NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, education, students, film-making

Objective(s): To explore the experiences of young Indigenous students, grade 6-9, while they learn to make, create and share films.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4901. The students along with the Principal Investigator (PI) started a film-making program to enter a local film festival. The PI wishes to explore the experiences of young Indigenous students, grade 6-9, while they learn to make, create and share films. The film- making program has always been student driven, and I have done my best to facilitate this. The PI will study pedagogy from the students’ point of view through asking the following questions: Why did we have success with this film program? Why did the students buy in? What do they believe? What is their lived experience? The PI will be using an interpretive approach, consisting of participant observer, semi structured interviews, and a group interview. A broad interpretive approach, umbrella term “subsuming several different thoughts, including those drawing, explicitly on phenomenology, or hermeneutics. The PI is using a broad definition, interpretation (in this case interpretation means hermeneutic, the lived experience) but is not claiming this is a hermeneutic or phenomenological study. The PI is interested in the students world of lived experience. Meaning comes from the sharing of stories, dialogue, conversations, and language comes meaning and insight into how these participants make sense of their world, as language is the medium of understanding. The PI is studying pedagogy from the students point of view so that he can understand how to be a better teacher, and administrator, and develop this program. The interpretive approach affords insight into the complex world of lived experience, from the point of view of those who live it. The PI will engage in 3 rounds of interviews with the participants, and one group interview and will ask the three students who have moved on to high school if they wish to participate and be interviewed All interviews will be recorded and transcribed, pending participant consent, and all participants will have an opportunity to remove themselves from the study up until the end of the interview process. All information will be stored on a study specific only computer, that is password and encrypted, all documents will be stored in a lock box. The PI will obtain approval from the Dettah District Education Authority, and my school Principal. Consent will also be obtained from the participants and their guardians. The PI will talk to parents and inform them of the intent of this study. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 6, 2021 to December 31, 2021.