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Exposing The Cracks In Aboriginal Education Policy: A Critical Analysis Of Ontario’S Social Studies Curriculum, Jeffery S. Westlake

Digitized Theses

This case study demonstrates through the lenses of critical theory and anticolonialism that Ontario’s compulsory Grades 6-9 Social Studies curriculum is written from a Euro-Canadian standpoint and gives little regard to Aboriginal perspectives. Despite the Ministry of Education’s antiracism and equity policies, the Ontario curriculum is tainted by stereotypes, Eurocentrisms, myths, and omissions. The curriculum is an impediment to the reconciliation that must occur between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in order to bring healing to Aboriginal communities. This thesis contributes to critical education research by showing that the Ontario curriculum is partially responsible for the ignorance that secondary school graduates …