Challenging the Settler Narrative: A Postcolonial Critical Discourse Analysis of a Social Studies Curriculum

• In Event: Stories of Resistance and Healing: Curriculum and Pedagogy

Abstract

In the current era of educational reform, jurisdictions across North America are undergoing sweeping changes to the content of curriculum that taught in schools. In Canada, recent steps towards reconciliation with Indigenous communities have prompted federal initiatives such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015). However, there has been little motivation at local levels to reflect reconciliation efforts within provincially controlled school curricula. Instead, neoliberal accountability policies have become an “extension of colonialism” (Tuck, 2013). It is within this context that I have conducted a critical discourse analysis of Manitoba’s Kindergarten to Grade 8 Social Studies Curriculum (2003). My findings illustrate the ways the current social studies curriculum upholds and legitimizes structures of settler colonialism, privileging Eurocentric perspectives and stories.

Author

• Andriana Tarasiuk, Seven Oaks School Division
  Presenting Author