The hunger for professional learning in Nunavut schools

• Main Author: O'Donoghue, Fiona
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Arctic; Nunavut; Canada; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/12141; http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0020/NQ35409.pdf

grantor: University of Toronto This dissertation addresses issues related to ethically based professional education in the school system in Nunavut. Nunavut is the new territory to be created in the Eastern Arctic on April 1, 1999 concluding the negotiation of aboriginal self-government for the Inuit who comprise an 85% majority in that part of Canada. Exploring the emergence of an educator-directed model of teacher development, the dissertation argues that ethically based professional practice within Nunavut requires that southern models are carefully scrutinized and evaluated as potentially violent intrusions and contributors to the exponential and endemic cultural and linguistic erosion that is part of a colonial legacy. Professional learning is viewed as one of the most powerful catalysts in the pursuit of freedom and the retrieval and maintenance of identity, language, and culture. It is also seen as a potential key to addressing issues of difference, identity, and freedom within the school system. The theoretical framework suggested in the dissertation combines Inuit values with Foucauldian ethics to propose a philosophical framework based on care of self within a community of educators. The self, in Foucault's sense, is viewed as politically located in an intellectually and spiritually dangerous world. This is supported within an Inuit perspective by a commitment to community that is directly linked to survival in a traditional culture. Foucauldian ethics warn us that political controls and prevailing moral codes act as controlling influences within our lives. Self-knowledge enables us to understand these forces and make ethical choices on a daffy basis in order to maximize our freedom. Freedom is a critically important concept within the struggle to establish self-government and educator-directed professional education in Nunavut. Rather than learning within hegemonic models of staff development or teacher education that involves a response to prevailing ideological trends, Foucault's theories position a critically aware subject who engages in a constant surveillance of self and society in order to be free. Maxine Greene's concept of the Dance of Life is used as an example of critique which is situated in a much more holistic and communal context. This is particularly important within the cross-cultural world of Nunavut where colonial history contributes to major social discord and identity struggles for both Inuit and non-aboriginal educators. Ed.D.