Describes an effort to collect information on culturally and linguistically relevant programs in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Discusses possible reasons why northern educators were reluctant to share local curriculum initiatives, and suggests four reasons for the apparent absence of critical discourse around curriculum. (Contains 52…

Native education has often been perceived as a low status cousin of the "regular" (that is, middle class, suburban, white) education system, and the achievement levels of Indian students have historically been low. This situation is often attributed to the past policies of many different federal governments and to a succession of poorly…

Outcomes of the District Wide School Improvement Program (DWIP), a plan to improve Native education in Saskatchewan, are described in this paper. Initiated by the Prince Albert Tribal Council (PATC) and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB), the school improvement model is a community-based developmental model designed to sensitize schools to their…

Traces the history of Indian education in Canada through four phases: informal education, church and state efforts toward assimilation of Indian peoples, transition, and band-controlled education. Presents arguments for moving to a fifth phase: educational partnerships with provincial school boards. Outlines potential benefits to and constraints…

In this article, we report a case study of educational issues in northern Alberta. Using interviews and observations, we provide the different perspectives held by educators, students, parents, and community members about the goals and purposes of schools, the curriculum, and the language of instruction. Practices in the schools tended to maintain…

This paper presents preliminary findings from a doctoral research project investigating the preparation of teachers to teach ethnoculturally diverse student populations. Census data suggest that some 70 percent of North American teachers are white, female, middle class, and from suburban or small rural communities, while the majority of students…

This paper describes an ongoing doctoral study on the preparation of teachers to work in a variety of student cultural populations. It will examine teachers from three distinctly different geographical and sociocultural areas. The three areas are urban, suburban/rural, and rural isolated school jurisdictions in Alberta and Saskatchewan (Canada).…

A study investigated Indigenous community perceptions of White school administrators in northern Canada via 44 individual and focus group interviews with local stakeholders at four schools. Community perceptions of effective school leadership were inconsistent, and communities and administrators were often at odds with regard to the role and…

This report describes the completed second stage of an investigation and analysis of the state of educational leadership, policy, and organization in northern Canadian schools. It presents and discusses the different perspectives held by constituents with respect to the goals and purposes of schooling, and the curriculum and language of…

This paper presentes the preliminary findings from a doctoral research on the ethnocultural preparation of teachers in western Canada. This three-stage study explored what steps, if any, are taken to prepare teachers so that they might be successful educators of ethnoculturally diverse student populations. Data were collected from 450 teachers…

Case studies compare Red Rock School District on the Navajo Reservation and Running Waters First Nation school system in Canada with regard to governance structures and their relationships to educational practices: bilingual and bicultural education, community participation, "transmission" versus interactionist pedagogy, and standardized versus…