Seeking Reform of Indigenous Education in Canada: Democratic progress or democratic colonialism?

Abstract

After several decades of calls for action, overall levels of educational participation and attainment among indigenous people remain much lower than those for Canadians as a whole. Beginning with an overview of recent educational trends, this paper seeks to understand why educational visions expressed by indigenous people several decades ago remain unfulfilled. Focusing on recent federal government legislation for First Nations education, the analysis highlights how government policies and public discourses frequently exclude and undermine indigenous people and their rights despite constitutional recognition of indigenous status within a liberal democratic context. These processes of “democratic colonization”, as the emergence of alternative movements such as Idle No More has made evident, reveal the continuing impact of colonization on indigenous people and their lands and communities, reinforced through many of the kinds of government policies, practices and public opinions around which the movement initially coalesced. This paper explores the various factors that facilitate and impede educational reform within this social context.