Elders and Knowledge Keepers Perspectives on Practices to Support Indigenous Students’ Educational Well-Being: A Holistic Study

Developing a shared understanding of Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers perspectives is critical on how to better support Indigenous students’ and all students’ educational well-being. The purpose of this research was to explore Elders and Knowledge Keepers Perspectives on Practices to Support Indigenous Students’ Educational Well-Being: A Holistic Study. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit seven men and women Indigenous Elders from surrounding nations in Calgary, Alberta. Data was generated via talking circles, individual one-on-one interviews. All talking circles and interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Indigenous worldviews, practices of the medicine wheel and the dandelion metaphor was utilized for content analysis to analyze the data, and findings are represented by five themes, (1) residential schools and education, (2) education, (3) family/responsibility/relationship/belonging, (4) identity, and (5) Elder inclusion, ceremony, traditions. The detailed stories shared by the Elders provide unique insights into discussions of connections start at home, aptitude and soundness comes from knowing, ascertaining the true history and placing high value on education, and presence of Elders sharing knowledge and wisdom, and recommendations for school districts on how to better support Indigenous students’ educational well-being. Keywords: Indigenous, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, education, well-being

Author dc:creator

• McPherson, Crystal

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Halvorsen, Jeffery

• School of humanitarian studies

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/IR-20965

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/29438