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

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium addresses some of the issues and challenges of formal education for indigenous peoples living in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. The papers are grounded in the political, social, geographic, historic and economic contexts within which schooling – primary, secondary and post-secondary – occurs in the region. They offer potentially innovative approaches to facilitating indigenous community participation and ownership of formal schooling. The researchers are indigenous and non-indigenous Canadian, American and Danish educators interested in sharing our research and building greater understandings in the Academy about schooling in our regions. While four of the five papers talk about specific parts of the North – Alaska, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Greenland – they all offer lessons for circumpolar regions as a whole, and beyond.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Chair

• Diane B. Hirshberg, The University of Alaska - Anchorage

Papers

• Indigenous Self-Determination in Education in Alaska: How Do We Get There? - Diane B. Hirshberg, The University of Alaska - Anchorage; Alexandra R. Hill, The University of Alaska - Anchorage; Timothy Aqukkasuk Argetsinger, Harvard University

• Recruiting Inuit Teachers in Nunavut - Paul Berger, Lakehead University

• Aboriginal Training Partnerships for Arctic Extractive Industries - Andrew Peter Hodgkins, University of Alberta

• The Impact of Capital and Habitus on Inuit Postsecondary Education - Helle Moeller, University of Alberta

• World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Accreditation System - Ray Barnhardt, The University of Alaska - Fairbanks

Discussant

• Michael Marker, The University of British Columbia