Indigenizing Introductory Political Science at the University of Ottawa (original) (raw)
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Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 2022
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada widely shared its Reports and Calls to Action regarding the "Indian Residential School System" in 2015. Since that time, higher education institutions across Canada have been engaged in diverse institutional reform efforts. This article is a case study of an Indigenous student-led reform initiative at The University of Winnipeg that resulted in the first mandatory Indigenous course requirement as a graduation requirement for all undergraduate students in Canada. The research is designed and conducted with Indigenous leadership and partnership and relies on the insights of Indigenous students that led the initiative to consider the impetus, nature, and strategies underlying this curricular reform. Three emergent themes were discerned that are important to systemic reform in postsecondary education: the university as colonial space; navigation of white Settler dominance; and timing as significant to systemic change. The study can be seen as a unique example of the complexity, opportunities, and limitations of decolonial reform in higher education through an Indigenous student-led social movement embodying contentious co-governance and prefiguration.
Fictitious Contrition, 2018
Since the mid- to late-20th century the Canadian State and its compatible institution (including higher education) have been concerned to manage — not address — its invidious historical and ongoing treatment of indigenous peoples. Recently, a contrive, limited inquiry, the so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), recommended formalizing the introduction of Native-related material into curricula, from primary grades through university level. The ostensible, publicized goal has been to address the enduring racism within mainstream Canadian society and "reconcile" relations between indigenous peoples and Euro-Canadians. However, an analysis of both the formalized documents of what is termed the "indigenizing initiative" and the actual implementation of such curricula reveals, not an engagement with the problems of racism, but its re-fashioning into its continuation and furtherance. Empty and/or ill-defined slogans and buzz-words ("94 Calls to Action;" "Decolonizing;" "Reconciliation;" etc.) (1) justify racist, incomplete, biased, and fraudulent materials as truth; (2) present mainstream ideological positions as factual; and (3) recruit indigenous students to continuing policies which implement their own elimination ("assimilation," or genocide). The warped, perverted higher education constituting the "indigenizing initiative" is no more and no less than oppression and systemic racism re-packaged for the 21st century.
De-colonizing Canadian Post-Secondary Education
In Canada, the recent Truth and Reconciliation Committee of Canada Report (2015) revealed the devastating impact of over a century of forced assimilation on Indigenous peoples. In the educational context, assimilation manifested itself in the residential school system, a system which existed from the late 19th century until 1996 and whose mandate was to " Kill the Indian in the child " (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [TRCC], n.d.). Though the closure of the last residential school marks a significant shift in Indigenous educational policy, many scholars argue that the Canadian post-secondary education system continues the process of colonization by excluding culturally relevant content and maintaining Eurocentric teaching approaches. In this paper we will examine the ongoing process of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada by first outlining the impact of colonial practices on the current participation of Indigenous students in post-secondary education as measured by enrollment and completion rates. In the second half of the paper, we will use a case-based approach to illustrate more inclusive post-secondary educational practices that can benefit both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. More specifically, we demonstrate decolonization efforts in two course initiatives in history and education. We aim to illustrate how the inclusion of Indigenous pedagogy facilitates cross-cultural understandings when the four Rs (respect, relevance, reciprocity and responsibility) of Kirkness and Barnhard (2001) are applied as a framework to course design.
Indigenous Course Requirements: A Liberal-Democratic Justification
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In Canada, several universities have recently implemented course requirements in Indigenous studies as a condition of graduation, while others are considering following suit. Policies making Indigenous course requirements (hereafter ICRs) compulsory have caused considerable controversy. According to proponents, a main purpose of ICRs is to address historical wrongs and to foster a more complete understanding of the ongoing relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens. According to critics, making such courses compulsory effectively imposes illiberal restrictions on university students and faculty by limiting the epistemic aim of free inquiry, while wrongly prioritizing concern for the welfare of one social group over others. In this essay, we propose a liberal-democratic justification for ICRs that addresses these two worries about the ideals that may underwrite these courses. We argue that ICRs can be justified in liberal democratic terms insofar as they foster knowl...
Title: Indigenization in Universities and Its Role in Continuing Settler-Colonialism Author(s
Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies, 2022
Canadian universities have accelerated plans to Indigenize their institutions fol- lowing the release of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Can- ada’s (TRC) Calls to Action report. While the TRC report implicates post-sec- ondary institutions in the work of educating society about the legacy of Indian Residential Schools, many universities have expanded this call to include vari- ous efforts aimed at increasing Indigenous presence across their respective campuses. Yet, the consequences of said work do not always match the stated goals. In this essay, Pedri-Spade and Pitawanakwat discuss multiple ways that settler-colonialism is carried out within universities, often under the auspice of advancing Indigenization. They first provide a short history of some of the milestones and key challenges related to advancing Indigeneity in the academy from 1960 to 2015. They then turn their attention to more recent advances and struggles, providing examples of how the avoidance and/or failure of universi- ties to reflect local Indigenous cultural values and protocols is often justified through the espousal of Indigenization to neoliberal organizational politics and practices. This section offers critical reflection on advancements in Indigenous education vis-à-vis a reconciliatory framework that emphasizes Indigenization as a commitment to add Indigenous bodies and their knowledges within existing architectures that simultaneously contribute to their erasure. Through this pro- cess the authors expose the kinds of harms experienced by Indigenous peoples and communities. Moving forward, the authors call for Canadian universities to emphasize processes of decolonization and redress.
The Politics of Indigenous Peoples and of Canadian Colonialism (POLI 263)
As a discipline, Political Science often falls back into a longstanding habit of seeing and of researching the world "like a state." A consequence of this has been that the discipline-similar to other academic fields-has functioned as a ideological apparatus of colonial and imperial processes. Despite this, a Political Science that centres on the decolonizing demands of Indigenous peoples and is informed by the insights of Indigenous/Native Studies, has the potential to contribute to conversations and political programmes that refuse their implication in the ongoing processes of colonialism. In this introductory course to the subfield of Indigenous Politics, we will survey the politics of Indigenous peoples living within the territories presently claimed by Canada-while remaining fully cognizant that the constructed nature of this scope doesn't actually reflect the web of Indigenous relationships that supersede state borders. Key insights will be drawn from an historically-informed approach to contemporary Indigenous politics; noting that Canadian colonialism is reproduced through co-constitutive regimes of racialization, sexism and heterosexism, capitalism, ableism, etc. Further, attention will be paid to the ways in which both the enduring reality of Indigenous peoples' political authority and the colonial project are differentially experienced and undertaken at different times and in different places.