The transition from a native elementary school to a non-native secondary school: the lived experience of First Nations students - Jessica Godin

In Quebec, some aboriginal communities offer only primary schooling, forcing students to enter a non-native secondary school situated outside the community (Hot, 2010). The transition from elementary to secondary school in such a context is a challenge for aboriginal students as they come up against a new cultural reality that has little connection to the community setting they are used to (Government of Canada, 2015), which often leads them to repeating a school year (Lévesque et al., 2015). Considering that this transition corresponds to the most decisive period in terms of school perseverance (Chouinard 2009, Desbiens 2009), it is important to implement the means and conditions that are essential to support a transition of quality for them. In order to do so, we first need to understand and describe their lived experience about moving from a native elementary school to a non-native secondary school, which is our research objective.