At the Margins of Canada: School Choice Practices of Aboriginal Families in a Settler-Colonial City

Abstract

Little is known about the school choice practices of Aboriginal families in settler-colonial societies, where they have been removed from their ancestral lands and/or have been subjected to discriminatory educational policies. Through the lens of settler-colonial theory, this study elucidates the spatially positioned school choice practices of Aboriginal families in a Canadian city. It explores their desires to choose schools and identifies their sociospatial constraints that result from historical marginalization and racism. It delineates how racial segregation in schools increased, as Aboriginal families’ school choice has been limited primarily to low-income, racialized parts of the city that face school closure due to low enrollment. In addition, this article analyzes the exclusion of Aboriginal students from prestigious schools-of-choice programs in the public education system. The study concludes that the neoliberal policy of school choice offers limited options to Aboriginal families, especially given the settler-colonial context of the city where they reside.