Final Data Report

My data shows that around 3% of indigenous people received a degree.

My data includes indigenous people living on reserves and off the reserves. This data shows that the Metis had the highest levels of education compared to the First Nations group and Inuit. Inuit groups had the lowest level of education. However, these percentages are very similar to each other. My sources all explain that indigenous people in British Columbia have a low likelihood of receiving a university degree or even attending university, compared to other non-indigenous people.

All my sources highlight the same issues. They all mention that indigenous people are less likely to receive a university degree, and they all mention the factors contributing to low levels of education. This first article that I found, explains the reasons why most indigenous people in Canada do not attend university. This article links this problem to a lack of social support, motivation, and even to colonialism as a direct cause (Rawana, 2015). The second article called Relationships matter: supporting aboriginal graduate students in British Columbia also mentions that the percentage of indigenous people who attend university is "fewer than 3%" (Pidgeon, 2014, pg. 3). The third article also highlights how marginalization effects indigenous people and makes it harder for to be successful in university (Cynthia, 2016, pg. 207). A lack of motivation, and no social support also contribute to low levels of education. Overall, all these articles highlight how important it is for indigenous people to attending post-secondary. High education levels lead to better career outcomes, improved health, and even more motivation and confidence.

Overall, there are many factors that effect the likelihood of indigenous people receiving a university degree or even attending university. Poor living conditions, and a lack of a support, and financial issues all contribute to indigenous people not attending university. These articles even mention that many indigenous people to not complete high school, however, this is changing in British Columbia.The amount of high school graduates in the indigenous community has slightly improved, especially in British Columbia. However, there still is a low rate of indigenous people attending university. My research highlights this overall issue with indigenous university degree attainment, and highlights how colonialism has a long-lasting impact on indigenous people.Also, it is important for indigenous people to receive a university degree, or even attending post-secondary education because achieving this would create a sense of confidence and higher motivation levels for many people (Cynthia, 2016, pg. 207). Higher education levels can ultimately improve many indigenous communities as well. However, there still needs to be more support for indigenous students such as including more indigenous support groups in universities.



Sources mentioned by order

1) Rawana, J. S., Sieukaran, D. D., Nguyen, H. T., & Pitawanakwat, R. (2015). Development and evaluation of a peer mentorship program for aboriginal university students. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne De l'Éducation, 38(2), 1-34. doi:10.2307/canajeducrevucan.38.2.08

2) Pidgeon, M., Archibald, J., & Hawkey, C. (2014). Relationships matter: Supporting aboriginal graduate students in british columbia, canada. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 44(1), 1.

3) Gallop, C. J., & Bastien, N. (2016). Supporting success: Aboriginal students in higher education. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 46(2), 206.

DVAssign-Update3

Chart

This is an interactive chart, click on the headings to see the information.
   

Unanswered Question

My chart here displays the education levels of different Indigenous groups in British Columbia in the year 2016. The red bar is displayed in a different colour than the rest in order to highlight the most important aspect of this research. One question I cannot figure out from this data is what towns or areas of residency does the Indigenous group with the highest levels of education live in.

How will I get this data?

I am able to figure this out by going to the Statistics Canada website. They have different data sets that show the cities and towns of Indigenous people, their level of education, and even other sorts of information about them including their job, family size etc. If I wanted to figure out which towns have the highest levels of indigenous people who received a Bachelor’s degree, I can go to Statistics Canada, which contains reliable data.

DVAssign-Update2

Lead
Indigenous people are less likely to receive a Bachelors degree in University compared to non-Indigenous students.

Excel workbook
The purpose of my research is to compare the education levels of Metis, Inuit, and non-Indigenous people in British Columbia. Here is the link to my Raw data, and my Data Slice. The Raw data contains information on different Indigenous groups and their education level, compared to non-Indigenous people. In update 1, I had used a different data set. In my slice sheet, I compare Metis people, Inuit people, and non-indigenous people to each other. I also include percentages. My data states that the Inuit people have the lowest levels of education, and the highest number of percentage of people that did not receive any education, including a high school diploma. Indigenous people are also less likely to receive a university degree compared to non-Indigenous students.

Original Data Set link
This, is the new data set I used from Statistics Canada, but instead of showing Canada wide statistics, I changed it to only contain information on British Columbia.

News story
This news story describes the efforts put in place by community workers who seek to help Indigenous teens become ready for post-secondary education. The purpose of this is to introduce them to life in university, and what it would be like to attend. The reason these efforts are made is because Indigenous people have a low enrolment rate in University. This article mentions that the amount of Indigenous students attending university had dropped. Overall, the purpose of my data was to compare Metis people's level of education with the Inuit people levels of education. I also wanted to compare the different percentage rates of Indigenous people attending university with the percentage rate of non-Indigenous people attending university. All in all, my final data report will be focused on Indigenous people's level of post-secondary education and the reasons this rate is lower than non-indigenous people.

DVAssign-Update1

1) What dataset will you use for your final report?

The dataset i will use in my final report is a data set from Statistics Canada. This data set shows the different Indigenous groups in Canada and their level of education that they received.

2) Describe your dataset?

The data set includes Metis people, Inuit people, and other First Nations group and whether or not they have a treaty Indian Status. It lists their level of education at all levels. This data explains the amount of Indigenous people from a particular First Nations group and wether or not they received high school education, or post-secondary education.

3) Is there anything that you don't understand?

The only column I don't understand in this data is the column that says "Non-Aboriginal Identity". I'm not sure if that is talking about the general population of Canada who do not identify as Aboriginal. I can figure this out more by doing more research.

4) What are some questions you hope to answer with your data?

-What is the First Nations group that received the highest amount of education (post-secondary)?

-What is the First Nations group that received the lowest amount of education? (High-school drop outs)

-What is the percentage of Aboriginal people who graduated high school compared to the percentage of rest of the population in Canada who not identify as Aboriginal.

Assignment #1: Data Visualization Analysis

This chart, is from The Economist. It compares the use of clean energy, mainly solar energy, in different countries around the world. The countries/regions included and compared in this chart are China, United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. One of the strengths of this chart is that it is a bar chart. This makes this chart easy to read. However, there are too many bars in this chart, which may make it confusing for some people, because it gives this chart a crowded appearance. The different colours represent the different countries listed in the legend. However, the many bars and colours make the chart appear too clustered. The creator of this chart shouldn't have included so many years. However, the numbers do start at zero, which is one another strength of this chart. Unfortunately the creator did not specify what the numbers on the right mean. It signifies an amount of solar power used, but not the exact measurements, which can also be confusing for readers.

In my opinion, if the creator wanted to improve the appearance of this chart, the main issue they should focus on is the cluster of bars sprawled on the chart. Also, the countries are difficult to compare in the years 2004 and 2005, because they are so small. It would have been better to simply remove the other bars, and lessen the amount of years listed in the chart. It is understandable that the creator would like to compare the past years to the present, however, this amount of bars makes this chart extremely crowded. All in all, using a bar chart instead of a pie chart, or line chart is the main strengths of this chart. Since there is so much information listed, it would be even more confusing if this chart was anything other than a bar chart.