Cohorts and coalition building for First Nations graduate students ...

• Main Author: Van Der Wey, Dolores
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0055622; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0055622

Cohorts are commonly formed in Indigenous undergraduate and graduate education programs. In this dissertation, I critique the notion that cohorts are necessarily safe spaces for First Nations female graduate students and argue that cohorts must be sites for coalition work and building bridges across differences both within the cohort and in mainstream contexts. I conducted initial and follow-up open-ended semi-structured interviews with 13 women with whom I had worked in First Nations educational contexts in some capacity in recent years, including as course instructor and coordinator of an educational leadership initiative. Semi-structured interviews allowed me to pursue topics raised by interviewees in some depth, and to ask them about topics raised earlier in their own or others' interviews. The women responded to queries about their educational experiences, thoughts on the beneficial and challenging aspects of cohort membership, views on the importance of First Nations curricula and pedagogy, experiences ...