Educational Leadership in Northern Canada: Where Cultures Collide

This report describes the completed second stage of an investigation and analysis of the state of educational leadership, policy, and organization in northern Canadian schools. It presents and discusses the different perspectives held by constituents with respect to the goals and purposes of schooling, and the curriculum and language of instruction found in the schools. Two schools in northern Alberta, Moose River and Church Point, were selected for study; administrators, teachers, students, and community members were interviewed. Interview results show a lack of congruence between expectations of the local community and educators at the schools that are culturally based. One example involves school governance issues where the locus of power is determined by government regulations outside the community; this power structure does not address local community issues and needs, such as supporting local Aboriginal languages. There is a tendency to support the status quo and to provide what the educational system in the southern part of Canada describes as a suitable educational experience. Unfortunately, this orientation is Anglo-centric. Principals must attend not only to the voices of the professional and educational elite but also to the voices of those who are generally marginalized, dispossessed, and ignored by this system. (Contains 64 references.) (RT)