Systemic Racism in Ontario Public Schools

Systemic Racism in Ontario Public Schools:

Looking Past Prima Facie “Inclusion” Attempts.

By: Andrea Lagalisse (2992863)

For: Saba Alvi (EDU5466)April 21st, 2015

Andrea Lagalisse (2992863) Systemic Racism in Ontario Public Schools…1

Systemic Racism in Ontario Public Schools: Looking Past Prima Facie 'Inclusion' Attempts

Introduction

This paper investigates the climate of underground racism that pervades Canadian public schools

and First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities. According to leading research, racisms in the

everyday can be identified using a three-step framework. The premise is that racisms that are

"not sets of ideas so much as they are material organizations of the world integral to the systems

that have made the modern world." The 3 Conditions of racism for this framework are: 1.

Racialization, 2. Exclusion, 3. Consequences (Stanley, 2014, p. 5). Using this framework to

critically examine the Aboriginal Perspectives Teacher’s Handbooks for grades 5 and 8, I will be

arguing for the emergence and growth of reflexive antiracism for educators, policy makers, and

community leaders. Reflexive antiracism is an approach to analysing racisms and helping

individuals identify racisms in the everyday. It not intended as a final solution, but rather as a

way to help "harness the forces that make change." Reflexive antiracism calls for: 1. Avoidance

of "essentialisms", 2. Teaching about the histories of the systems that bring about the present, 3.

Acknowledging complexity and affect (Stanley, 2014, p. 5).

For this paper, it will be considered fact that race is a cultural construct that should be

analyzed as a social and cultural reality that is independent of biological and genetic variations

(Smedley, 2007, p. 1). Smedley notes how Native Americans became “savages” only after they

resisted appropriation of their land by British colonialists (2007, p. 6), showing the historic link

between power structures and the construction of racialized groups of “us” and “them.” I argue

that prima-facie attempts at including Aboriginal Perspectives in Ontario public school

curriculum is further enabling racist power structures to exist by making at appear as though


First Nations perspectives and knowledge are being valued while continuing to promote a Euro-

centric, colonialist superiority that places Aboriginal communities at a disadvantage.

Racialization

The grade 5 Language expectations for oral communication aim to teach students to "dispel

stereotypes of Aboriginal people and use appropriate vocabulary", and even makes reference to

the sensitivity of the issue due to the terms being imposed upon them by people who were "not

Aboriginal." However, little reference is made to the systemic destruction and re-construction of

Native identity and the many inequalities brought about by the colonial and post-colonial

process. The toolkit also assumes that the educator is unbiased and willing to examine potentially

"sensitive" issues, and also that they have knowledge about Native customs, traditions and ways

of teaching and learning.

The Guide to the Teacher Toolkit for elementary and secondary programs uses very

generalized and essentialized conceptions of Native Identity to encourage incorporation of

Aboriginal knowledge into public school programs. Stanley (2014) notes that essentialized

representations of racialized difference are so common that they are part of people’s “common

sense and their everyday language” (p. 10). This is evident in the wording and subject matter of

the Teacher’s Handbooks and Toolkits on Aboriginal Perspectives. For example, teaching

strategies mention incorporating discussion of things like: thanksgiving ("their" version), canoes,

snowshoes, growing corn, and drying food for journeys "such as a buffalo hunt" (p. 10-11).

The wording used in the Teacher Handbooks and Toolkits privileges mainstream

Eurocentric knowledge, positioning Indigenous knowledge as “a” knowledge, maintaining the

Eurocentric status quo. This is a sort of “add-and-stir” (Battiste, 1998, p. 21) approach that does

not provide authentic opportunities for learning or engagement. Discussions of "current and


historical issues" are not expected until grade 11, and phrase the issue as conflict between

Aboriginal peoples and the "non-Aboriginal majority" (p. 11). While it could be argued that in

grade 5, it is relatively difficult to bring up some issues in an appropriate manner, this would not

necessarily be true in later grades. In the Grade 8 Handbook (2011), however, a history section

on the lives of Metis and First Nations Peoples in Western Canada in the 1890’s still focusses on

essentialized depictions of Native people as either being hunters and trappers living in teepees, or

farmers living in wigwams. Discussion of Metis people involves the understanding that “most”

of them were “integrating themselves into the society of the new settlers”, and discussion

questions centre on how Native people housed, fed and traveled (p. 1-2). There is no mention of

cultural conflict or assimilationist policies, and little recognition of the diversity and complexity

of the many different tribes who lived in the area.

Exclusions

An examination of curriculum expectations and teacher’s guides show that generalization

abounds, and examples of Native contribution and knowledge are still confined to the adversarial

position of being the other within the colonial majority. For example, in the grade 8 Aboriginal

Perspectives Teacher’s Toolkit, the history section attempts to engage students in examining

Aboriginal women like who made “positive contributions to the lives of Aboriginal people”

Many of the women that are suggested for study include racialized white individuals like Emily

Carr, or Lucy Maud Montgomery, women who were not Aboriginal at all, although they

admittedly were fascinated by and championed Aboriginal perspectives. Meanwhile, others like

Pauline Johnson or Catherine Sutton, are celebrated for being mixed-race or for marrying British

men (2011, Aboriginal Perspectives: Grade 8 History. Canada, A Changing Society, p. 1). There

is no mention of a critical perspective on the colonial experience, nor is there any indication of


engagement with Native history as they would have it taught. This constitutes continued

exclusion of Aboriginal knowledge and real participation.

There are many factors to consider when looking at the issue of public education and

exclusion for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit youth in Canada. Some youth stay on reserve and

some leave to look for opportunities off-reserve. Coorsh, writing an article for CTVNews.ca on

May 2nd, 2014, notes that First Nations youth who do graduate on-reserve often face difficulties

in getting jobs or gaining admission to post-secondary institutions (2014. CTVNews.ca). A

reason that this is proving so difficult is because they are not provided with diplomas or

certificates recognizing their accomplishments. Another alternative is to go to school off of the

reserve and face not only discrimination, but assimilationist school curriculum and policies, as

well as separation from one’s community and cultural identity. Two major problems facing

Native education in Canada are that there is not enough representation at major decision-making

bodies in education, and that teachers are stuck in pedagogies of practice that have proven

unsuccessful in the past (Hill & Redwing Saunders, 2007, p.1015). Therefore, it is important to

encourage collaboration between First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities and the provincial

and federal governments and to encourage pedagogical and philosophical change in the way that

Aboriginal knowledge and history is taught.

Consequences

The consequences of racialization in School Curriculum language are many. First of all,

Aboriginal students don't have genuine representation inside or outside of their communities.

They are underrepresented at every level, from students, teachers, school leaders, to positive

representation within the community as respectable and influential. Battiste (1998) notes that

despite Supreme Court affirmation that the teaching of Aboriginal rights as a constitutional right,


Canadian education systems have not “empowered the enormous creativity of Aboriginal

languages” (p. 16-17), effectively ignoring their value. I believe that fifteen years later, this is

still overwhelmingly the case. Wider consequences of the social and political repression of

Aboriginal peoples can be seen through the catastrophic conditions of poverty, addiction and

violence that many aboriginal communities are plagued with.

The Teacher’s Handbooks and Toolkits are an extension of a sad attempt at adapting an

education system that is a “substandard, abusive means of dealing with the “Indian Problem”…

underfunded and employ[ing] non-indigenized models” (Hill & Redwing- Saunders, 2007, p.

1015). This forces focus into Eurocentric conceptions of culture and knowledge, and as a

consequence, Indigenous knowledge is being trivialized or lost. Alongside exclusion and

othering by a dominant society, native communities face disruption of identity within the

community as well as within the wider Canadian context. Contemporary Native identity exists in

an "uneasy balance between concepts of generic "Indianness" as a racial identity and of specific

"tribal" identity as Indigenous "nationhood", and this has a long history of being constructed by

the oppressive colonial authority (Lawrence, B. p. 4-5). The fact that very few teachers and

school leaders are Aboriginal themselves further compounds a sense of exclusion, as Aboriginal

students don’t see themselves reflected in the system they are forced to live in.

Who should be in charge? First Nations public education in Canada: Coalition Building for

decentralization and power-sharing.

Looking at the recent drama surrounding the shelving of the First Nations Education Act

(Bill C-33) is a good way to illustrate the complicated factors of striving towards public

education for First Nations communities. Coorsh notes that some of the major tenets of the


proposed education reforms included aligning education standards with provincial standards off-

reserve, proper certification of teachers, and student attendance requirements (2014,

CTVNews.ca). These requirements privilege the current power dynamic that places euro-centrism

and Canadian nationalism above Native identity and rights. It assumes that a “good” education is

the Eurocentric one. The department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

proclaimed “disappointment” that First Nations leaders did not follow through on an agreement,

noting that “funding will only follow real education reforms.” The answers from First Nations

leaders like Bill Erasmus were that it isn’t fair to force hundreds of different communities to

agree on one Bill, and Grand Chief Gordon Peters, who notes that there had always been talk and

expectation of “co-development” that never materialized (The Canadian Press, 2014).The

problem with this statement is that it locates the problem as being with the First Nations

communities, and ignores the historical social, cultural and economic realities that lead to the

decimation of Native culture and collective power.

Assuming that funding should follow reform ignores the reality that funding is essential

to enable reform through infrastructure, training, and real community building. It locates real

power in the Canadian government and excludes First Nations communities and leaders from co-

development of goals and authentic reform. A Globe and Mail editorial from June 10, 2014

suggests that Bill C-33 ought to be reintroduced, despite its imperfections, with opt-out clauses.

This would allow individual bands who support the bill to try it out, claiming their share of the

proposed funding. I think that this isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but caution that there should be

the ability to opt-out or renegotiate regularly, in order to push for long-term, deep change

towards equitable, authentic education systems for all children in Canada, regardless of their

cultural background.


Bringing the discussion back to the Teacher’s Handbooks, we can see the same tone of

trivialization and assimilationist bent. For example, one aspect of the curriculum expectation is

Language development. The document states that "language is a fundamental element of identity

and culture. If students see themselves and others in the texts they read and the oral and media

works they engage in, they are able to feel that the works are genuinely for and about them and

come to appreciate the nature and value of a diverse, multicultural society" (p. 2). However,

studies in Ontario public schools are completed in English, and sometimes in French, and there is

not enough representation of Aboriginal communities within teaching and school leadership.

This amounts to a form of cognitive imperialism, forcing Aboriginal contexts into one frame of

reference (Battiste, 1998, p. 20), maintaining the sense of being the "other", and thus, excluded.

Efforts at including the Aboriginal perspective in the Teacher’s Handbooks and Toolkits

appear limited to helping non-Aboriginal students learn about Aboriginal students, not on

helping Aboriginal students construct or maintain an authentic identity that reflects historical

realities. For example, in Ontario, the community at Akwesasne lists that the predominant

language spoken in Akwesasne is currently English. However, Kanienkeha (Mohawk) is the

official language of the people, and only about 30% of the people of Akwesasne still speak it.

Maintaining their language is a priority in the community. (http://www.akwesasne.ca/about), but

what happens to those who leave the reservation either to go to school, or to try to live in other

communities? Who is protecting the Mohawk language then?

What can we do about it? Antiracist interventions:

My antiracist transformation activity involves a package of information intended for educators,

policy makers and community leaders to use while reviewing future attempts at education

reforms through coalition-building with the Canadian government and First Nations, Metis, and

http://www.akwesasne.ca/about


Inuit communities. This is a straightforward attempt to keep dealing with the “colonial shadow”

through awareness of the sociohistoric reality that lead to the current situation (Battiste, 1998, p.

24). The hope is that by educating individuals who have the ability to effect systemic change at

the institutional and governmental level, we can co-create a future force of change that starts

from the philosophical basis of collaboration and cooperation in decentralizing and reforming

education in Canadian public schools and other learning environments. This information will

also be helpful for educators who are currently trying to navigate curriculum expectations but

who want to bring antiracist practices into their classrooms, but is not intended to fix the problem

of racist and exclusionary policies but spur change.

Ideally, government actors and First Nations Actors will come together to discuss, review,

and draft a bill for First Nations control over their education as well as changes to traditional

Euro-centric public school curriculum, moving towards authentic, non-trivialized representations

of First Nations history and culture. This involves willingness to adapt the National narrative to

include wider acceptance and understanding of the history of interaction between First Nations

peoples and colonialists, as well as the desire for healing and community building. It also

involves an opening up of what knowledge and cultures are considered valuable.

Antiracist Information Package: Encouraging Reflexive Antiracist practices and supporting First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities.

Discourse Analysis Tools.

Critical Discourse Analysis. Werner (2000) notes that any text is open to multiple readings, as

different purposes or questions are brought to the task. Rather than passively receiving the 'given'

interpretation, readers may question, argue , or even reject what they read, thereby repositioning

themselves as agents in relation to the text (p. 193-4). Writing about textbooks, but easily adaptable to a

number of different text forms, Werner offers a set of analysis tools to help individuals navigate these


meanings. These tools could be employed by educators using the Teacher’s Handbooks to mitigate

negative effects. I encourage them to be given to students to help develop critical thinking and

perspective. Finally, policy makers and legislators, and community leaders should use these when

revising or writing new policies, to try and avoid the Eurocentrism, generalizations, and exclusions that

make our school systems racist.

1. Representations: Textbooks comprise a complex system of representation for producing

meanings about peoples, places, events, issues, and objects. These various mini- texts are

interpreted in classroom discussions, worksheets, homework assignments, and examinations.

Students are not often asked to consider how these texts "re- present rather than present

reality; [how] they provide packaged images of the world rather than the world itself'" (p. 196).

2. The Gaze: the "gaze" implicit within a representation. This metaphor refers to the implied

attitude, value stance, or power relationship towards the people, place or event depicted (p.

199).

3. The Voice: metaphor of voice is important because much of social education's content speaks

about/ for / with/as/ to other people. Voice reminds us that a text is always a speaking from

somewhere, and that questions can be raised about who it is that speaks, about what, how,

under what conditions, and with what effects (p. 200-201).

4. The Said and the Not Said: Absences: Representations can at times be understood more fully by

reading their gaps and what is left out. Sometimes what is there points to what is not there,

what is put to the front suggests an exclusion, what is said implies what is being silenced (p.

203).

5. Author(ity): Storylines and Rhetoric: Rhetorical devices keep the 'naturalness' or "givenness' of

these storylines going. Such devices may include, for example, the use of captions, questions,

titles and sub-titles, metaphors and analogies, footnotes, the over generalized "we" or "they" (p.

206).

6. Intertextuality: How readers make sense of any one text is influenced in part by its relationship

to other texts. “Meanings are not fixed within the pieces, but depend upon how the pieces work

together or play off each other when read; it is through these juxtapositions” (p. 208).


7. Mediation: Information Transmission as Transformation: Very little of what we know about the

broader world is the result of our direct encounters. Rather, we experience “ready-made and

second-hand representations” through texts from many sources (p. 208).

8. Reflexivity: authors and readers are often "unaware of how their personal experiences and

positions within society influence the knowledge they produce." Reflexivity is evident when

authors help readers recognize and question authorship, and as readers in turn recognize their

own active role in interpreting different texts (p. 212).

Identifying Racsims in the Everyday. Stanley (2014) offers a simple three-step process to

identifying racisms in the everyday (that I have used to structure the half of this paper). These are

intended to bring about antiracist transformation by engaging individuals in reflexive antiracism

that asks them to avoid essentialisms, learn the history of the systems that bring about the current

moment, and acknowledge complexity (p. 5). The three indicators of racism in the everyday are:

1. Racialization: characterized as the “sorting of populations through the signification of

alleged biological or cultural differences” (p. 6) that can be real or imagined. This is a

social process, and includes aspects like geography, institutional segregation, economic

systems, biological indicators like skin colour, culture, religion, and language (2014, p.

9).

2. Exclusion: This includes exclusion in the physical sense, but also in social, economic,

political, territorial and symbolic senses. These exclusions have been organized, even if

we don’t remember what led to them (2014, p. 11).

3. Consequences: negative consequences are assessed through understanding and

engagement with the meanings and self-representations of the excluded (2014, p.12).

Negative consequences include loss of life, culture, opportunity, or identity. The

consequence of not addressing the meaning and self-representations of the excluded in an

authentic manner is that racist systems and structures self-perpetuate.

Recognizing Colonial Power Plays. Battiste (1998) outlines four racist strategies that are

used to maintain colonial power:


a. Stressing real or imaginary differences,

b. Assigning values to these differences,

c. Trying to make these values absolute,

d. Using these values to justify any present or possible aggression or privileges (p. 21).

Coalition Building Tools.

Building Authentic Community and Coalition. Hill and Redwing-Saunders (1998)

discuss the importance of authentic community voice and coalition-building that support the six

principles of transformative Indigenous Theory (Smith, G. H., 2000, 2005, and Smith, G. H.,

2005). These are:

a. Self-determination,

b. Validating and legitimating cultural aspirations and identity,

c. Incorporating culturally preferred pedagogy,

d. Mediating socioeconomic difficulties,

e. Incorporating cultural structures that emphasize the collective, and

f. A shared and collective vision (p.1017).

Questioning the Motive behind Texts. Werner (2000) offers three questions that move a

reader from context of a text, to “inferences about authorship”, to the broader social contexts (p.

197).

I. “What is the text purporting to depict? What do you think the author/artist wanted

readers to understand, value, or celebrate through this depiction?”

2. “What might this account tell us about the social commitments (values, assumptions,

interests) and locations (social class, role status, group memberships) underlying this

authorship? In what ways might these factors have played into the text? In what ways

might this text have served a set of broader social goals, issues, or interests?”

3.) “In what ways might this text have served a set of broader social goals, issues, or

interests? Is there any evidence to suggest whose views are advanced, experiences are


celebrated, benefits are legitimized, or ways of life are favored? What may this imply

about the social attitudes and prevailing conditions that made this work acceptable (or

contested) in that time and place? That is, in what sense might this representation be

partial (incomplete or biased)”? (p. 198).

Conclusion: Moving towards something better.

Current Ontario Teacher’s Handbooks and Toolkits serve to support Eurocentric, exclusive

curriculum objectives that do not authentically address and incorporate Indigenous knowledge

and culture. It is essential to offer educator and learners the opportunities to engage in a Native

ontology of education that includes aspects of holism, lifelong learning, community involvement

and authorship that is based on respect, relevance and reciprocity (Hill & Redwing-Saunders,

1998, p. 1020). Requiring educators, community leaders, legislators and policy makers to engage

in reflexive anti-racist critical thinking will improve the quality of future attempts at offering

authentic, equitable publicly-funded education opportunities to Canada’s young people.

Providing tools to help educators, policy makers, and learners to help them avoid

essentialisms and increase their ability to think critically about the sociohistoric realities and how

these affect our current context will contribute towards a future of antiracist practice in education

environments. These cannot end racism entirely, but can contribute towards long-term change by

creating safer spaces and providing support for Aboriginal student, teachers and community

leaders.


References

Battiste, M. (1998). Enabling the autumn seed: Toward a decolonized approach to aboriginal

knowledge, language, and education. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 22(1), 16-

26.

Hill, S. M., and Redwing Saunders, S. E. (2007). Native education and in-classroom coalition-

building: factors and models in delivering an equitous authentic education. Canadian

Journal of Education, 30(4), 1015-1031.

Coorsh, K. (2014). Bill C-33 explained: The debate around First Nations education.

CTVNews.ca. Retrieved from http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bill-c-33-explained-the-debate-

around-first-nations-education-1.1804072

First Nations education bill should be withdrawn immediately, chiefs demand: First Nations

leaders opt to discuss education before deciding how to choose new leader. (May 27th,

2014). The Canadian Press. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/first-

nations-education-bill-should-be-withdrawn-immediately-chiefs-demand-1.2655458

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2011) Aboriginal perspectives: The Teacher's Toolkit, grade 5.

Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/toolkit.html

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2011) Aboriginal perspectives: The Teacher's Toolkit, grade 8.

Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/toolkit.html

Lawrence, B. (2003). Gender, race, and the regulation of native identity in Canada and the

United States: An overview. Hypatia, 18(2), 3-31.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/toolkit.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/first-nations-education-bill-should-be-withdrawn-immediately-chiefs-demand-1.2655458

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/first-nations-education-bill-should-be-withdrawn-immediately-chiefs-demand-1.2655458

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bill-c-33-explained-the-debate-around-first-nations-education-1.1804072

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bill-c-33-explained-the-debate-around-first-nations-education-1.1804072


Smedley, A. (2007) The history of the idea of race…And why it matters. American

Anthropological Association conference “Race, Human Variation and Disease:

Consensus and Frontiers. Retrieved from

http://www.understandingrace.org/resources/pdf/disease/smedley.pdf

Stanley, T (2014). Antiracism without guarantees: A framework for rethinking racisms in

schools. Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 8(1), 4- 18.

The Globe and Mail. (June 10, 2014). Kill the native education bill? Not so fast. Retrieved from

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/kill-the-native-education-bill-

not-so-fast/article19108815/

Werner, W (2000) Reading Authorship into Texts. Theory & Research in Social Education,

28(2), 193-219. Retrieved from

http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/00933104.2000.10505

904

http://www.understandingrace.org/resources/pdf/disease/smedley.pdf

Documents

Systemic Racism in Ontario Public Schools