Where are you From? Reframing Facilitated Admissions Policies in the Faculty of Health Sciences
Open Access
- 18 December 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Aboriginal Policy Studies in aboriginal policy studies
- Vol. 9 (1), 25-41
- https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v9i1.29359
Abstract
Understanding that Indigenous learners can face specific barriers or challenges when pursuing higher education, schools and programs within McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences have facilitated admissions streams for Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) applicants. The intent of reframing admissions policies is to provide equitable access while aligning with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, specifically Number 23. This work explores the development of an Indigenous-determined Facilitated Indigenous Admissions Program (FIAP), a self-identification policy that moves away from the politics of mathematical blood quantum to nationhood, community, and seeing the applicant as whole being. Further, it critiques (for example) medical school admissions as biased, in that they often replicate an elite and narrow segment of society. It also addresses how interpretations of decisions like Daniels v Canada, which speaks to the rights of Métis and non-status Indigenous peoples, are communicated or miscommunicated within emerging population groups in terms of rights and their potential relationship to admissions.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- The prevalence of distress, depression, anxiety, and substance use issues among Indigenous post-secondary students in CanadaTranscultural Psychiatry, 2019
- The possibilities and practicalities of professional learning in support of Indigenous student experiences in schooling: A systematic reviewThe Australian Educational Researcher, 2019
- Implicit Racial Bias in Medical School AdmissionsAcademic Medicine, 2017
- Access and SelectionAcademic Medicine, 2015
- Calling for a Broader Conceptualization of DiversityAcademic Medicine, 2012