Teacher Practices and Professional Development that Promote Improved Educational Outcomes for Indigenous Students in Saskatchewan and New Zealand

This manuscript dissertation explores the teacher practices that promoted improved educational outcomes for Indigenous, high school students. Three manuscripts present the findings of two case studies, that collectively represent a qualitative reporting of 14 teachers/administrators, that were mainly non-Indigenous, who affected positive educational improvements for over 700 students. One case study was at a school in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the other was in New Zealand. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. In the first chapter, I share a narrative that introduces the reader to my positionality in the research. Chapter 2 provides an academic introduction and an overview of the two case studies. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are the manuscripts that have been published in peer-reviewed journals or have been accepted and are currently in press. The first manuscript, Teacher strategies that improve education outcomes for Indigenous students, offers the findings from the New Zealand case study wherein the researcher questioned the participants about the strategies implemented to attain such a vast improvement in educational attainment levels documented by New Zealand’s National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) within four years. The next manuscript, Chapter 4, entitled, A Canadian study of coming full circle to traditional Indigenous pedagogy: A pedagogy for the 21st century is the Canadian study. The research questions focused on the strategies and pedagogies high school teachers implemented in the classroom that they perceive to have increased student engagement and educational achievement for their Indigenous students, and these align with Indigenous approaches as well as 21st Century Pedagogy? The final manuscript, entitled Professional development, culturally-responsive practices, and Indigenous student success: A comparative case-study of New Zealand and Saskatchewan, Canada, draws on the findings from the two locations and present the effects of professional development on the improved academic outcomes for Indigenous students. Specifically questioning how did professional development initiatives evolve at these schools, how it enhanced the cultural responsiveness of educators within these schools and its impact on student engagement, attendance, and learning at these schools? Chapter 6 provides my concluding thoughts and offers the major themes that emerged from the papers along with recommendations.