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6.
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Daitch
explored in the module in Activity 5, “Colonial Policies and the Creation of the Residential
School System,” in Activity 6, “Perspectives on the History of Colonization,” as well as in
Activities 10-12.
The student sample was made up of Dene, Inuit, Inuvialuit/Inuinnait, Métis and nonIndigenous students, including students of Eurosettler ancestry, other immigrant ancestry,
and students who identified as recent immigrants to Canada.
To create the student surveys used in this study, I adapted the surveys created by Facing
History and Ourselves, which researched the influence of Holocaust education on students in
the USA. The organization conducted a 5-year evaluation study, aiming to measure social
and ethical awareness and civic learning. I obtained permission from the authors of the
survey tools from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and from the authors of the
additional scales adapted for the FHAO research, to use and adapt the tools for the
Canadian North. All survey tools were adapted to replace references in the U.S to Canadian
and Northern references (Selman, R. L., Barr, D. J., Feigenberg, L., & Facing History and
Ourselves 2007a; Fine, Bermudez, & Facing History 2007; Flanagan et al., 2007; Kahne, et
al. 2006).
To complete this study, I obtained ethical approval and research licenses from the University
of Victoria Human Research Ethics Review Board, the Aurora Research Institute in the
NWT, and the Nunavut Research Institute. To obtain a research license in the NWT
through Aurora Research Institute, 23 Indigenous governance organizations, regional bodies
and municipalities were consulted and had an opportunity to comment and ask questions
about the study. With the support of the territorial education departments respective Deputy
Ministers, I was granted permission from school superintendents in each region in the NWT
and Nunavut to undertake the study informing this paper.
In the study informing this paper, none of the student participants are former residential
school students. However, 54% of student participants reported that they have family
members who attended the schools, and are therefore intergenerational survivors. An
additional 22% did not know whether a family member had attended, and 24% did not have
a family member attend residential schools; this data is drawn from student survey results.
During student sharing circles, some non-Indigenous students self identified as being from
new immigrant families; their comments are reported as such in this paper.
Each of the key over arching themes discussed begins with a student vignette from a
different sharing circle. The vignettes highlight overlapping themes, which appeared across
qualitative and quantitative sets of study findings: teacher surveys, student surveys and
student sharing circles and focus groups.
Student civic learning and community engagement describe the teacher’s ability to promote
students’ understanding of key democratic principles and values, including freedom of
expression, the protection of vulnerable groups, equity and justice, and the importance of
civic participation (Barr 2010; Seixas 2006).