Chelsea Volkart - Blog 3

As many of you, I just finished taking my Aboriginal Education elective and one topic discussed in the course was textbook biases that favour the dominant “white” Canadian culture. The topic came to mind because as I read through chapter 3, it really emphasized the discrepancies between what I learnt in school and what this textbook is currently revealing. This is not to say that our textbook is bias, rather the textbooks I read in the past were very Eurocentric in nature and never focused on the negative consequences that the White Canadians created for other cultures (ie: Aboriginal or African-American peoples).

For example, growing up I remember being in school and leaning about the  Underground Railway and what sticks out in my mind was the sense of pride I felt being a Canadian with respect to how I thought we treated African American slaves who escaped from the United States. Little did I know this was only one side of the story and as I've acknowledged, our current textbook tells me otherwise. Rather some White Canadians reacted negatively to the settlement and often refused them equality to services (77). Another event in history that I conveniently knew little about was the history and effects of Residential Schools on Aboriginal peoples (again, likely because my textbooks never focused on highlighted White Canadians in a negative way). I always viewed the settlement of “Whites” in Canada as a positive thing for Aboriginal peoples…I mean just think of all the technological advances we provided them! By reading chapter three in combination with the video we watched in class on Tuesday, it has definitely opened my eyes and enabled me to actually begin to understand the deep-rooted long-term psychological damage that occurred and has been passed down through generations (73). I never really understood how the effect of Residential Schools affected today’s children however after reading that the last Residential School only closed in 1996 (75), it’s quite possible that a student in my class could have a parents who attended that school as a child! Needless to say , as an educator I will definitely be more consciously aware of textbook biases in my classroom and be sure to educate students on “all sides of the story”.

Discussion Question: How did Gordon Residential School manage to remain open until 1996? What factors do you think influenced this decision (or lack thereof)?