A Case Study of Educational Equity in Saskatchewan Schools and Implications for Educational Development in China

Abstract

This paper probes the phenomenon of underperforming indigenous students in Canada through a case study in the school district of Saskatchewan. It is discerned that the disparity between indigenous students’ home culture and the mainstream classroom culture is the major obstacle between indigenous students and academic success. Such a disparity is caused by a couple of reasons. First of all, educators’ misconception, along with education decision-makers’ ineffectiveness, leads to adversity for indigenous students to face in the classroom; secondly, biased evaluation and misjudgments in the current education system also result in indigenous students’ underperformance. Lastly, educators’ low cultural proficiency towards indigenous culture culminates in indigenous students’ low classroom engagement. The results of the case study could be enlightening for Chinese education decision-makers, given that the Chinese booming economy has caused millions of internal migrant workers to work in an alien subculture, their children could face similar social and linguistic debacles as compared to indigenous students in Saskatchewan.