Parental School Choice in First Nations Communities: is There Really a Choice?

This work addresses the topic of parental school choice on First Nations reserves and looks at the reasons that guide First Nations parents in their decisions to send their children to off-reserve or on-reserve schools. For those parents who have the option of choice, what is the basis of their decision making? The choices available to the parents in this particular study are basically between the off-reserve public, provincially funded school and the on-reserve Indian Affairs federally funded school. By interviewing two sets of parents - those who send their children to off-reserve schools and those who send their children to on-reserve schools - about their school choices, there is now a much clearer picture of parents' expectations and desires for the education of their children and a better understanding of what they believe is the significance of schooling and education in general. The First Nations parents who participated in this study made their school-choice decisions based on what they thought would be the best for their children, and they presented their views from this position of caring parents.