Nurturing Environmental Transformation and Scholastic Success in Northern Manitoba

Abstract

Effective non-traditional approaches to environmental lesson delivery and enrollee evaluation remain ephemeral in northern Manitoba as indicated by negative local attitudes towards imported and metropolitanized instruction (Martin, 2014; Mercredi, 2009). Current pandemic aside, and as increased attrition and abysmal failure rates have not changed in decades, there is relevance in exploring the experiential context and local implications of an inductive student model intended to improve remote environmental understanding and scholastic performance. To help prevent perpetuating a dis-order in which Indigenous expressions are neither recognized nor developed, learning experiences of University College of the North (UCN) students concerning regional freshwater availability and the calculation of stream flow were documented. Using componential analysis and participatory video as a mediating technology, allied empirical test scores and codified normative elements of self and environmental ‘awareness’ in traditional classrooms versus boreal settings were examined. Three exploratory factor axes explained more than 50% of the variance from an integrated but diverse set of 27 chosen variables. Titled axes declining in order of importance were Environmental Engagement, Scholastic Scoring and Non-Conventional Lesson Delivery. Seventy percent of unsolicited adult student responses suggest moralization and unique meta-ethical quale were undeniably and academically important. Empirical-‘ized’ findings advocate UCN must now ask which aspects of curriculum design, lesson delivery and enrollee assessment might result in greater scholastic success when nurturing personalized transformations in the milieu of ongoing threats to both freshwater sustainability and Cree safeguarding paradigms in northern Manitoba.