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Topic

Reclaiming Our Relationships: Exploring Students’ Experience of Indigenist Antiracism Education in Nursing

Social Dimensions of Health

Date & location

• Wednesday, December 11, 2024
• 10:00 A.M.
• Human & Social Development Building, Room B347

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Billie Allan, School of Social Work, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Marilou Gagnon, School of Nursing, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Renée Monchalin, School of Public Health and Social Policy, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Anna Corrigal Flaminio, Department of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Amanda LaVallee, School of Social Work, UVic

Abstract

Background: Despite having various levels of cultural safety education in nursing schools for over thirty years, we continue to see examples of inferior health service shaped by racism and racialized tensions experienced by Indigenous peoples. Nursing students continue to describe uncertainty regarding integration of decolonizing knowledge into their nursing practice. Nursing 484, Understanding Indigenous Health and Wellness, is a mandatory course for third year students focused on disrupting Indigenous-specific racism within the health care system. The course has adapted to meet changing knowledge levels and context of Indigenous discourse in our social environments. The current course, as reflected in this research, is built using an Indigenist pedagogical framework and employs strength based and Indigenous – led scholarship in support of a transformative learning experience.

Method: The study analyzes the process of delivering this course to third year students in the 2022 cohort. Data was gleaned from three sources: Instructor conversations, analysis of anonymously submitted student assignments entitled ‘Creating your Knowledge Bundle” and a feedback circle with students to discuss emerging themes. Reclamation research, an Indigenist methodological framework built on three key pillars of Wahkootawin (Relationship), Waskewiwin (Decolonization) and Tâpwêwin (Truth/Obligation) was used to construct and analyze the Knowledge Bundle assignment as well as analysis of the instructor conversations.

Results: This dissertation presents themes emerging from conversations with course instructors, student reflections from submitted Knowledge Bundles, and commentary from the student feedback circle. Instructor conversations reveal interrogation of their relationships with themselves and Indigenous communities, issues of transparency and pedagogy and navigating personal and professional truths. Student Knowledge Bundle assignments reveal insights into their own relationships with Indigenous communities, early influences, relationship with the land and territories, decolonizing knowledge and confronting privilege, personal obligation and professional paths forward.

Discussion: The results of this study will contribute to the development of Indigenous specific antiracism education in nursing schools. The use of Indigenist methodologies are positioned to enhance transformative educational opportunities that confront inequity and oppressive systems. Use of Indigenous led scholarship and method is offered as a tool to support of Indigenous people’s health through increased understanding of Indigenous-settler relationships in the health care system.