In 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Education released the Ontario First Nation, Metis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework . The policy set forth a vision to significantly improve the levels of achievement for Indigenous students attending Ontario’s public schools, and to increase awareness and knowledge of Indigenous cultures and perspectives for all students by the year 2016. Drawing upon critical pedagogy, theories of decolonizing education, and policy enactment, we engaged with the Framework and a set of related documents to a critical discourse analysis. Four discourses were revealed: achievement; increasing capacities; incorporating “cultures, histories, and perspectives”; and absence. In tracing the presence of these discourses across the documents we found that, while well-intentioned, the policy has yielded problematic outcomes. In turn, this undermines the ability of Ontario’s education system to not only reach the aforementioned goals but also to take an active role in reconciliation and efforts towards the decolonization of education.

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A policy, a ‘priority’, an unfinished project: The Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework

As classrooms have increasingly become diverse and complex, developing culturally responsive pedagogies is a professional imperative for teachers. However, considerable international research suggests that meeting the needs of diverse pupil cohorts is challenging for many teachers. In this article, we highlight how curriculum and teaching practices reflect hegemonic values and cultural practices, and can potentially marginalise minority ethnic students. We draw on data from a study conducted in a culturally diverse lower secondary school in Austria where mandatory swimming classes are a source of tension between Muslim female students and their teachers. Our analysis of the intersection of student resistance and teacher authority raises issues of power, compliance and the construction of cultural difference as problematic. We suggest that scenario-based learning and in particular, the analysis of examples of student resistance and teacher response may facilitate teachers’ reflexivity about the values and ...

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Interrogating practice in culturally diverse classrooms: what can an analysis of student resistance and teacher response reveal?

This paper empirically investigates Grimmett’s (2008, 2009) thesis that recent Canadian teacher education policy is best characterized by dual forces of deregulation and professionalization resulting from a neoliberal policy environment. Specifically, we examine teacher education governance, policy reform, and political context from 2000 to 2010, across four Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. Our paper highlights the presence of deregulation and professionalization in Canadian teacher education policy while also revealing additional opposing force. We provide an overview of the policy context in US teacher education as a point of reference. Keywords: Teacher education, policy, deregulation, professionalization

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Teacher Education Policy in Canada: Beyond Professionalization and Deregulation

This article investigates the portrayal of colonialism and Indigenous peoples in curricula and textbooks in the province of Ontario, Canada. The analysis is focused on the curricular documents and ...

Coming to Know Indigeneity: Epistemologies of Ignorance in the 2003-2015 Ontario Canadian and World Studies Curriculum.

This qualitative case study investigates the research question: How do educators understand and enact government policies on Indigenous education in Ontario? The case study examines the content of The Ontario First Nation, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework, the foundational policy document for Indigenous education in Ontario released by the Ministry of Education in 2007, in conjunction with a series of associated Ministry publications, and explores the responses of secondary school teacher participants to these policy efforts. In doing so, the case study draws on the scholarly literature about decolonizing education, as well as work on anti-colonial, anti-oppressive and critical pedagogy and employs the conceptual frameworks of policy enactment and professional knowledge landscapes to make sense of policy documents and interview data. Recruitment for the study took place in a single region of a geographically large school board in Southwestern Ontario, yielding four educators who took part in a series of three individual interviews each. Three of the four participants also took part in a final focus group interview. Interview data was considered alongside data gathered via an analysis of Ontario Ministry of Education policy documents. Data analysis demonstrated that the Framework has proven to be largely unavailing in the day-to-day practice of teacher participants as teachers revealed a disconnect between policy content and their classroom practice. Also apparent were participant understandings of the gaps that exist between policy intent and policy action at the systemic level. Teachers saw these gaps as responsible for the non-enactment of the Framework and related policies in their daily practice. Based on the research findings, specific and actionable strategies are recommended to support the enactment of Indigenous education policy in Ontario classrooms and schools. (

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Teachers’ Professional Practice, Policy Enactment, And Indigenous Education In Ontario: A Case Study

There is a crisis relevant to the publicly funded education of Aboriginal students in Ontar ‐ io. This article, which presents the details of the crisis, analyzes recent policy statements released by the Ontario Ministry of Education designed to address that crisis. By defining the nature of this critical juncture, presenting how these policies may be “widening the void” rather than “closing the gap,” and offering opportunities to respond by improving the capabilities of teachers to enact those policies in their classrooms, the authors appeal to school boards, faculty associations, as well as Deans of Education, to act decisively to sup ‐ port Aboriginal self ‐ determination. Key words: Aboriginal student achievement, Aboriginal languages and student identity, teacher education Une crise sevit en ce moment au sujet de l’enseignement autochtone en Ontario financee a meme les deniers publics. Dans cet article, les auteurs decrivent les details de la crise et analysent des enonces de politique recents du ministere de l’Education de l’Ontario visant a denouer la crise. Tout en se penchant sur la nature meme de ce probleme epineux, en expli ‐ quant comment ces politiques risquent de « creuser le vide » au lieu de « combler l’ecart » et en offrant des possibilites de reponse par l’amelioration des capacites des enseignants de mettre ces politiques en application dans leurs classes, les auteurs font appel aux commis ‐ sions scolaires, aux associations universitaires et aux doyens d’education afin qu’ils sou ‐ tiennent activement l’autodetermination des autochtones. Mots cles : reussite des eleves autochtones, langues autochtones et identite des eleves, for ‐ mation a l’enseignement.

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Christiane Muir

Papers

"Closing the Gap" at the Peril of Widening the Void: Implications of the Ontario Ministry of Education's Policy for Aboriginal Education.