Liberal Discourses About Aboriginal Students – A Case Study of Power Blindness

Abstract

Canada often presents itself to the world and to its own citizens as a nation based on liberal discourses of fairness and tolerance. Yet, do these discourses accurately depict Canadian sociocultural relations? This question is asked in an examination of how Aboriginal peoples are represented and considered in high schools today. This chapter is focused on how certain liberal discourses, namely, the color-blind and cultural-deficit discourses, are entrenched within the minds of veteran social studies teachers and implications for Aboriginal students. It is based on a study of interviews with these veteran teachers. The participating teachers were asked two questions: First, why do you think that the BC high school graduation rate for Aboriginal students is about half of what it is for non-Aboriginal students? Second, do you or would you consider supplementing the curriculum with culturally relevant pedagogy? To answer the first question, most of the teachers relied on variations of the cultural-deficit discourse. These same teachers did not want to supplement the curriculum with culturally relevant pedagogy. As one teacher put it, “That would be spoiling them.” Their preference was to continue teaching the Eurocentric color-blind curriculum they had used for years. One progressive teacher suggested he would alter the curriculum to reflect an Aboriginal perspective to the mainstream historical narrative but he did not know enough himself in order to properly do so. Indeed, in terms of Aboriginal representation, the formal curriculum seems to have progressed further than most teachers have. Readers can reflect upon whether teachers in other regions of North America are similarly influenced by these liberal discourses in their attitudes toward Black and Hispanic students. This study indicates that there is much work to be done in teacher education programs in deconstructing the hegemony entrenched in liberal discourses.

If one does not uncover the influence such hegemonic ideologies have on teachers’ thinking, then teachers often “normalize” these racist and classist ideological orientations and treat them as “natural.” (Bartolome, 2008, p. xiii)