Canadians “Know” How to “Do” Diversity? Discourse Analyses of K-12 and Adult Immigrant Citizenship Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 96
  In Roundtable Session: Postcolonialism and Multiculturalism: Implications for Pedagogy

Abstract

In Canada, there is a heightened interest in citizenship education. In this paper we outline key historical and colonial discourses of citizenship in Canada and then identify citizenship discourses from K-12 educational policy documents in two Canadian provinces and compare them with citizenship discourses found in the new citizenship study guide produced by the federal government for the citizenship testing of adult immigrants. We raise the implications of our findings for social justice-oriented education policy. We find there is a tension between the goals of social action and social cohesion. Social action, as enabled through citizenship education, may be muted by stronger discourses that resist a probing of the status quo and reify historical discourses tied to liberal imperialism.

Authors

• Karen Pashby, University of Alberta

• Leigh-Anne Ingram, University of Toronto

• Reva Joshee, OISE/University of Toronto