The Changing Tides of Education in Nunavut: A Non-Inuit Perspective of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit

Despite the changing tides of educational policy and reform, the power imbalances that maintain control over the system of education in Nunavut remain largely the same, and relatively unchanged. It is through a push and pull between Inuit and non-Inuit goals that educational policy and practice shift, back and forth, as one new initiative after the other ultimately rises only to inevitably fall, with each new tide of change. Thus, examining recent reform and new initiatives by the Department of Education to promote student academic achievement and success, this qualitative study, through semi-structured interviews, explores how non-Inuit educators in Nunavut might interpret, support, and effectively implement the goals of education within their classrooms. As the majority of teachers are non-Inuit, this research project revealed that without clear directives and lacking key resources to effectively combine Inuit culture and values within mainstream education, non-Inuit educators undoubtedly struggle to understand enough about Inuit qaujimajatuqangit to effectively transform the vision and goals of education in Nunavut into one seamless and well balanced system of schooling