Killick Centre for E-Learning Research

To continue focusing on Bridging the Gap of the Digital Divide, repeated concerns have been made in regards to the culturally relevancy of what students are learning in Aboriginal communities.  The Killick Centre for E-Learning Research (2011), observed the experiences of a sample high school group from Coastal Labrador.  The course facilitators and participants of the study raised the concern about the content not being culturally relevant. Educators understand the importance of engaging the learner.  When course content is relevant and engaging, the learner is apt to be motivated towards success.  Educators demonstrated this, when adaptations to the core content of a English Grade 12 course within a pilot program were made, “We’re in the process of piloting a new course here, an English First-Peoples 12 course which is basically English 12, which every student needs to have, written exclusively with Aboriginal content for the resources. So the plays, instead of doing Shakespeare, they’ll do an Aboriginal play. The poetry is all from Aboriginal authors; the short stories are the same. The first cohort that went through here, their provincial exam results were 10% higher than Aboriginal students taking [the regular] English 12.”

(Sharpe, Phillpott, Bourgeois 2011: p.61)

Sharpe, Philpott, Bourgeois. (April, 2011). A Pan-Canadian Survey of E-Learning for Aboriginal High School Students.