NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, governance, education, decision making, comparative case study

Objective(s): To understand how decisions are made in the different school governance systems in NWT, and subsequently, how these systems influence the presence or absence of local voice in school-related decision making.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5319. The objective of this study is to understand how decisions are made in the different school governance systems in NWT, and subsequently, how these systems influence the presence or absence of local voice in school-related decision making. A tertiary objective of this study is to compare the findings from NWT, to findings in five other Canadian sites: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. This study will use a comparative case study evaluation using semi-structured interviews, and focus groups public consultations. Individuals will be invited to participate in a semi-structured interview, a focus group, or a public consultation, but not all three. Participants with decision-making authority in local education (e.g. Locally elected trustees, public servants, directors, CEOs, superintendents, school board advisory committee members, and representatives from professional associations) will be invited for a one-hour semi-structured interview, with a potential 30minute follow up interview. In the interview, participants will be asked to describe how they understand the decision-making process(es) within their jurisdiction and what democratic voice means to them. They will be asked about their role in the education system and how they participate or try to participate in decision-making. They will be encouraged to share any challenges they have experienced and what strategies they may have engaged in to overcome these challenges. With the participant’s consent, the interview will be audio-recorded. Acknowledging the unique context of Northwest Territories, in-person interviews will be accommodated if deemed preferable by local persons. Participants with less decision-making authority and closer connection to the local community (e.g. educators, parents, community members) will be invited to participate in focus groups. The focus groups will be approximately 2 hours in length. The first hour will be dedicated to sharing the purpose of the study, to answer any questions participants may have, and to increase rapport with participants to increase their comfort levels around sharing their experiences. The second hour will be dedicated to participants responding to questions regarding how they understand the decision-making process at the school board level; their experiences (or lack thereof) with school board decision-making; challenges they experienced, and possible strategies they considered to overcome the challenges. Similarly to interviews, focus groups may be held in person or virtually depending on the local community preference. Public Consultations will progress through consultation with Yellowknife Education District 1 and other community organizations. It is the research teams hope that the Yellowknife Education District 1 may help to broker connections with the education community to co-develop a respectful public consultation process. Presently, the team expect the public consultation to be open to the public, with the criteria that participants must be over 18 years old and must consent to being audio recorded. The public consultation may be approximately 2-3 hours in length. The public consultation may take the form of an open discussion with people who are interested in public education in their province or territory. Potential participants may register for the free event through EventBrite. If the public consultation is hosted through Zoom, on the day of the public consultation, participants will be directed to the EventBrite event page, where the Letter of Information and verbal consent will be shared. From the landing page, participants will follow to a Zoom meeting that is open to only those who have registered. The researcher will begin the public consultation by reading the Letter of Information, and confirming all participants’ verbal consent to participate. Participants must consent to being recorded to participate. Once consent from all parties is confirmed, the researcher will facilitate the public consultation using the public consultation guide. Finally, the researcher will open the discussion to all participants allowing participants to add any further information they would like it. The rationale for this is that those with higher decision-making authority may perceive more risk to their public perception/reputation if they share their honest perspective of local education. As well, questions asked of those in decision-making positions will be more specifically oriented to decision making processes. Semi-structured interviews ensure the highest confidentiality, while also allowing the interviewer to ask more detailed questions about processes. In contrast, community members who may have interest in public education, but less expertise may be more comfortable participating in a focus group where they can converse with their peers on pertinent topics. Focus groups allow for less depth of questioning, but a more informal and potentially more comfortable environment. If individuals participating in the focus group request an individual interview, the researcher will decide whether or not to interview them individually on a case-by-case basis. Similarly, the public consultations will allow the widest breadth of participants to engage in the research at a more informal, comfortable environment, potentially allowing for wider participant engagement. With participants’ consent, interviews and focus groups will be audio-recorded. Recordings will be downloaded to the interviewer's computer to be de-identified, then saved to an encrypted Universal Serial Bus (USB) device. Once the download is confirmed successful, all other recordings will be destroyed. If interview participants do not consent to recording, the interviewer will manually take notes throughout the interview. These notes will be saved to the encrypted USB. If any focus group participant does not consent to recording, the focus group will not be recorded, and the researcher will manually take notes throughout the focus group. These notes will be saved to the encrypted USB. Audio recordings will be used to transcribe the interviews and will be used in data analysis. Audio recordings will be de-identified by removing audio clips that include identifiable information, such as the participants’ name. The research team intend to develop an ongoing communications plan in consultation with the local participants and community members throughout the research process. Presently, NWT stakeholders and community organizations will be informed of the data collection stage of the research project through invitations to participate in focus groups and interviews sent through publicly available email addresses, and invitations to participate in the public consultation advertise through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and EventBrite. Upon request, the researchers will prepare presentations either digitally or in-person to share the results with participant groups, NWT stakeholders, and/or community organizations request the results to be shared. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from September 27, 2022 to December 31, 2022