Slide 2

The education system in Canada is now focusing on incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing, which were historically ignored. School knowledge is not neutral or objective, but structured in specific ways. The Alberta government neglected Indigenous knowledge until 2019. Decolonization involves challenging the belief that white culture is superior. It is important for educators to understand the impact of schools on Indigenous people and work towards Indigenous student success. Recently, education in Canada has entered an era that emphasizes meaningful incorporation of Indigenous ways of knowing to a system that has historically pushed Westernized aims and values. Discussed by McLaren in the article Critical Pedagogy, knowledge that is acquired in school is never neutral or objective, but is ordered and structured in particular ways. It emphasizes and exclusions partake of a silent logic. The last residential school closed down in 1996, and the Alberta government continued to structure their curriculum in a way that abandoned Indigenous ways of knowing until they implemented TQS No. 5 23 years later in 2019. But how can decolonization relate to privilege? Well, decolonization is removing the belief that everything white, which includes individuals, their culture, or systems, is being more valid than the identities and cultures of minoritized communities, which Sensoy and D'Angelo would describe as the internalization of messages of superiority, which is the thought that the dominant group has nothing to gain or learn from the experiences of minoritized people. This was what the Alberta government continued to do until the introduction of TQS No. 5 in 2019. As future educators, it is important to be aware of the impact that schools have had on Indigenous peoples, but how can we ensure Indigenous student success?