ABSTRACT
The work of Canadian school teachers, like those in other nations, is oriented to numerous and often competing objectives. This chapter explores the implications for teachers' work posed through a series of educational reforms dedicated to improve educational outcomes for Canada's Aboriginal population. Aboriginal students in Canada attend schools in a highly diverse array of settings, reflecting considerable heterogeneity within Indigenous populations as well as other forms of diversity that characterize Canadian society overall. It also explores the changing relationships associated with reform initiatives devoted to enhance education for Aboriginal people, identifying the major dimensions of reform and assessing their significance for teachers and their work. The discussion highlights, in particular, the multiple and contradictory dimensions of teachers' work posed by competing demands related to curricula, performance, and public confidence in their work. Teachers' social relationships are also being transformed in relation to increasing diversity within the classroom and encounters with a growing array of communities beyond the classroom.
