Identifying determinants of school completion, post-secondary education, and education success in Nunavut, Canada (NGMP ID SE16)

The purpose of this project is to implement a mixed methods research study to explore determinants of secondary school completion, post-secondary education and education success in Nunavut. The data produced from this study will answer many of the priority questions highlighted by the NGMP (Nunavut Government Monitoring Plan) for education, such as causes of student absenteeism; how to attract students back to school after a prolonged absence; whether students are taking courses/programs that prepare them to work in the trades; and the impacts of social factors on school completion. Short-term objectives include: 1. Conducting surveys, interviews and drawing-voices of secondary and post-secondary students, key informants and high school dropouts; 2. Data collection, analysis and writing and distributing the initial analysis report to NGMP. Long-term objectives include: 1. Writing a robust report including, lessons learned and future recommendations (to be delivered in second year of project); 2. Printing project report in Inuktitut, English and French and distribute to partners (to be delivered in second year of project); 3. Sharing and using data to provide more robust information on post-secondary education needs in Nunavut; 4. For the Government of Nunavut Department of Education and community DEA's (District Education Authority) to use the research to develop policies and programs to improve education outcomes for students; 5. To have a collaborative research approach that is implemented with and by community organizations, which leads to increased uptake of findings at community and regional levels (Healey & Tagak Sr. 2014); 6. To use research findings to contribute to policy development that bolsters student participation and to develop curriculum and school programs for students and families to reduce dropout rates and improve graduation rates. Future objectives (5-10 yrs) include the QHRC (Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre) focusing on solution-seeking projects, which are designed to build on strengths and address local issues. This project aims to explore secondary and post-secondary education outcomes throughout the territory by collecting and sharing data that can be used by community organizations, secondary and post-secondary education institutions and by federal and territorial governments in the development of evidence-based programs and policies. It is our hope that this will translate in to improved education outcomes for Nunavummiut.