Maximizing the Potential of Urban Aboriginal Students

In responding to the TRC calls to action related to education, this study aligns with the social, cultural, and economic imperatives associated with the persistent underinvestment in educational policy and programming for Aboriginal students, while recognizing the deep connections that education has had with the history of colonization, Indian Residential Schools, and the consequent “gap” in attai [...] While some researchers are reviewing statistics and the federal deficiencies in the delivery of education, Aboriginal researchers and leaders have instead centred their critique and solutions on Indigenous epistemes and perspectives to promote alternative solutions and narratives that shed light on the systemic barriers facing Aboriginal students and faculty, their origins in colonial history, Eur [...] In responding to the TRC calls to action related to education, this study aims to address social, cultural, and economic imperatives associated with the persistent underinvestment in educational policy and programming for Aboriginal students, while recognizing the deep connections that education has had with the history of colonization, Indian Residential Schools, and the consequent “gap” in attai [...] The result is a significant gap between rhetoric about diversity and equity and the experience of racialized faculty when “Whiteness serves to maintain the conditions of systemic inequality where the world views and interests of the dominant group are entrenched and normalized” (p. [...] On another front, especially in public schools, the racialization of youth by way of their ‘identity’ and the lack of its connection to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities and relationships have left a burden on the individuals to sort out and recover from the traumatic events of Indian residential schools.