Contestation: Indigeneity in Mainstream Higher Learning Contexts

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Higher Education Policy: Influences on Students and Faculty

Abstract

Indigenous students face multiple challenges accessing post-secondary education. Exploring experiences of students and faculty at two Ontario universities, we share their struggles and achievements, focusing on university climates and the ways universities are/are not including more education about Indigenous history and colonial relations. We also explore ways that the universities are engaging with the TRC calls to action and their impact on university policies and protocols. We make recommendations for universities becoming more welcoming places for Indigenous students and ways those calls can be more effectively addressed by universities, calls for incorporation of values and principles of Indigenous peoples and provisions for adequate funding for Indigenous students, and the impact of the climate of those universities on Indigenous learners.

Authors

• Sandra Styres, University of Toronto - OISE

• Dawn Michelle Zinga, Brock University