Sexual Violence at University: Are Indigenous Students More at Risk?

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110219
Author(s):  
Jacinthe Dion ◽  
Stephanie Boisvert ◽  
Geneviève Paquette ◽  
Manon Bergeron ◽  
Martine Hébert ◽  
...  

University-based sexual violence prevalence is worryingly high and leads to many serious consequences for health and academic achievement. Although previous work has documented greater risk for sexual violence among Indigenous Peoples, little is known about university-based sexual violence experienced by Indigenous students. Using a large-scale study of university-based sexual violence in Canada, the current study aims to (1) examine the risk of sexual violence against Indigenous students compared to non-Indigenous students, and (2) to document sexual violence experiences of Indigenous students. Undergraduate students from six universities ( N = 5,627) completed online questionnaires regarding their experience and consequences of university-based sexual violence (e.g., forms of sexual violence experiences, gender, and status of the perpetrator, context of the violence, PTSD, disclosure). Findings indicated that compared with their non-Indigenous peers, Indigenous students experienced significantly higher levels of sexual harassment. However, no difference was found for unwanted sexual behaviors, nor for sexual violence contexts. Among Indigenous students, those having experienced sexual violence after age 18 (outside university) were more likely to report university-based sexual violence. Overall, findings highlight that Indigenous students, as well as non-Indigenous students, experience university-based sexual violence. Given their history, Indigenous students may have different needs, so sustainable policies that foster cultural safety on all campuses are clearly needed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A Motz ◽  
Joshua D Quick ◽  
Julie A Wernert ◽  
Tonya A Miles

Under normal circumstances, when students invest more effort in their schoolwork, they generally show evidence of improved academic achievement.  But when universities abruptly transitioned to remote instruction in Spring 2020, instructors assigned rapidly-prepared online learning activities, disrupting the normal relationship between effort and outcomes.  In this study, we examine this relationship using data observed from a large-scale survey of undergraduate students, from logs of student activity in the online learning management system, and from students’ estimated cumulative performance in their courses (n = 4,636).  We find that there was a general increase in the number of assignments that students were expected to complete following the transition to remote instruction, and that students who spent more time and reported more effort carrying out this coursework generally had lower course performance and reported feeling less successful.  We infer that instructors, under pressure to rapidly put their course materials online, modified their courses to include online busywork that did not constitute meaningful learning activities, which had a detrimental effect on student outcomes at scale.  These findings are discussed in contrast with other situations when increased engagement does not necessarily lead to improved learning outcomes, and in comparison with the broader relationship between effort and academic achievement.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (21-22) ◽  
pp. 5005-5027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan B. Marine ◽  
Z Nicolazzo

Recent studies indicate that sexual violence affects college students who identify as trans* or gender nonconforming (TGNC) at higher proportions than cisgender students with a full 29% reporting an experience with violence in a recent large-scale study. College sexual violence prevention educators (SVPEs) are critical actors in the effort to reduce the incidence of sexual violence, yet little is known about the practices they engage in to support the learning of students of diverse genders, and to educate students about the role of gender in sexual violence. This study explores the practices of SVPEs with respect to gender diversity, and the challenges and strategies they use to be gender inclusive in their work. Using an exploratory qualitative lens, 16 SVPEs were interviewed to better understand how they think about gender in their work, talk about gender as it relates to sexual violence, and deploy teaching and learning strategies regarding gender in their work with undergraduate students. Findings suggest that SVPEs face significant pressures related to compliance with Title IX, and that in terms of their practices related to gender, they occupy a continuum typified by gender defensiveness and unawareness, gender awareness, gender inclusion, and/or gender transformation. Recommendations include advancing opportunities for enhanced gender diversity education and professional development for SVPEs and the need for additional research on cisgender men’s and trans* survivors’ experiences with campus sexual violence.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Heather Schmidt

Cultural safety reflects the extent to which an individual feels that their culture is respected, accepted and understood by the larger society in which they live.The concept was originally developed in the context of Indigenous Peoples, but it could also easily be applied to members of other minority groups whose voices are underrepresented in mainstream society (e.g., the LGBT community, the differently-abled, other ethnic minorities). In this paper, I discuss my ongoing efforts to assess and measure cultural safety in Mi’kmaw First Nation students, staff and faculty at a small university in northern Nova Scotia. To maximize the chances of Indigenous students graduating and achieving to their full-potential within post-secondary institutions, we need to stop and ask whether they feel a sense of belonging, connection and cultural safety on-campus. If the answer is ‘No’ or ‘Only in the Aboriginal student centre’, then we need to collaborate with Indigenous students to design and implement interventions. These may involve altering both the physical campus and the way in which non-Native individuals on-campus think about and relate to Indigenous culture and individuals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Vanessa Van Bewer ◽  
Roberta L Woodgate ◽  
Donna Martin ◽  
Frank Deer

Learning about the historical and current context of Indigenous peoples’ lives and building campus communities that value cultural safety remains at the heart of the Canadian educational agenda and have been enacted as priorities in the Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint. A participatory approach informed by forum theater and Indigenous sharing circles involving collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health care professionals ( n = 8) was employed to explore the above priorities. Through the workshop activities, vignettes were created and performed to an audience of students and educators ( n = 7). The findings emerging from the workshop illuminated that Indigenous people in nursing and higher education face challenges with negotiating their identity, lateral violence and struggle to find safe spaces and people due to tokenism and a paucity of physical spaces dedicated to Indigenous students. This study contributed to provoking a greater understanding of Indigenous experiences in higher education and advancing reconciliation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 084456212110161
Author(s):  
Nicholas Metheny ◽  
Claire Dion Fletcher

Background The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) TRC has called to increase the number of Indigenous practitioners and include cultural competency education in their curricula. However, it remains unknown how nursing and midwifery programs are progressing towards these goals. Purpose To examine the extent to which baccalaureate nursing and midwifery programs are creating culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students, responding to TRC-recommended curricular changes, and including Indigenous content. Methods A digital environmental scan of accredited baccalaureate nursing and midwifery programs in Canada was conducted. Analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics. Results Of the 107 programs, less than one-fifth (n = 19, 17.8%) met all three cultural safety criteria. More than half (n = 59, 55.1%) included culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students, 20 (18.7%) satisfied TRC call #24 to require Indigenous-relevant coursework, and one-third (n = 36, 33.6%) were seen as infusing their curricula with Indigenous-related content. Conclusions This represents the first attempt to systematically catalog nursing and midwifery programs’ response to the TRC Calls to Action. Most schools have not made substantial progress towards cultural safety. Nursing and midwifery programs should commit to expanding their cultural safety programming to incorporate multiple ways of knowing and being in their curricula.


2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110176
Author(s):  
Anna Sturman ◽  
Natasha Heenan

We introduce a themed collection of articles on approaches to configuring a Green New Deal as a response to the current capitalist crisis marked by ecological breakdown, economic stagnation and growing inequality. The Green New Deal is a contested political project, with pro-market, right-wing nationalist, Keynesian, democratic socialist and ecosocialist variants. Critiques of the Green New Deal include pragmatic queries as the feasibility of implementation, and theoretical challenges from the right regarding reliance on state forms and from the left regarding efforts to ameliorate capitalism. They also include concerns about technocratic bias and complaints about lack of meaningful consultation with Indigenous peoples on proposals for large-scale shifts in land use. Debates over the ideological orientation, political strategy and implementation of the Green New Deal must now account for the economic and employment impacts of COVID. JEL Codes: Q43, Q54, Q56, Q58


1954 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Annette Rosenstiel

In its program for underdeveloped areas, the United Nations faces on a large scale the need to effect concrete adaptations of the habits of indigenous peoples to modern knowledge and technology. Research to determine the best methods of procedure has disclosed that, in certain areas, previous attempts on the part of administrators to introduce innovations and make changes which could not be integrated into the cultural pattern of the indigenous people proved unsatisfactory to them and costly to the government concerned. In most cases, changes in diet, crops and habits of work—let alone the introduction of industrial disciplines—may not be pressed down like a cookie-cutter on a going society. The administration of change often proves a disconcertingly stubborn affair, exasperating both to the administrator and to the people whom he seeks to catch up into the ways of "progress."


Author(s):  
Carla Houkamau ◽  
Petar Milojev ◽  
Lara Greaves ◽  
Kiri Dell ◽  
Chris G Sibley ◽  
...  

AbstractLongitudinal studies into the relationship between affect (positive or negative feelings) towards one’s own ethnic group and wellbeing are rare, particularly for Indigenous peoples. In this paper, we test the longitudinal effects of in-group warmth (a measure of ethnic identity affect) and ethnic identity centrality on three wellbeing measures for New Zealand Māori: life satisfaction (LS), self-esteem (SE), and personal wellbeing (PW). Longitudinal panel data collected from Māori (N = 3803) aged 18 or over throughout seven annual assessments (2009–2015) in the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study were analyzed using latent trajectory models with structured residuals to examine cross-lagged within-person effects. Higher in-group warmth towards Māori predicted increases in all three wellbeing measures, even more strongly than ethnic identity centrality. Bi-directionally, PW and SE predicted increased in-group warmth, and SE predicted ethnic identification. Further, in sample-level (between-person) trends, LS and PW rose, but ethnic identity centrality interestingly declined over time. This is the first large-scale longitudinal study showing a strong relationship between positive affect towards one’s Indigenous ethnic group and wellbeing. Efforts at cultural recovery and restoration have been a deliberate protective response to colonization, but among Māori, enculturation and access to traditional cultural knowledge varies widely. The data reported here underline the role of ethnic identity affect as an important dimension of wellbeing and call for continued research into the role of this dimension of ethnic identity for Indigenous peoples.


Author(s):  
Margaret J.R. Gidgup ◽  
Marion Kickett ◽  
Tammy Weselman ◽  
Keith Hill ◽  
Julieann Coombes ◽  
...  

The objective of this qualitative systematic review was to synthesize all evidence to understand the barriers and enablers to older Indigenous peoples (aged 40 years and older) engaging in physical activity. Four databases were searched. Study quality was assessed from an Indigenous perspective, using an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander quality appraisal tool. Data were analyzed using thematic synthesis. There were 4,246 articles screened with 23 articles and one report included from over 30 Indigenous communities across four countries. Cultural Safety and Security was a key enabler, including developing physical activity programs which are led by Indigenous communities and preference Indigenous values. Colonization was a key barrier that created mistrust and uncertainty. Social Determinants of Health, including cost, were supported by successful programs, but if not addressed, were demotivators of engagement. Older Indigenous peoples identified barriers and enablers that can direct the development of sustainable, culturally appropriate physical activity programs.


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