Decolonizing Cyberspace: Online Support for the Nunavut MEd

• Published in: The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
• Main Authors: Alexander McAuley, Fiona Walton
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Athabasca University Press (AU Press) 2011
• Subjects: Sciences Humaines et Sociales; Social Sciences and Humanities; Inuit education; distance education; Inuit; Aboriginal; distance graduate program; decolonization; pedagogy; K-12; school administrator; Indigenous education; Nunavut; decolonizing; educational leadership; distance learning; blended learning; knowledge building; info; edu; inuit
• Online Access: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ927008.pdf; https://www.learntechlib.org/p/49477/article_49477.pdf; https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v12i4.848; https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1067605ar; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/848/1798; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewFile/848/1798; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewFile/848/1837; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewFile/848/1804; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewFile/848/1811; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/download/848/1837; http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/848; https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ927008; https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/irrodl/2018-v19-n4-irrodl05131/1067605ar/; https://www.learntechlib.org/p/49477/share; https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/1865113151

Offered between 2006 and 2009 and graduating 21 Inuit candidates, the Nunavut Master of Education program was a collaborative effort made to address the erosion of Inuit leadership in the K-12 school system after the creation of Nunavut, Canada’s newest territory, in 1999. Delivered to a large extent in short, intensive, face-to-face courses, the program also made extensive use of online supports. This paper outlines the design challenges – geographical, technological, pedagogical, and cultural – that faced the development and delivery of the online portion of the program. It highlights the intersection of the design decisions with the decolonizing principles that framed the program as a whole, the various and varying roles played by the online environment over the course of the program, and the program’s contribution to student success.