![Canada as Metropole I
•Subreenduth (2010) discusses the concept of Metropole in contrast to
the Colony. The Metropole is the colonizing nation, exerting its control over
the existing people by way of a “Civilizing Mission” (Kanu, 2003).
•In the Context of Canada and its emergence as an independent nation, the
Native People of Canada had been treated as an internal group, a to people
needing indoctrination into the dominant society and suppression by way of
marginalizing efforts (Tupper & Cappello, 2008).
•”The narrative of this province [Saskatchewan] is imagined and produced
primarily through the foundational story of the pioneer. THERE ARE OTHER
STORIES, HOWEVER..” (Tupper & Cappello, 2008).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/postcolonialismpresentation-1-130318085255-phpapp01/85/Postcolonialismpresentation-1-15-320.jpg)
Postcolonialismpresentation.1
- 1. Decolonial & Postcolonial Curriculum Joelle Zacharia Russell Kohn
- 2. 1. Post colonialism and Education: Negotiating a contested terrain. Pedagogy, Culture and Society by Rizvi et.al 2. Curricular Theorizing From the Periphery by Angelina Weenie
- 3. Post colonialism and education: Negotiating a contested terrain. Pedagogy, Culture and Society by Rizvi et.al Thesis: “Education has a systematically ambivalent relation to post- colonialism. On the one hand, it is an object of postcolonial critique regarding its complicity with Eurocentric discourses and practices. On the other hand, it is only through education that it is possible to reveal and resist colonialism’s continuing hold on our imagination. Education is also a site where legacies of colonialism and the contemporary processes of globalization intersect.” (Rizvi et.al page 257)
- 4. What is Post-colonialism? • “Post-colonialism” as a “contested” term within political and theoretical realms. • Post-colonialism has a “naming function” that describes the “residual, persistent, and ongoing effects of European colonialism.” • Example of Post-colonialism methodologies: – a.) Subaltern Analysis : A set of methods that focuses on issues of sociological and economic marginalization within former political colonies. – b.) Post-structural Informed Analysis: A set of analysis that focuses on linguistic structures, textual implications in the realm of power relationships, and highlights the notion of hybridity. This set of analysis predominantly deals with methods through which the elites within the colonies were complicit with the colonizers and the diaspora colonial subjects who are not resident in the geographic realm of the former “colonizers.”
- 5. Functions of Post-colonialism 1.) Draws attention to the way language works in reifying colonial formation of the colonizers as well as exerts itself through discursive and linguistic practices. 2.) Highlights ways in which global inequity is perpetuated through the uneven distribution of resources and colonial modes of representation.
- 6. Inspirations for Post-colonial Theory: (pp.251- 252) Frantz Fanon and Ranajit Guha are the scholarly inspirations behind the term Fanon highlights that the notion of “post” in “post-colonial” is problematic. Why is it problematic? Legacy of colonialism still exists. Post-colonialism fosters a “complicated network of complexities” that are perpetuated because the legacy of colonialism exists. Fanon argues that :a.) the “independence from colonial rule does not mean liberation.” b.) The colonial powers created a distinct “colonial bourgeioise.” The Colonial Bourgeouis replaced the colonial rulers by exerting cultural and economic hegemony.
- 7. Post-colonialism and Globalization: (pp.254-257)- • Two risks associated with post-colonial theory: a) Reluctance to differentiate between different experiences of colonialism and the value it gives to postmodernist notion of difference and hybridity. b) How do we locate postcolonial analysis in contemporary material conditions of globalization?
- 8. Globalization represents a complicated flow of networks and powers. Its new transnational networks describe a hybrid situation where global capital interests exert sovereignty rather than nation-states. Globalization is rooted in global movements of capital, people, and ideas. Globalization is rooted in the ethic of imperialism and cultural- economic hegemony. Post-colonial analysis not only roots globalization in imperialism but critiques the neo-liberal Western philosophical and cultural hegemony that underpins globalization. Post-colonial analyses are rooted in deconstruction and liberation. Post-colonialism has enabled the elucidation of the fact that discursive and cultural practices are not secondary to the economics of colonialism but are embedded within its logic.
- 9. Dialectic of Education: 1. Post-colonial studies critique the cultural presuppositions of “Western education.” 2. Post-colonialism acknowledges that it is only through education that resistance to Western imperialism can occur.
- 10. Curricular Theorizing From the Periphery by Angelina Weenie • The purpose of this article is to “theorize and articulate a view of curriculum that is reflective” of the lived experiences of the author and her students from their peripheral space. (Weenie, 545) • Weenie traces the curricular experiences of Aboriginal people to colonial relationship: to eradicate Aboriginal language and culture, to oppress and marginalize, and to civilize and Christianize Aboriginals. (548) • At the outset, Weenie explicates her social location as: ‘a Cree woman and educator, Treaty Indian status, Residential school attendee, University educated in Saskatoon and presently an educator and administrator in a First Nations University.’ (Weenie, 546) Her interest in curriculum reform stems from her deep understanding of the issues faced by Aboriginal youths today. • Current public school curriculum does not do justice to students who hail from periphery spaces like Aboriginal students. Weenie suggests “There is a potential for knowledge expansion when we draw from both traditional and contemporary forms of knowledge.” (p. 555) It is clear that she is not against contemporary knowledge taught in Canadian schools, rather she is advocating an inclusive curriculum that is sensitive to the issues of Aboriginal students.
- 11. Weenie’s vision of Aboriginal Curriculum • Weenie advocates an Aboriginal curriculum that would benefit the education of aboriginal students who are victims of socially related issues and power relations. • The core components of aboriginal curriculum include “literature, art, songs, languages, culture, stories, spirituality, ceremonies and ethos of Aboriginal people.” • She recommends a context –sensitive and culture-sensitive curriculum that is sensitive to student needs and guides them on a journey to understanding one self and “an awareness of what should inform their practice and research. (Weenie, 545) • Weenie (2008) advocates memory work, the medicine wheel, and traditional knowledge of Elders in education. • Weenie observes how students in her class “were happier and more motivated when they engaged in experiential learning activities.” (547) This can be traced back to their roots and relationship with the Earth and in terms of their culture and language.
- 12. Whose and what knowledge counts? • Weenie raises the issue of “whose knowledge and what knowledge is recognized.” (546) Hence in order to understand Aboriginal curriculum, ‘it is essential to critique notions of power and knowledge as part of an ongoing project to dismantle the cultural and epistemological heritage of Eurocentrism.’ (549) • Aboriginal curriculum “is about overcoming colonial mentality by creating an emancipatory framework and confronting the… messiness” (549) She proposes a curriculum that is representative of the historical, social and political context reflective of Aboriginal world view and philosophy. (550)
- 13. Future of Aboriginal Curriculum • Weenie advocates the need for an Aboriginal curriculum based on the worldviews and philosophy of Aboriginal people that will benefit all levels of Aboriginal education. She has reached this conclusion based on her lived experience and cultural reality. • Aboriginal culture and language must be nurtured and cultivated in Aboriginal curriculum (554) to validate their identity and to empower students to succeed in mainstream education. • Curricular theorizing must be “an act of imagination that is a patterned integration of our remembered past, perceived present and our anticipated future.” (552)
- 14. 3. Teaching Treaties as (un)Usual Narratives By: Jennifer Tupper & Michael Cappello 4. A Treaty Right to Education By: Sheila Carr-Stewart
- 15. Canada as Metropole I •Subreenduth (2010) discusses the concept of Metropole in contrast to the Colony. The Metropole is the colonizing nation, exerting its control over the existing people by way of a “Civilizing Mission” (Kanu, 2003). •In the Context of Canada and its emergence as an independent nation, the Native People of Canada had been treated as an internal group, a to people needing indoctrination into the dominant society and suppression by way of marginalizing efforts (Tupper & Cappello, 2008). •”The narrative of this province [Saskatchewan] is imagined and produced primarily through the foundational story of the pioneer. THERE ARE OTHER STORIES, HOWEVER..” (Tupper & Cappello, 2008).
- 16. Canada as Metropole II •As Canada exerted herself through the development of a unique nation, it donned the imperialist cap of Britain through dealing with “others” within, the Aboriginal People. As Tuck (2012 )mentions “In order for the settlers to make a place their home, they must destroy and disappear the Indigenous peoples who live there”. •The identification and maintenance of the way “savage image” is controlled by way of education among other things, even through Postcolonial effort exerted by way of the Treaty Resource Kit, in the province of Saskatchewan. The kit, being designed and implemented as through it emerges from a “white box” (Tupper & Cappello, 2008). •Kanu (2003) maintains that historically, “How education and schooling were used as the medium for developing in the colonized other the required sense of psychological subordination.” What remains worthy of teaching and mainstream is telling of what it leaves out.
- 17. Postcolonial Education in Saskatchewan: Facing History I • Despite the option of Secondary School students to take a course devoted to Native Studies within their Social Science options, Tupper & Cappello (2008) mention that the majority of students take History, leaving a 14% of students enrolled in Native Studies (Saskatchewan Learning, 2006). • The Postcolonial efforts within the curriculum requires the confrontation of the past, and the “crisis” of colonial damage such as this method mentioned by Richardson (2002) “A mandatory history course in each province that includes a minimal list of people and events critical of Canadian history. • To confront the past, most specifically the misunderstandings and issues stemming therein of the Numbered Treaties through a Treaties Resource Kit (http://www.otc.ca/).
- 18. Postcolonial Education in Saskatchewan: Facing History II • The Treaties Kit has been instituted to offset the “complex notions of race and privilege that remain central to the functioning of our society” (Tupper & Cappello, 2008). Offering teachers concrete lesson plan ideas, to help further the meaning of decolonial education, paying greater attention to the narrative of the other, and the colonial hurt and imprint left on them until now. • The experiences and misunderstandings that ensued through the Numbered Treaties and bringing them to light, works at opening up students to understand and “enabled them to speak out loud the things that previously would have been ignored or silenced.” (Tupper & Cappello, 2008). • “Non-Aboriginal students do not have a sense of how their own economic and social privileges can be connected to, and produced through, treaties. (Tupper & Cappello, 2008).
- 19. The Old Consistent Undertones of Colonialism in a Postcolonial Aboriginal Education Initiative in 21st Century Canada I •According to Tupper & Cappello (2008), the decolonizing efforts maintained through the introduction of the Teaching Treaties Resource Kit, fail in their ability to decolonize, integrate and support the Aboriginal Culture of Saskatchewan. •Treaties between Canada and the Native People are an important part of “understanding the process of Empire building, using curriculum and pedagogy to control the mind of the colonized”(Kanu, 2003). The colonized are the Native People, who have been denied proper access to education in accordance with what they need as a culture, for ultimate survival.
- 20. The Old Consistent Undertones of Colonialism in a Postcolonial Aboriginal Education Initiative in 21st Century Canada II •Tracing the steps of where, why and how Aboriginal Education in Canada reflects a continuation of the colonialist legacy requires historical analysis. • Native studies as a separate social science course option furthers the colonialist agenda by holding on to the notion of the “other”. •The intention of Native Studies as a postcolonial endeavor to celebrate and include is diluted so long as it is served inside of a “white box” of separate course entity and as Kanu (2003) mentions “Controlling the mind of the colonized” for an seemingly endless, period of cultural devastation. •The “traditional livelihood” was essentially “taken away” (Carr & Stewart, 2001), from First Nations deeming traditional culturally true forms of education almost entirely futile in the development of an economically sound community which would need to thrive anew in a
- 21. The Role of Treaties in Postcolonial Education I •Tupper and Cappello (2008) apply the term “cultural genocide” as a description of the intent of using schools as instruments for the proactive acculturation and assimilation into the culture of the emerging Canadian Metropole. •Examination of history in Saskatchewan serves as a model for the “sustained privilege” (Tupper & Cappello, 2008) and dominance of one culture over the Native People. •Tupper and Cappello (2008) argue that the true value of confronting education’s promotion of dominance and bringing Aboriginal issues in history to the forefront can allow for an exchange of global ideas and sensitivities.
- 22. The Role of Treaties in Postcolonial Education II •Over the many years, despite introducing curricular initiatives of promoting awareness of the flaws in white dominant, Canadian responsibility towards Aboriginal Treaties- the issues grow further. •In this sense, Education in Canada has followed a model that spoken of by Franz Fanon, in the 4 phases of Colonization through education namely phase 4: up-keeping a higher race through the division of dominant and marginalized citizens • Tupper & Cappello (2008) understand that the Aboriginal People as “other” is kept as other through a curriculum slant favoring the colonial “pioneer narrative as the only story worth telling”.
- 23. The Role of Treaties in Postcolonial Education III •”…A sense of self is only possible through an annihilation or ‘emptying out’ of the other, whether discursively or materially” McCarthy and Dimitriades (2000). Canada has been slowly selecting a narrative that elevates, distinguishes and highlights the achievements, struggles, values and culture in line with “Eurocentric Forms of Knowledge” (Subreenduth, 2010). •Tupper & Cappello (2008) consider the concept of cultural annihilation powered through education; As being carried out through ongoing exclusion of the stories which are unique to the Native People of Saskatchewan within the curricular model that has been in use through all of its modifications for over 100 years. ..maintaining the dominant narrative and the suppression of the other.
- 24. The Progression of Postcolonialism in Canada I • The 1867 Constitution Act, section 91 (24), vested all legislative authority for Indians and Indian lands in the federal government. As a result, First Nations education was defined as a federal responsibility and separate from provincial responsibility for education (Carr- Stewart, 2001) • Postcolonialism as it exists on the continuum of Imperialism and colonial curriculum strives to both include Native People but also at the same time, encourage and promote “Cultural Legitimacy.” (Kanu, 2003). • Carr and Stewart (2001) consider the over 100 year Treaty history between the Federal Government and First Nations to outline an educational commitment, and plan merely offers “limited educational services not as a treaty right, but as an assimilationist mechanism through its own criteria, the Indian Act.” • The Treaties, have isolated the First Nations from both their own way of life and unique culture of education, as well as the from the economically beneficial dominant educational system (Carr & Stewart, 2001).
- 25. The Progression of Postcolonialism in Canada II • If Postcolonial curriculum claims to unmask and confront the policies of imperialism in education, textbooks and teacher training and undo curriculum as a tool for colonialism (Subreenduth, 2010) then it must live up to commitments made in the Numbered Treaties namely to provide equitable staff, schools, and materials to First Nations (Carr-Stewart, 2001) • Undoing the Colonialist mindset must begin with the process that Subreenduth (2010) calls “Naming”, essentially exposing the Indian Act, and subsequent Treaties 1-7 as failing to provide equitable, formal education as a form of identifying the “historical burden”(Crowley & Matthews, 2006). • The intention of the Indian Act needs to be acknowledged as having solely colonialist and assimilationist purposes, designed to highlight the distinction between settlers and immigrants (Tuck, 2012 ) while trying its best to promote through education an Aboriginal Student with “English Tastes, opinions, morals and intellect” (Macauly, 1971).
- 26. “A Century of Educational Neglect” (Carr & Stewart, 2001) • Carr - Stewart, (2001) quotes the House of Commons Debates in 1946, maintaining that “While there are 130,000 Indians in the country, our education and training of these people take care of only about 16,000. Of this number enrolled, only 883 reach grade 7,324 reach grade 8, and seventy-one reach grade 9. I notice in three of the provinces there are no grade 9 students. (p.5489)”. • Treaties were structured to "civilize ... protect and cherish this helpless Race" (Dickason, 1996, p. 225). • The “other stories” spoken of as items for neglect in the dominant pioneer narrative by Tupper & Cappello (2008) can be revamped using Willinsky’s (2006) model of building on global themes offering choices to students who can explore with openness and acceptance, a range of human rights struggles, “self determination, faith and celebration of unique cultural values through everyday curricular activities.
- 27. Looking Ahead: A New Approach to Decolonial Curriculum in Canada • Integrate Native Studies (the course) into the general curriculum, in both pedagogy and policy. • Differentiate between assimilation/ acculturation and skill building for economic participation of Aboriginal People (Carr - Stewart, 2001). • Willinsky (2006) mentions that themes which are inherently Postcolonial can be applied and used to open up the classroom (and change it into a definitively decolonial space)- such as self determination, human rights, faith. • Individual teachers should seek alternatives to Treaty education, which is bound by the bias of the Federal Government, which has even recently denied what has been long standing recurring treaty language such as Aboriginal centred- reserve school programming, physical infrastructure building, teacher salaries (Carr - Stewart, 2001) • Identify and effectively “cross examine” (Subreenduth, 2010) the use of curriculum as a tool for civilizing those which need no further civilizing, but merely equitable and inclusive educational experiences.
- 28. Looking Ahead: A New Approach to Decolonial Curriculum in Canada II •Individual teachers should seek alternatives to Treaty education, which is bound by the bias of the Federal Government, which has even recently denied what has been long standing recurring treaty language such as Aboriginal centred- reserve school programming, physical infrastructure building, teacher salaries (Carr - Stewart, 2001) •Identify and effectively “cross examine” (Subreenduth, 2010) the use of curriculum as a tool for civilizing those which need no further civilizing, but merely equitable and inclusive educational experiences. •In discussing the issue of colonialism and race in South Africa and Australia, Crowley & Matthews (2006) see the need for “reconciliation” to bare “witness to the path of the democracy or the histories of race struggle.” Thus, a process of identification, and admittance is needed in order to fully move forward at authentic postcolonial education.
- 29. References Kanu, Yatta. (2003). Curriculum as cultural practice: Postcolonial imagination. Journal Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 1(1), 67-81. Willinsky, John. (2006). High school postcolonial: As students ran away with theory. In Yatta Kanu (Ed.), Curriculum as cultural practice: Postcolonial imaginations (pp. 95-115). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Rizvi, Fazal., Lingard, Bob & Lavia, Jennifer. (2006). Postcolonialism and education: Negotiating a contested terrain. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 14(3), 249-262. Weenie, Angela. (2008). Curricular theorizing from the periphery. Curriculum Inquiry, 38(5). Tupper, Jennifer & Cappello, Michael. (2008). Teaching treaties as (un)usual narratives. Curriculum Inquiry, 38(5). Carr-Stewart, Sheila. (2001). A treaty right to education. Canadian Journal of Education, 26(2), 125-143. Tuck, Eve. (2012). July 4, 2012. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy,9 (2), pg. 129-131. , Crowley, Vicky & Matthews, Julie. (2006). Pedagogy Culture & Society, 14 (2).pg.266-277.