“Just a Pepper in a Bunch of Salt”: Aboriginal Students’ Stories of School

Mirroring national trends, the Saskatchewan education system is failing its Aboriginal students. The situation is urgent, evidenced by low rates of Aboriginal students transitioning through the grades, their lower results on provincial assessments, and the significant gap between Aboriginal students and their non-Aboriginal counterparts graduating from high school. In light of these issues, this research explores high-school aged Aboriginal students’ stories of school and in particular their stories of place, curriculum, teachers and administrators. The research recognizes schools as white spaces where dominant identities are affirmed through place, spaces, curriculum, and pedagogy. Data was collected through four semi-structured interviews with five adolescents who self-identified as Aboriginal. A Critical Race Theory framework, with its emphasis on counter stories, was used to analyze the data, paying particular attention to the reproduction of dominance. The stories of these five participants highlight the need for teachers and administrators, the majority of whom are White, to take actions to promote the success of Aboriginal students in the classroom. Important to the participants is the creation of a sense of belonging to a place through the inclusion of Aboriginal artifacts and the actions of teachers to support those objects in meaningful ways. Additionally, the students articulate that teachers should authentically infuse Aboriginal content throughout core curriculum. Finally, teachers and administrators need to overcome their disconnect with Aboriginal students by developing close personal relationships with them and engaging in processes of decolonization through critical self-reflective work.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Education (MEd)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculm and Instruction

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Findlay, Heather Alexandra

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tupper, Jennifer

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Huber, Janice
• Montgomery, Kenneth

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4273

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/5493