In this interview, Carol Rowan recounts how she moved up North to Inukjuak, because she sought to live and learn with Inuit. Following her union with Jobie Weetaluktuk in 1984, and the subsequent births of their three Inuit children, she developed pedagogical approaches informed by and rooted in Inuit ontologies and epistemologies. She discusses…

In First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) communities, Elders are highly regarded as intergenerational transmitters of ancestral language and Indigenous knowledge. Without language revival initiatives, ancestral languages in FNMI communities are at risk of extinction. Leveraging digital technologies while collaborating with Elders can support…

This article considers time as an important way that educational policy functions in terms of the ways that it constructs the work of educators. The article describes how standardised materials and other technological advancements are used in the labour politics of education to simplify, and eventually undermine the value of educational work. This…

In gauging the success of Aboriginal language immersion education, the focus is often placed on measuring language acquisition and academic achievement. Although useful, these metrics only tell part of the story; to achieve real school success, it is also vital to develop high personal self-esteem that results in a positive concept of oneself as a…

The importance of learning an Aboriginal language has been documented, yet associations with positive educational outcomes are inconclusive. Previous research in the area has been limited by small sample studies, lack of comparison groups, and the omission of the consideration of socio-demographic factors and cultural activity participation. This…

Little is known about Nunavut students' experiences in high school and post-secondary education, in particular their self-defined determinants of success. This study aimed to understand factors that influence secondary school completion, post-secondary education, and education success for students from Nunavut. An online survey was conducted with…

Although virtually all Inuit children in eastern Arctic Canada learn Inuktitut as their native language, there is a critical lack of tools to assess their level of language ability. This article investigates how mean length of utterance (MLU), a widely-used assessment measure in English and other languages, can be best applied in Inuktitut. The…

The Miqqut project was a participatory action research project through which Inuit language and literacy learning was embedded in a traditional skills program. Community-based researchers tracked learners' progress through entrance, exit, and post-program interviews and questionnaires, as well as through participant observation. Results show that…

This paper describes the process of designing, administering, and assessing a language-sensitive and culture-specific lexical test of Labrador Inuttitut (a dialect of Inuktitut, an Eskimo-Aleut language). This process presented numerous challenges, from choosing citation forms in a polysynthetic language to dealing with a lack of word frequency…

Indigenous peoples have rightful aspirations for their languages and cultures, supported under international conventions, jurisdictional treaties, laws, policies and enquiry recommendations. Additionally, the inclusion of Indigenous languages in education can impact positively on Indigenous students' learning, engagement, identity and well-being,…

This dissertation addresses a number of issues about the grammar of Eastern Canadian Inuktitut. Inuktitut is a dialect within the Inuit dialect continuum which is a group of languages/dialects within the Eskimo-Aleut language family. (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut has an ISO 693-3 language code of "ike".) Typologically, it is an ergative…

This paper highlights findings of a survey conducted with the Kativik School Board, Canada, to gain insight into the perceptions of Inuit teachers concerning how Inuit culture is taught in the classroom. While findings indicate that teachers are integrating Inuit culture to varying degrees, roughly half of respondents suggest that not enough Inuit…

This paper reports on the development of a science unit for Nunavut students and my collaboration with Louise Uyarak, an early years teacher and a graduate of Arctic College's teacher education program. The unit addresses light outcomes in the "Canadian Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes, K-12". More importantly, it…

In this article issues related to policy and education in the Canadian Arctic are critically put to question. The focus is on the struggle for Inuit education, language issues, and supporting minority rights, with pragmatic solutions proposed to the problems confronting Nunavut.

Traditionally, Canadian Inuit have lived in the circumpolar regions of Canada and those who still live in these regions, have their own cultures, which they tend to celebrate in their educational curricula. Inuit culture reflects their traditional lifestyle, when they were nomadic, and hunted and fished to survive in incredibly difficult…