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- 1. A Social Justice Analysis of the Northern Adult Basic Education Program (NABEP) in Higher Education in Canada: A Bernsteinian Social Realist Approach September 2, 2021 Gabriel Ellis, BA, MA, EdD (Candidate)
- 2. Problem Social Justice and Education: A focus on social justice issues in Canadian Indigenous education shows: • educational policies have become polarized around economic priorities that marginalize Indigenous perspectives
- 3. Gov’t Policies Relating to Indigenous Education • Northern Adult Basic Education Program (NABEP) implemented by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) from 2011-2016 • To bridge the socio-economic gap between Indigenous people in Canada’s north and the rest of Canada
- 4. Indigenous Education • Inherently connected with culture, nature, and elder’s knowledge (traditional knowledge) (Lambe, 2003) • Mainstream western education is defined by empiricism and rationalism (scientific method) (Lambe, 2003) • Context of my research of Indigenous education will be framed as programs created by western institutions for Indigenous populations
- 5. Why is Indigenous education important? • Furthers economic and social empowerment of Canadian Indigenous citizens (Stonechild, 2006) • Supportive in the struggle against inequality and the defense of their culture (Abeita, 2018) • Low academic levels in Indigenous populations are a social policy challenge for the Canadian government (Richards, 2008)
- 6. Research Objectives 1. To investigate how to increase social justice in education for Indigenous Education programming at a federal, territorial, and local level 2. To theorize the ‘value’ of education programming for Indigenous populations themselves
- 7. Research Setting and Sites
- 8. Literature Review • Current neoliberal framing of Indigenous education continues to be problematic (Case, 2013; Onsman, 2015; Bhuyan, Bejan & Jeyapal, 2017; Dunham, 2018) • Academic institutions internationally have been shaped by an increasing neo-liberal philosophy and federal government practices via post-secondary education (Connell, 2013) • Re-framing Canada’s problems with Indigenous education as a problem of knowledge, curriculum, and power vs. low attainment (McLean, M., Abbas., A., and Ashwin, P., 2013)
- 9. Research Questions 1. What does Canada prioritize in educational programs for Indigenous populations? 2. What do Canadian university/college institutions prioritize in educational programs for Indigenous populations? 3. What priorities do Indigenous students hold regarding educational opportunities?
- 10. Approaches Used to Develop the Research Questions Access to social justice for Indigenous education can be measured by Bernstein’s (2000) three, interconnected pedagogic rights • Enhancement (individual arena) • Inclusion (social arena) • Participation (political arena)
- 11. Research Design ‘Multi-methods’ (Yu, 2009)case study research (Flyvbjerg, 2006) involved: • Documentary analysis (Lawson, 2018) • Secondary data analysis (Thomas & Heck, 2001)
- 12. Documentary Data Analysis Inductive approach (Bernstein, 2000) Bottom-up, data-driven approach to code the data Thematic analysis technique (Clark, 1983) Entered data in NVIVO, coded
- 13. Findings and Analysis Data reflecting NABEP student access to enhancement, inclusion, and participation revealed: • An overall trend at the federal (macro), institutional (meso) and classroom (micro) levels shared a common focus on economic priorities • Entry-level jobs that limited social mobility
- 14. Highlights and Conclusions Social Justice and education future directions: • Future research to include new creative approaches for framing Indigenous education research problems, not as the failure of individuals but of a re-contextualization of the problem of unfair assessment, curriculum and pedagogy practices
Editor's Notes
- More needs to be done in investigating efforts to empower Indigenous communities through Skills for Employment programs in Canada’s far North
- For example, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) website states that, throughout the territories, 17,000 employment-aged locals did not graduate from high school. Questions that arise: did it succeed or not & why … fully, partly, not at all?
- Indigenous groups may value education for personal development, building Indigenous culture and societal change (NIB, 1972; CCL, 2007; AFN, 2012). From a federal government perspective, Indigenous education may be valued for labour-market orientation and economic growth (Hennesey & McIntosh 2008; Grimmett, Fleming & Trotter, 2009; CMEC, 2012; Morgan, 2016).
- At the same time, higher education is regarded as a key element in building the knowledge economy (Batterbury and Hill 2005). Canada’s Indigenous groups fall significantly behind in the national labour market, and since education is a major factor in this, it thus becomes a substantial policy concern (Calver 2015).
- The aim of this thesis was to understand Indigenous education programming on a federal, territorial, and local level, and theorize the ‘value’ of education programming for Indigenous populations themselves.
- Yukon College (now Yukon University since 2020) is the only territorially funded post secondary institution in the Yukon, with a territory of only 42,000 people spread out over an area the size of France. In addition, Yukon College has 13 community campuses spread throughout the territory. Most of the population would live in the Capital City Whitehorse. The north is very sparsely populated. Old Crow is the most northern of the community campuses, the only one above the arctic circle & only accessible by air, which makes the quantity & quality of all services, including education, more difficult to provide. Note: Grizzly population is 60, 000 so a ratio of about 1 bear to every 7 people.
- Neo-liberalism largely represents free market socio-economic transformation. The neo-liberal influence in education is morally harmful because it decreases all areas of life to market values (Connell, 2012).
- Do universities and individuals they have a different educational priorities from the federal gov’t bureaucracies?
- Grounded in the theoretical oeuvre of Basil Bernstein (2000), where concepts of power and control were used to generate analysis - from the macro, meso and micro level, my research highlights how policy documents reveal different priorities by key actors in Canadian higher education. Additionally, the pedagogic identities produced in NABEP students and the effects of academic rules that control their access to powerful knowledge were explored. Bernstein’s social realist approach is valuable in terms of evaluating social justice in Indigenous education (Case 2015).
- The decision not to produce fresh data from doing new intrusive Indigenous student surveys on sensitive communities was not only a financial consideration but also an ethical consideration. Historical distrust by Indigenous communities of the Canadian Government and educational systems responsible for inter-generational residential school trauma was and remains an ethical consideration when doing Indigenous research in Canada. It is possible to generalize from a case study, and it is also a key component to scientific development (Flyvbjerg, 2006). For Indigenous education policy issues, case study methods can suggest a way forward and can lead to forms of generalization for larger contexts (Jones, 2011).
- Analysis of the program data exposes limited pupil access to university level pathways, powerful knowledge, and holistic evaluation methods. Moreover, barriers such as curriculum content lacking in transferable math requirements, limited students’ options to ladder-up to higher education opportunities, thus restricting social mobility
- Indigenous education inequalities will get worse unless justice issues are kept in the forefront. My analysis of the Northern Adult Education Program (NABEP), suggests future research directions could include new holistic approaches that addresses personal, academic, and financial needs of marginalized students.