McGill Education researcher is helping advance the development of the first Inuit-led CEGEP program in Nunavik

McGill Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology researcher Michelle Smith has been helping to advance the development of what stands to be the first Inuit-led CEGEP diploma program delivered in Nunavik: the Arts, Literature and Communications (ALC) North Diploma of College Studies (DCS).

Most residents of the northern Quebec region currently have to travel south to earn a post-secondary diploma. This entails living away from their families for the duration of studies that all too often have little connection to their own situations or life experience.

The new initiative owes much to Smith’s doctoral research and the pilot courses she organized (in soapstone carving, digital animation, video production, sewing and Inuit media, delivered in Nunavik over the past three years. Advanced with the support of Kativik Ilisarniliriniq (the Kativik School Board), the program is expected to be fully developed by 2028. Until then, more pilot courses are being offered jointly by the school board and its long-standing partner John Abbott College, a CEGEP in the west island of Montreal.

The goal is to give students the opportunity to pursue post-secondary studies close to home in a learning environment that reflects Inuit culture, language and ways of knowing.