NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

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

Tags: social sciences, residential schools

Objective(s): To document and analyze the development of a community-engaged curriculum by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Project Description: The objectives of this project are: 1) to document the community engagement and curriculum development process and provide a visual representation of the process; 2) to explore the experiences of community stakeholders who participated in the process; 3) to share the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum development approach from the perspective of community participants and government; and, 4) to highlight critical lessons learned in an accessible format for dissemination to other jurisdictions and communities. This study is a qualitative methodology, including process analysis and narrative analysis. Throughout this research, the Principal Investigator (PI) aims to: 1. Work closely with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) to re-create the residential schools curriculum development process as a trail map, with various offshoots and trail marks, to provide a visual representation of the steps that were followed to complete the process. This visual representation will include information about the time and location of the key activities in the curriculum development process, as well as the key stakeholders and activities associated with each step. This data will allow the research team to re-create the process, stake out temporal markers, and make a recruitment and data collection plan to guide the remainder of the study. 2. Conduct participant interviews to collect data from various community members who participated in the curriculum development process. Participants will be asked to reflect on their experience with the process. The research team will use the process trail map to indicate which parts of the process the participant was involved with, allowing the interviewer to tailor the discussion to the specific experience of the participant. The interviews will be scheduled and conducted by Marie Claude Michaud. Each interview will take part at the Aurora College main campus in Yellowknife or on the phone, unless requested otherwise by some participants. Each participant will be interviewed individually. Interviews could vary in length, but it is anticipated that they will each last between 60 to 90 minutes. The interviews will be recorded and the interviewer will take written notes during the interview. Consent will be obtained from each participant prior to their interview. 3. Analyze the narratives collected through the interviews to develop a narrative of the community engagement at each step of the process. The research team will identify and analyze themes in participant experiences with the goal of identifying strengths, weaknesses and lessons learned from the curriculum development process. 4. Disseminate the acquired knowledge and research products with the development of a digital version of the process trail map that links the process steps (with brief descriptions) to excerpts from participants’ experiences to create a full narrative of the process. The research team will also develop an academic manuscript for publication. The case study results will be made available to the public in a few ways. The research team will develop a digital version of the process trail map that links the process steps (with brief descriptions) to confidential excerpts from participants’ experiences to create a full narrative of the process. The research team will also develop an academic manuscript for publication. The results from this study will also be included in the larger Stories of Hope project, which will include a website and webinar. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 9, 2018 to December 31, 2018.