"How do we look?": discourses of truth and reconciliation in select Manitoba school divisions
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Date
2022-12-30
Authors
Draper, Catherine
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Abstract
Since the publication of the TRC’s Calls to Action, Manitoba school divisions must publish yearly Continuous Improvement Plans (CIPs) and Community Reports (CRs) as an accountability measure to report on progress toward reconciliation. Divisions, as organizational entities, use particular language in their documents to align with the goals of Truth and Reconciliation in order to maintain their reputation and relationships with education stakeholders. This study has one major research question: What discourses of Truth and Reconciliation appear to be constructed by Manitoba school divisions? Concepts, perspectives and methodologies from Indigenous scholarship, including ethical relationality and Indigenous Métissage, inform a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of CIPs and CRs from school divisions from each of the five Treaty territories in Manitoba. Organizational Impression Management (OIM) is used as a theory to understand the motives of each division and how they wish to be perceived by the public. Themes emerging from the data include the prevalence of “achievement gap” discourse, individual vs. collective responsibility for facilitating education for reconciliation, and presenting reconciliation as foundational vs. additive in divisional priorities. Recommendations for practice include consistency in terminology, and a pedagogical and linguistic shift away from “achievement gaps” to “education debts.”
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Keywords
Truth and Reconciliation, Critical Discourse Analysis, Organizational Impression Management, Indigenous Métissage, Indigenous education, education for reconciliation