University of SaskatchewanHARVEST
  • Login
  • Submit Your Work
  • About
    • About HARVEST
    • Guidelines
    • Browse
      • All of HARVEST
      • Communities & Collections
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
      • This Collection
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
    • My Account
      • Login
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
      View Item 
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item

      First Nations Participation in Graduate Studies

      Thumbnail
      View/Open
      Willett_Enos_Cameron_2002_sec.pdf (3.714Mb)
      Date
      2002
      Author
      Willett, Enos Cameron
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
      Show full item record
      Abstract
      Statistics on First Nations participation in postsecondary studies are abysmally dismaying (Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), 2002). Literature suggests that contributing factors include experiences of cognitive dissonance amongst First Nations students (Huffman, Sill, & Brokenleg, 1986), a lack of respect for First Nations people in the academy (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 1991), and an underrepresentation of First Nations faculty (Hampton, 1995). To effectively address these issues, it is critical that postsecondary institutions understand the factors that contribute to motivation of First Nations people. The purpose of this naturalistic study was to describe the factors that motivated three First Nations adults in Saskatchewan to enroll in graduate studies. I selected three first-year, First Nations students who were enrolled in graduate studies in the province of Saskatchewan using the snowball sampling technique (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998, p. 64). Two hour-long, open-ended interviews were used to allow each participant to describe the factors for enrolling in graduate studies in their own terms (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998; Hampton, 1995; Van Stone, Nelson, & Niemann, 1994) and to create a "discourse between interviewer and respondent" (Mishler, 1986, p. 53). I then incorporated my own voice into the data alongside the participants' voices because I realized that "the researcher's relationship to the inquiry and to the participants shapes the research text" (Clandinin & Connelly, 1998, p. 171). In this study I found that the three participants were motivated primarily by factors of expedience, such as an increase in pay, career advancement, and prestige. However, for each participant, "traditional" First Nations education was seen as authentic education, while education in terms of accreditation, skills and qualifications is only "playing the game." To put it another way, Indigenous knowledge is authentic to their experience, while economic rationalism is an "artificial context" (Henderson, 2000b, p. 12) which they cannot avoid, a game they must play in order to make a living. While the three participants are fulfilling the need to earn a living in the modem world, they have not forgotten or lost their Aboriginal identity; far from it. Alongside their individualistic, goal-oriented motivations, each participant was able to articulate an explicit, parallel, communal purpose to their participation. Each participant walks in two worlds as an embodiment of Little Bear's (2000) "ambidextrous consciousness" (p. 85).
      Degree
      Master of Education (M.Ed.)
      Department
      Educational Foundations
      Program
      Department of Educational Foundations
      Copyright Date
      2002
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/7911
      Collections
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      University of Saskatchewan

      University Library

      The University of Saskatchewan's main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis.

      © University of Saskatchewan
      Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy