NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, anthropology, traditional knowledge, ethnography, public policy, organizational relationship

Objective(s): To study the epistemological problems of understanding emerging from unexamined assumptions and values that frame the belief systems of government professional practices, and indigenous ways of knowing in the Tlicho communities of the NWT. The inquiry asks the question, “How can differences in ways of knowing between northern Canadian communities, and government be effectively bridged so as to reduce conflict, and improve public policy, and the design and delivery of programs and services?”

Project Description: The focus of this inquiry is to study the epistemological problems of understanding emerging from unexamined assumptions and values that frame the belief systems of government professional practices, and indigenous ways of knowing in the Tlicho communities of the NWT. The inquiry asks the question, “How can differences in ways of knowing between northern Canadian communities, and government be effectively bridged so as to reduce conflict, and improve public policy, and the design and delivery of programs and services?” The research makes use of a mixed methodology including principles of action research, ethnographic/ narrative interviews and stories of participants, as well as a document discourse analysis. Data collection will be from multiple sources including individual interviews with key informants, focus groups with key informants, and an analysis of significant government and community based public policy strategy statements, documents and outcomes in three substantive areas. The research project requires interviews with a group of 10-15 people who are determined to be key informants in relation to the inquiry questions. Key informants, for the purpose of this inquiry relates to being a member of a representative mix of individuals involved in a significant manner with public and tribal policy development in the Tlicho communities and in the Northwest Territories. These individuals have been selected based on their knowledge and experience, as well as their ability to reflect upon and articulate their experiences. Unlike key informants in a traditional anthropological study which presupposes an outsider researcher, and an insider (cultural) informant, these “key informants are more similar to co-participants or peers. They represent a community of practitioners, consultants and researchers. Key informants have the experience and knowledge related to policy development and implementation but are also able to reflect on their experiences and the outcomes of their work. Interviews will be a three part process including dialogue, transcription and validation. Interviews will be semi-structured with open ended questions to allow for a focus on the research inquiry issues, while promoting an informal, conversational style of interaction that allows for the participant-informants experiences and reflections to be in the foreground. All interviews will be digitally recorded and verbatim transcriptions will be produced with individual notes on the session, observations and related commentary recorded by the researcher at the time of the interview. The transcriptions will be returned to the informant-participants for validation and further contributions if desired. One or two focus groups of informant-participants will be considered to allow the research to include a wider variety, and greater quantity of informants while not expanding beyond a manageable amount of data to be transcribed and analyzed. The focus group technique will use the same open ended questions to promote an informal dialogue. Participants will interact with each other and this dynamic will provide another form of data. This research seeks to address gaps in the literature regarding epistemological considerations in public policy determination especially in cross-cultural situations that involve northern Canadian aboriginal communities. It adds to a small but growing body of knowledge addressing aspects of community aboriginal knowledge and epistemologies in relation to public government. Practically, this research seeks to address differences in professional (government) practices and community ways of knowing and look critically at the intersection of these differing ways of knowing in the development and delivery of community programs and services. By doing so, it will contribute to more effective policy determination and implementation. The research will also help to foster knowledge and understanding between community and government players and will be helpful in building relationships. It may also be useful to the growth and development of policy in the new, northern aboriginal governments as they struggle to organize and define themselves differently from those governments they have known and experienced. The results of this research project will be available through presentations to the Tlicho Government, and published journal articles. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from April 10, 2013 to April 15, 2013.