Potential Areas of Challenge for Inuit ELLs
- Historically, the Canadian government has not followed through with education agreements outlined in the 1870s treaties. As a result, Inuit often have a negative perception of Canada/Ontario education.
- There is a high rate of illiteracy, so parents may not be able to help their children because they 1) don't speak English and/or 2) are not literate in Inuktitut.
- Inuit students may miss chunks of school for cultural reasons (i.e., hunting season).
- Because of a lack of schools, Inuit students may have limited prior schooling.
- Traditionally, Inuit learn through imitation and observation, not through the models most popular in Ontario's education which is more focused on knowledge regurgitation and writing. Additionally, indigenous cultures practice the ethics of non-interference, which is very much a self-directed learning approach, as opposed to meeting standardized expectations.
- Based on statistics Canada, there is a higher chance that Inuit students will live in a lower SES family and may live in poverty or have a lack of resources at home.
- Inuktitut is a verb based language and English is a noun based language. Difficult to understand the meanings of something so completely different.
This following video provides an overview of some of the ways to accommodate for Inuit ELL students:
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