Depictions of success: Voices from grade 12 aboriginal students

The purpose of this paper is to describe how 12 high school Aboriginal students defined educational success and success in general. We focus on how success is traditionally described in education and spotlight alternate meaning of the term. The data for this qualitative study were 12 semi-structured individual interviews, where students depicted success as obtaining educational credentials and pursuing lifelong learning via spiritual maturity. The Canadian Council on Learning's First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model is used as an analytical framework to further analyze these findings. One implication arising from the study is that, in not already in place, educational leaders need to create school policies and programs to promote tutelage opportunities, arts-based courses, and after-school clubs and activities.