Biculturalism in post-secondary aboriginal education : an Inuit example

This study surveys a group of first semester post secondary (CEGEP) Inuit students living and studying outside their home communities in the Montreal area. It sheds light on their social and academic adaptation to Southern Canadian post secondary education and society by addressing their own characteristics at the time of the research. The cultural identity of each student is analyzed and two subgroups of Inuit students are determined (Bicultural & Southern Canadian Mainstream). These two subgroups are compared to each other in terms of their demographic attributes, and social, academic and affective adaptation to Southern life and schooling. A model of the successfully adapted Inuit college student is presented that encompasses the social, academic and affective attributes possessed by this Inuk student. Results of the study argue in favour of the bicultural and bilingual model presented in the literature concerning Native and minority education and practiced by the Kativik School Board's dual mandate