First Nation, dead last [electronic resource] : reframing the Aboriginal Head Start On-Reserve program through the lens of policy texts and statistical representations / by Tibetha Aweta Deane Kemble.

"A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Indigenous Peoples Education, Department of Educational Policy Studies."

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Alberta, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references.

Aboriginal children on-reserves across Canada are lagging far behind their non-Aboriginal counterparts with regard to educational achievement. Related research and statistics provide evidence that a high proportion of Aboriginal people not graduating from high school and that Aboriginal children are entering into the school system unprepared and ill-equipped to succeed both in the short and long term. In response, the federal government established the Aboriginal Head Start On-Reserve (AHSOR) program in 1997 in order to equip young students with the tools necessary for success in school and to get a good start in life. The objective of this research is to explore the extent to which the AHSOR program achieves the stated objectives of the program which are to "help enhance child development and school readiness of First Nations, Inuit and Mťis children living in urban centres and large northern communities" (Health Canada, 2011b, para. 1, emphasis added) as well as those children living in First Nation communities. Following a detailed exploration of the program, this thesis concludes that the AHSOR program is unlikely to meet the program's overarching objectives. Further, this thesis concludes that this program, as a singular approach, will not be sufficient in improving the levels of educational disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children.