Expressions of Intent for IPY 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Collaborative Research: IPY: Negotiating Pathways to Adulthood: Social Change and Indigenous Culture in Four Circumpolar Communities  (Pathways)

Outline
Contemporary dynamics of rapid social change have dramatically affected the political, cultural, and economic systems of circumpolar Indigenous people. The Pathways study is a comparative, collaborative, and participatory circumpolar research project. Its aims are to explore responses to rapid social transition through the life experiences of circumpolar youth. The proposed study will examine 80 youth life history narratives. These narratives will come from an Alaska Inupiat, Alaska Yup’ik, Canadian Inuit, and Siberian Eveny community. In addition, the research team is developing collaborations using additional funding sources to examine the narratives of an additional 40 youth from a Norwegian Samì and Greenlandic community. In this study, the team intends to identify shared and divergent stressors and patterns of resilience in the transition to adulthood across these different circumpolar settings. Youth resilience is defined as the ability to overcome acute and on-going difficulties in the pathway to adulthood. The investigators seek to identify cultural strategies and resources that characterize resiliency across two age groups, ages 11-14 and 15-18, and across gender. The impact of a shared colonial history and contemporary social suffering among indigenous communities in the Arctic has been extensively documented through decades of Arctic social science research. The issue of healthy adaptation and resilience among Indigenous youth has not been adequately considered, leaving developmental trajectories of healthy adaptation and resilience relatively unexplored. This research aims to build on Indigenous categories to describe the social experiences and resources shaping culturally patterned resilience strategies of young people responding to challenges distinct from those of their parents and grandparents. This will provide insights into the family, community, and cultural contexts that support healthy youth development, and identify key ingredients to successful prevention and intervention health strategies for Indigenous young people. Study across six circumpolar communities will also provide unprecedented insights into the effect of diverse social, political, cultural, and economic systems on youth development, and inform effective social policy for circumpolar youth. This project builds on and sustains long-term participatory research relationships between local community institutions, community co-researchers, and a multidisciplinary team of international university researchers. Indigenous community co-researcher involvement and direction is emphasized throughout all phases of this project, whose aims respond to strong local interest in youth resilience and wellbeing. Development of interview schedules, data collection procedures, and the analysis will be in collaboration with Local Steering Committees (LSC) to ensure their cultural grounding. A representative from each LSC will be actively involved in the cross-site work through membership in an international Circumpolar Steering Committee.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
In line with three of the International Polar Year (IPY) priority areas, this project intends to (1) increase international collaboration between circumpolar institutions, (2) leave a legacy of infrastructure and data, and (3) increase Indigenous capacity for research and action. Dissemination with communities and regional Indigenous organizations will contribute to a developing network of circumpolar communities engaged in suicide prevention, promotion of collective wellbeing, and development of a circumpolar Indigenous identity. The study will also establish tracking procedures, participatory research infrastructure, and international circumpolar collaboration for future longitudinal, prospective study of safe passage into adulthood.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
Alaska Inupiat, Alaska Yup’ik, Canadian Inuit, and Siberian Eveny communities will be the topic of the National Science Foundation (US) funded investigation, and we are seeking collaborations using additional funding sources to examine a Norwegian Samì and Greenlandic community.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Alaska, Nunavut Canada, and Siberia Russia are funded through the National Science Foundation (US), and Northern Norway and Greenland are proposed through alternative sources.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 9/08 – 6/10            
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
None

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
The project will leave a legacy of infrastructure and data through the first wave of data collection of a proposed longitudinal study on youth and adult development in the circumpolar north among indigenous peoples.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Other sources of support

Support through infrastructure of Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks,; Global Health Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst,; Scott Polar Center, Cambridge University; Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
Yes - National Science Foundation IPY Project Award Number 0756211. The project is part of the Arctic Council's Arctic Human Health Initiative.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
Yes

How will the project be organised and managed?
To carry out a participatory collaborative, circumpolar project will require an established process for dialogue and decision-making at each site and across sites. This will be done through the development of four Local and one Circumpolar Steering Committee. Using previously established connections, each investigator will work with local leaders to establish a Local Steering Committee (LSC) at each site with between 8 and 12 Elders, adults, and young adults. The role of the Local Steering Committee will be to oversee and guide all aspects of the research process including data collection, analysis and dissemination. The LSC will also increase awareness of the project locally, manage potential difficulties, and provide support for the day-today workings of the project. A local community co-researcher will be employed to participate in the LSC, conduct participant interviews along with the investigators, and aid in the organization of LSC meetings, data, analysis and the day-to-day tasks involved in moving the project forward on-site. Each site will function in accord with local preferences, and each LSC will arrive at questions and methods with maximal local relevance and acceptability. We anticipate each site will include site-specific components to their design and interview process, within an over-arching mutually agreed upon research protocol shared across the sites that will afford cross-site comparisons. The LSC will meet at least three times per year to guide these site-specific processes, analysis, and dissemination. The co-researcher will represent the LSC in the two, circumpolar working meetings per year (virtual or face-to-face) on a Circumpolar Steering Committee (CSC). The CSC will guide articulation of a shared, cross-site set of research questions, procedures, and analyses. This international process will use elements of the steering committee process used by members of this investigator group in Alaska with their work with five Indigenous cultural groups137, 139. These international meetings will include two face-to-face meetings in year 1 and 3, along with numerous virtual meetings via video and telephone conference. With the exception of the Siberian site, all remote locations have access to satellite high-speed Internet access. These international meetings will provide forums to move site-specific findings to an understanding of the similarities and differences in young people’s experiences, perspectives, and resilience strategies across sites. These cross-site discussions will inform our understanding the influence of diverse social, economic and political systems on young peoples’ pathways to adulthood.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
The project will disseminate findings through investigator and co-researcher community meetings to each community site, academic publications and electronic audio and visual media for general audiences including youth. A high priority of this project is the communication of local understandings of the findings back to local communities. Included in the budget is development of a book for local youth, composed of narratives from the study, and primary study findings, in each of the indigenous languages. This book will be distributed as an interactive web site, and ported to a computer CD-ROM for youth, with digital audio and graphics, as well as to a book format based on the web site. LSC members will also decide, with other local people, the best ways for local dissemination. This critically important lateral knowledge transfer across Indigenous communities will articulate what works for young people as they as they negotiate their pathways into adulthood. This knowledge can aid Indigenous communities in supporting this critical passage for youth.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document)?
Interview recordings from the Siberia and Nunavut site will be transcribed, and translated into English by Siberian and Nunavut research staff. Transcription will be coordinated by each investigator and shared with participants for verification and review. Verbatim transcriptions of each interview will be sent to the project coordinator. Once a transcript is verified, the project staff will enter the transcript into ATLAS-TI. All digital data and transcriptions will be stored on a central secure server at UAF with routine timed tape backup, and on each local team’s secure primary computer. During data analysis, data will be shared with the LSC at each site and across research teams to engage community members in co-analysis of the data. All individuals who deal with data will receive human subjects training and be certified by the IRB as co-research staff. We utilize the CITI University of Miami training protocol and a local training protocol developed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks IRB for second language English speakers or individuals who are not computer literate. The Center for Alaska Native health research, the repository of the interviews, has a data release policy and review board.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
National Science Foundation IPY Award; Norwegian Research Council (in application)

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
An imperative to all the researchers involved is how the results might be useful to the community in terms of local activity or program development. Our Inuit co- researchers with the organizations Embrace Life Council in Nunavut, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (Inuit Association of Canada) in Ottawa, and the National Inuit Youth Council in Nunavut are planning through these organizations to share the findings with the 53 communities across the four Inuit regions of Canada, and integrate the findings into their own work on Inuit community wellness. The Kotzebue Tribal Council, Aqqaluk Trust, Maniilaq Association, Northwest Arctic Borough School District and the Northwest Arctic Borough also plan to use some of the findings to support their programming and the regional Healthy Communities initiative. The youth data for the Yup’ik region is planned for use in a youth prevention intervention on which the investigators have designed and are implementing. The Yukon Regional Coordinating Council would like to share the findings across the Yup’ik region, and the researcher group will also make these materials available through vehicles such as local tribal councils, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Regional Health Corporations, local school districts, and the Alaska Native Knowledge Network. The results of this project will be translated into Russian and Eveny languages and distributed through Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North in Moscow and its regional branch in the city of Yakutsk, the Administration of Tomponsky district, the Administration of the village of Topolinoye, and local school, hospital and reindeer herding brigades. The Inuit Circumpolar Youth Council is interested in learning how these findings can aid them in working toward their goals of supporting cultural continuity/language revitalization, suicide prevention and educational attainment.

PROPOSER DETAILS

James Allen
Department of Psychology University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks,
AK 99775-6480
USA

Tel: 907-474-6132
Mobile:
Fax: 907-474-5781
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation

Other Information