Teaching Coloniality: How the Education System Impacts Indigenous and Settler Relations

Abstract

This paper will highlight the findings from my MA Sociology thesis where I explore the intersections of critical pedagogy and Indigenous and settler relations in a post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) context. The TRC 94 Calls to Action have informed this study’s qualitative and quantitative questions, specifically calls to action numbered six through 12. I have used a mixed-methods approach to survey grade 12 students from two rural Nova Scotia schools and have interviewed both students and educators to gauge their understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing and colonial content. This paper heavily draws on the works of theorists Paulo Freire and Frantz Fanon. Utilizing these theorists work I will be assessing how the education system impacts the relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples. Not only will I explore the secondary school’s capacity to impact Indigenous and settler relations but I will also work to identify where the gaps in knowledge exist in order to discern decolonial remedies; remedies that have the ability to inform schooling and educational policies across the province of Nova Scotia.