Skip to Content

Reports and working papers

  • Cultural narratives and clarity of identity: understanding the well-being of Inuit Youth

    When the entire history of a society is captured by a few simple labels, it indicates a high degree of consensus about a group’s past, present, and possibly it’s future. This level of agreement is precisely the case for current conceptions of relations between mainstream Canadian society and Inuit. The entire complex history of Inuit is summarized by a succession of frequently used labels: “Traditional culture,” “colonization,” (forced assimilation) “empowerment” and “decolonization.”
     

    Read more

  • Do you want 1 cookie now or 2 cookies later? How to succeed at school

    What makes human beings distinct from animals, and very successful as a species, is our capacity to voluntarily postpone immediate reward in order to accomplish long term goals. For example, if a man goes fishing, and eats each fish as soon as he catches it, instead of saving all the fish to feed his family for a week, he is not demonstrating the capacity to delay gratification.

    Read more

  • Failing our Aboriginal Peoples: A Normative Theory of Constructive Social Change

    The enduring social dysfunction that confronts Canada’s Aboriginal people is a challenge that has reached crisis proportions. Aboriginal communities are preoccupied with social issues ranging from academic underachievement to substance abuse, domestic violence, welfare dependence and suicide, to health and nutrition. The avalanche of human and financial resources aimed at redressing the quality of life for First Nations people on, and off, reserves, and Inuit living in remote arctic communities seems to either be entirely misguided, or perhaps, itself exacerbates the problem.

    Read more

  • Partnering with Parents and Communities: Maximizing the Educational Experience for Inuit Students

    The present report addresses a pedagogical standard that is fundamental and primary for Inuit success from preschool through to post-secondary education: students must arrive at school everyday, all day, physically and psychologically healthy, and eager to learn.

    Read more

  • Scientific survey research: Might it be the needed stimulus for constructive change in Inuit communities?

    The purpose of the present monograph is to delineate the benefits of community owned and controlled scientific research in general, and survey research in particular, for addressing priority issues for Aboriginal communities. I will argue that scientific survey research is much more than a data gathering exercise. Scientific survey research just may be the most effective mechanism for consulting, and ultimately engaging, communities on important issues. Simply put, scientific research may be the ultimate stimulus for constructive social change.

    Read more