‘Let’s make a little drum’: limitations and contradictory effects of cultural approaches in Indigenous education

ABSTRACT

Initiatives to improve low levels of educational attainment amongst Indigenous students in the Canadian Prairies have long emphasized cultural approaches and ignored how racism affects achievement. Taking up the debates offered by critical race theory, and utilizing post-structural theorizing of knowledge and subjectivities, this article provides a discourse analysis of educators’ contradictory deployments of cultural discourses. The analysis highlights the inadequacy of cultural narratives for explaining the inequality experienced by Indigenous students. I show how naming racism in schools is difficult for teachers because cultural integration efforts are taken as evidence that equality is being achieved, and I trace the ways in which this leads to the naturalization of schooling exclusions and unequal subjectivities. Readers are brought to rethink the integration of Indigenous culture in schools as a singular pathway to student success, and the importance of centering race and racism.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous education
• racism
• cultural awareness
• discourse analysis

Notes

1. While one term cannot encapsulate the diversity found within Indigenous cultures and languages, ‘Indigenous’ is meant to encompass people categorized or self-identified as Inuit, Métis, and First Nations. At the time of the data collection for this study, I was using the term ‘Aboriginal’ in place of ‘Indigenous,’ in following the direction of the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples. Today, I use the term ‘Indigenous’ in order to reflect changes in preferred terminology and in following terminology used by the Reconciliation Canada Society. When I quote or paraphrase authors, I employ the author’s terminology in order to respect the right of people to name themselves. Métis people are of primarily First Nations-French mixed ancestry, who trace their origins to Southern Manitoba but today include other people of mixed ancestry. Canada’s Inuit population traces their origins to the far North.

2. I employ the term ‘Indigenous education’ to refer to educating Indigenous learners, as well as educating all students about Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, and history.

3. Prairie provinces include Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, which are bordered on the south by the US states of Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota, and on the north by the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

4. There are three basic models by which Aboriginal students receive education in the Prairie Provinces: (1) Federal schools controlled by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada; (2) Local schools operated by individual First Nations (also referred to as band-operated schools); and (3) Provincial and/or territorial public schools. ‘Mainstream schools’ in this study refers to public schools that are not designated ‘community’ or ‘alternative.’ Community schools are predominantly located in lower socio-economic areas and in addition to their regular curriculum, provide students and families with supports such as food and nutrition programs, extra-curricular activities, and in some cases, on-site social workers and medical clinics. ‘Alternative’ schools are also public schools; the majority of the student population began in mainstream public school, and were referred by educators to alternative schools for academic or behavioral reasons.