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The Power Of Silence And The Price Of Success: Academic Achievement As Transformational Resistance For Aboriginal Women, Dawn M. Harvard

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using an anti-racist feminist framework, and revised concepts of resistance, this qualitative study utilizes traditional Aboriginal Sharing Circles and personal interviews for a culturally sensitive exploration of the experiences of successful Aboriginal women in mainstream post-secondary institutions. The research focuses on two questions. What barriers confront Aboriginal women in mainstream post-secondary institutions generally, and how were these particular Aboriginal women able to overcome the challenges they faced, i.e. what coping strategies and support mechanisms had, in their experience, facilitated academic achievement and persistence? Analysis revealed how experiences of discrimination, and an awareness of societal inequities, in combination with a belief …