2020 Vision: Subverting the Colonizing Gaze Through a Curriculum of Consciousness

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Raising Conscientização Through Educational Research and Praxis (Table 39)

Abstract

Watershed events of 2020 uncovered an urgency to use revolutionary practices for social change and decolonization. COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the recovery of Indigenous children’s bodies at Canadian residential schools, are centered as case studies on how ongoing systemic oppression is perpetuated at educational institutions through a curriculum of denial. The curriculum of denial is a consequence of what we observe as the “colonizing gaze”, and speaks to how oppression is perpetuated through the intersections of subjugation, patriarchy, and whiteness. The curriculum of critical consciousness is an antidote to this gaze, and is broken down into three pillars: grassroots activism, revolutionary pedagogies, and Indigenization and decolonization. Actionable strategies are provided to assist educators in moving towards decolonization.

Authors

• Jess Tsang, University of Toronto

• Ardavan Eizadirad, Wilfrid Laurier University