Exploring the Intersection of Education and Indigenous Status from a Social Determinants of Health Perspective: Parent and Family Engagement in Secondary School in Nunavik

• Published in: International Indigenous Policy Journal
• Main Authors: Ives, Nicole, Sinha, Vandna
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarship@Western 2016
• Subjects: Inuit youth; academic retention; family engagement; social determinants of health; Bilingual; Multilingual; and Multicultural Education; Family; Life Course; and Society; Other International and Area Studies; Social Work; Canada; Nunavik; inuit
• Online Access: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol7/iss4/4; https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2016.7.4.4

In Canada, Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing is linked with the legacies of colonization. A social determinants of health model shifts focus from individual-level health contexts to broader socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions associated with population health outcomes. Education is a key social determinant of health, closely tied to both positive health outcomes and socioeconomic status. In communities across Canada, educational success remains out of reach for disproportionately large numbers of Indigenous youth and adults. This qualitative study examined the intersection of two social determinants of health—Indigenous status and education—by exploring educational engagement in secondary school for Inuit parents and families, secondary school students, educators, and other Inuit community members in an Inuit community in Nunavik, northern Quebec.