The Impact of Capital and Habitus on Inuit Postsecondary Education

• In Event: Education in the North: Challenges in Formal Education for Indigenous Peoples in Circumpolar Regions

Abstract

This paper discusses what it means for educational success among Greenlandic and Canadian Inuit nurses and nursing students to be educated and practice in Western educational and healthcare systems.

Recruitment and retention of nurses in Greenland and Nunavut is difficult and severe nursing shortages are the norm. Nursing programs were established in Nuuk and Iqaluit to remedy this situation and to provide homegrown nurses. The programmes are offered in collaboration with Southern (Danish and EuroCanadian) Universities and are reflections of those culturally and linguistically. They are delivered in Danish or English by mostly Southern teachers.

Research focusing on Indigenous students pursuing post secondary education in Western institutions often indicates a mismatch that renders educational attainment and success for Indigenous students difficult (Dickerson & Neary, 1999; Dickerson, et al., 2000; Petrak, 2008; Ryan, 1992; Usher et al. 2005; Weaver, 2000, 2001). The findings presented in this paper paint a very different picture with nurses and nursing students enjoying high levels of well-being and success in their educational journey.

The theoretical framework employed to analyze the material is based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1986, 1993) and his conceptualization of field, habitus and capital.
The methods of enquiry were ethnographic (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2001) and included 12 months of fieldwork in three Greenlandic and two Nunavut communities. During fieldwork I employed participant observation, observation, casual conversations, formal and informal interviews, in-depth questionnaires and document review.

Fifty-seven Greenlandic and Canadian Inuit nurses and students participated in formal interviews or answered in-depth questionnaires. These were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the software Atlas.ti. Field notes were recorded during and after informal interviews and in-class observations in both nursing schools, after participant observation at some students’ place of practice, and in the communities at large. In addition, field notes were recorded after discussing preliminary findings with nurses, nursing students, and others with connection to the nursing education and the health care system. Government reports and local newspaper items and discussions were also used as material.

Inuit nurses and nursing students have enjoyed levels of success and well-being in their educational journey that are afforded few Inuit. A reflection, perhaps, of their feeling more at home in Southern languages and cultures than many other Inuit. This fact notwithstanding, Inuit nurses and students recount differences in habitus and capital between themselves and Southern teachers that create obstacles in their educational journey that may be barriers for Inuit less at home in Southern languages and cultures. These include preferred mode of pedagogy, communication style, and orientation to structure and time.

This work adds to the small body of literature that examines the experience in post-secondary education among Inuit students generally (Curran et al., 2008; Chemnitz, 2001, 2005; Lund & Nathanielsen, 2001; Russell, 2006) and among Inuit students in health educations specifically (Kjærgaard, 1998; Steenfeldt, 1999). It will serve as a resource for policymakers in education and for the nursing programs in Nunavut and Greenland.

Author

• Helle Moeller, University of Alberta