in September, 2014 over the course of two weeks and assist teachers in providing this in-class instruction in a mini-workshop. During this workshop, students will be provided with a questionnaire with questions designed to assess parent attitudes towards the Northern education system and the school. To practice their interview skills, students will be asked to pair up and interview each other, answering the questions on the attitudes towards school questionnaire as if they were a parent. After, students will then go home and ask parents one question based on class material, and then conduct an interview with their parents using the provided questionnaire. Once completed, the students will bring the completed questionnaire back to their Northern Studies 10 class where they will be collected by the researchers. Collection of Student-Identity Data in September: To measure student’s feelings about their personal and collective identities, a recently developed interview technique referred to as Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) will be used. By computerizing this mapping method, the research team have created the possibility for multiple interviews to be done at any one time, under the direction of one researcher. After introducing the maps to students in a computer lab at the school, the researchers will guide students through the process of creating their own maps. Not only will this introduce students to new and exciting research techniques, but it will also provide a baseline measurement of how these concepts relate to their personal identity before the course begins. To create maps, students will be given a list of 13 different concepts or themes taken from the course from which they will choose 11 to be included in their map representing themselves. The majority of these concepts are selected from the learning objectives relevant to the Northern Studies 10 course (i.e. resilience), so that the research team may track how the course impacts student identity over the semester. To study the relation between learning objectives from the course and social norms, the team have also included three norms that are prevalent in the north (helping others, drinking alcohol, fighting). To ensure that students understood directions and were accurately representing their feelings about their Northern identity, the team will also include two concepts designed to be irrelevant (surfing, speaking Spanish) that should be left off the student maps and hence, serve as direction checks. First, students are asked to select 11 concepts that they feel are most relevant to who they are. Next, the computer program converts their selection into nodes that appear in a 2-D mapping space on the computer screen. At the center of this screen is a node labeled “myself” that represents the student. Students are asked to arrange their nodes in whatever manner they choose on the screen. Next, they are asked to draw links between concepts that they feel are connected, then indicate the direction of these connections, the strength of these connections and the nature of these connections (e.g. positive or negative). After, they are asked to indicate the importance of each node by changing their size and the valence of each node by changing its color. By computerizing this mapping method, the research team have created the possibility for multiple interviews to be done at any one time, under the direction of one researcher. Collection of attitude and identity data in December: Near the end of the semester, the researcher(s) will return to conduct a second workshop. At the beginning of the week, researchers will once again ask students to interview their parents using the same survey instrument. During this class period, students will also create their second maps, the same way they did in September, with the same concepts. At the end of the week, researchers will return to the classroom and collect completed questionnaires from students. At this time, a second workshop about interpreting survey results will be conducted and the researcher will help teachers by giving a brief presentation on how to analyze results and how to interpret results. Finally, students will be told that the data they collected by interviewing their parents and produced by creating their identity maps over the semester will be analyzed and that a report will be available for them to read at the end of the year. At this time, the researchers will fully explain the research objectives and goals, as well as their ongoing rights as participants to the students and provide them with a document with the same information in written form which they can take home to their parents and/or the elder who they interviewed. Control Group Data Collection To collect data from the control group, the same method will be followed in all cases. However, because the control group will not be taking Northern Studies 10, the workshops and data collection will be integrated into another appropriate course. The specific course will depend on the class schedules. This project was designed to collect data that accurately describes the relation between parents of students and schools in the Northwest Territories, while simultaneously providing some benefits to the student and parent participants. Namely, researchers will train students in how to be research assistant and how to survey in the field. During the data collection portion of the study, they will test their new skills by surveying their parents. This will provide an additional opportunity for parents to actively participate in their child's education. Furthermore, throughout the project, students will be introduced to new and exciting research techniques and will have the opportunity to ask questions and explore these new techniques with the help of experienced researchers. During the first phase of data collection in early September, researchers will present the research objectives and method to the department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE). Following the completion of data analysis, a report on the findings from the parent attitudes and beliefs data will be presented to the ECE in March 2015. In June 2015, a report on the findings from the student-derived maps will be presented to the department. At this time, brief reports that can be shared with teachers, parents, students or other interested parties will also be provided to the schools and department for widespread use. Finally, the results may be presented in the form of a journal manuscript, a formally presented poster and/or form part of a PhD dissertation. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from September 2, 2014 December 31, 2014.