Exploring the Integration Experiences of Aboriginal Children and Teachers, 1949-1969.

Principal Investigator: Helen Raptis and Anne Marshall

Research Assistants: Eve Chapple

Project Description:

In 1951, the Canadian government modified the Indian Act to end the legal segregation of aboriginal children and enable them to be integrated into provincial public schools. Despite its historical significance, the government’s policy shift from segregation to integration has been the subject of very little empirical research. As policy researchers note, however, our comprehension of the policy cycle is incomplete without an understanding of whether or not — and more importantly how — the intents of the policy have been met. No research to date has examined the integration experiences of children and teachers in British Columbia. This research will begin to fill this gap in the research literature and to help us understand better the development of Aboriginal education in order to foster “changes in peoples’ social reality.”

Research Questions: How did teachers interpret the policy intents and how did they (or did they not) facilitate the integration of aboriginal youngsters into their classrooms? Were teachers provided with supporting regulations and/ or resources to facilitate integration? If so, what was the nature of these supports and which were most useful? How did aboriginal children experience the process of integration? Were the students provided with any particular supports and/ or resources to facilitate their integration? If so, what was the nature of these supports? Which were most useful? Did the teachers’ and children’s experiences depend on the social, economic or political circumstances of each of the communities? If so, what can we discern about the role that contextual and/ or personal factors play in shaping the effects of educational policy?

Significance: This study will contribute to our collective knowledge of a period in Canada’s educational history that has generally been neglected. Furthermore, since conceptual policy frameworks have been hampered by their lack of historical perspective, findings from this research will provide much-needed descriptive data from which to build on current theoretical models of educational policy-making. From a more practical perspective, this research establishes a community-university partnership which will generate and transfer knowledge to enable aboriginal peoples to reclaim and tell their own stories in order to “address and promote social change, program development and development of appropriate policies.”

Timeline:

Articles and presentations to date:

Raptis, H. Moral Imperative or Marriage of Convenience? The Integration of Port Essington Indian Day School, presented at the biennial meeting of the Canadian History of Education Association, Sudbury, Ontario, October 23, 2008.

Raptis, H. Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy: Policy-Making and Aboriginal Education in Canada, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, Issue #102 (March 2010).

Raptis, H. Exploring the Factors Behind British Columbia’s First Large-Scale Integration Initiative, presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, Colorado, April, 2010.

Raptis, H. National Rhetoric Meets Local Reality: The Integration of Port Essington Indian Day School, presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, Montreal, Quebec, May 31, 2010.

Raptis, H. Beyond the Shadow of the Residential School, presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, May 31, 2011.

Raptis, H. (2011). Exploring the Factors Prompting British Columbia's First Nation Initiative: The Case of Port Essington Indian Day School, History of Education Quarterly, 51, 4:519-543.

Raptis, H. Reconsidering the Place of the Day School in the History of Indian Education in Canada, round table presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, BC, April 17, 2012.

Raptis, H. Division F Fireside Chat: Marginality and Historical Inquiry: On the Possibility of Educating for Change, panel presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, BC, April 16, 2012.