Informal learning: cultural experiences and entrepreneurship among Aboriginal people

This discussion paper is concerned with interactions among formal learning; informal learning and life conditions and opportunities experienced by Aboriginal people in Canada. The contradictory importance of education for Aboriginal people is examined with respect to three related aspects of these relationships. First, the paper summarizes accounts of student experiences in conventional and alternative school settings in three Saskatchewan communities, exploring how these relate to the students' broader cultural and home environments. Second, it examines the formal and informal educational experiences of a small group of adults surveyed in an urban Indian and Metis Friendship Centre. Third, it explores a number of issues that arise around the emergence of entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurship, areas thought by many commentators to be a possible way of bridging formal and informal learning and overcoming the longstanding marginalization of Aboriginal people from labour market and economic participation