The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1 - 58

Michelle Pidgeon * Chris Rogerson

Based on the demographic data, the participants who self-identified as Aboriginal (First
Nations, Métis, or Inuit) were as follows: 2007
(n = 13), 2009 (n = 8), and 2011 (n = 4). Although
the ages of the students were not recorded in
the data set, most were completing their undergraduate degree. With respect to the EBI-CRA
data we examined, all Aboriginal students were
undergraduates and living in single room accommodations (i.e., they had no roommates).

58

services can be transformed to support Aboriginal student success. In our analysis of the
secondary data sets, we specifically examined
the AHRP student surveys and sharing circles,
since the stories of student experiences were
best articulated within the student data set of
this broader project and the Aboriginal student
responses of the EBI-CRA survey.

Our content analysis of institutional
housing policies examined specific services
or references to student housing, residence, offcampus housing, campus housing, and Aboriginal
housing on the public websites of 58 institutions from SK (n = 11), AB (n = 20), and BC (n
= 27) during the academic years of 2011-2012.
We conducted this analysis to gain an understanding of how each institution addresses
Aboriginal student housing needs in terms
of process, procedures, and regulations. Our
analysis showed that two thirds of the 58 postsecondary institutions had some form of oncampus student housing. A total of 17 (43.6%)
institutions had a housing option for families
(non-single student style), and 8 (13.8%) provided off-campus housing support. Only six
(10.3%) institutions had specific policies for
Aboriginal housing options, and three (5.2%)
provided Aboriginal-focused housing spaces.

We used the Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences (SPSS) to conduct descriptive
statistics, and, where appropriate, we calculated cross-tabulations to determine if significant differences existed between variables. For
example, the EBI-CRA survey and the AHRP
survey used similar questions, which enabled
us to compare their responses across the data
sets. We used an emergent coding process
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Smith, 2012) to
code the AHRP sharing circles and interviews.
The interview and sharing circle protocols
and the Indigenous Wholistic Framework informed our coding process that allowed for
fixed coding (e.g., from the interview questions) and emergent codes from the iterative
coding process. Our coding also followed the
practice of inter-rater reliability, since multiple
members of the research team coded and discussed our coding strategies to ensure that the
coding was consistent and the themes had an
agreed upon meaning.

Wholistic Analysis

RESULTS

In reviewing the data, we focused on the
themes that emerged from each research
project and used the Indigenous Wholistic
Framework to identify the factors that helped
or hindered Aboriginal students' experience.
In particular, we focused on the role of three
aspects of housing (policies, practices, and
properties) to illustrate how accommodation

The Indigenous Wholistic Framework, particularly the 4Rs, provided insight into the housing
experience of Aboriginal students by highlighting the components they identified as helping
and hindering their success in a manner that
illuminated the physical, emotional, cultural,
and intellectual needs associated with Aboriginal student housing, which are clearly related

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1

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