We Can Do It (Education) Better: An Examination of Four Secondary School Approaches for Aboriginal Students in Northwestern Ontario

The following study is an exercise in understanding how educators can improve their professional practice in terms of addressing the needs of Aboriginal high school students. The study was delimited to four different high schools in Northwestern Ontario in order to develop a broader understanding of best practices used by various school communities. Interviews were conducted with students and educational professionals such as teachers, administrators, guidance personnel and school board members. The study was completed over a period of one week, where one day was spent in each school completing interviews. This study is unique in two ways: it presents the voices of secondary school educators (which had scarcely been reported or heard in the academic community) outlining the direction in which Aboriginal education should go and secondly, as a researcher I attempted to use the medicine wheel as a model for completing and conducting research. There were a number of findings that appeared through the interviews. Teachers and administrators agreed that in order for Aboriginal students to succeed they needed to have involved parental support. It was important to teachers that parents take an active role in the educational life of their child. Additionally, it was acknowledged that First Nation communities were ideal settings for schooling of Aboriginal students as they were supported by family and community kinships. Yet in this study, it was also acknowledged that First Nation schools suffered financially in comparison to provincial schools. They were not able to provide programming comparable to provincial schools and iii were limited to a barebones program with compulsory courses being offered. In some cases, if students failed a course, they were not able to participate in the rest of the school program, until the course was re-taught in two years. Despite these shortcomings, students might do better in First Nation based schools if they were adequately funded with current resources and adequately compensated teachers. This study offers some suggestions on how to improve the practice of educating First Nation secondary students.

Keywords: Aboriginal education
Teaching Pedagogy
First Nations
Teaching Approaches
Medicine Wheel as methodology
Aboriginal success in school
Collective Case study
Native Education
Public education for Aboriginal students
Internet Schooling
Teaching in First Nation communities
Professional Development
Teacher voices
Voices of Educators
Educational practitioners
How to be successful teaching Aboriginal
Aboriginal circle methodology
School assessment
Program assessment
Medicine Wheel and school
First Nations education counsellors
Small schools and success
Small First Nations schools
Aboriginal
Native American
Aboriginal Medicine Wheel as Methodology
Aboriginal research
Aboriginal pedagogy
First Nations schools
Educational change
Educational practices
Educational strategies
Education
Distance
Education in Ontario
Native
Native American Studies
Native Peoples
Pedagogical approaches
Pedagogy
Teacher development
Teacher education
Teacher attitudes
Teacher effectiveness
Teacher improvement
Teacher professional development
Teacher strategies
Teacher student relationship
Teacher approaches
Teacher training
Teaching methods
Teaching techniques
Advisor: Restoule, Jean-Paul