Uncovering Oppressive Discourse in English Curricula Utilizing an Anticolonial, Feminist Literacy Framework

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-10 - Decolonial Interventions and Critical Curricular Design

Abstract

In this paper, the author explains how the Ontario English curricula for secondary schools (OMOE, 2007a, 2007b) perpetuate white settler colonial ideology and discourse. Utilizing a framework that bridges anticolonial feminism (Coloma, 2008; Lugones, 2010; Spivak, 1988) with postmodern literacy studies (Giroux, 1992, 2001; Lankshear & McLaren, 1993), the author deconstructs the colonizing aspects of the curricula, focusing on normative sexualities, genders, race, culture, and capitalism, with a critical discourse analysis methodology (Van Dijk, 2001). The author finds the curricula (re)produces: normative family structures; a binary gender system; sexist views of women; gender stereotypes; identity hierarchies; stereotypes of racialized groups through role play; an “Indian past and settler future” (Tuck & Wang, 2012, p. 13); capitalist ideology without critique; and class structures based on streaming.

Author

• Shawna Carroll, Okayama University