Victorian ideologies of gender and the curriculum of the Regina Indian Industrial School, 1891-1910

Abstract

Gender is an intrinsic part of the colonization process. This thesis examines the social construction of gender in the colonial context of the Indian Industrial Schools of western Canada. Through a case study of the official and hidden curricula of the Regina Indian Industrial School, this thesis explores the attempted imposition of Victorian Euro-Canadian ideals of gender upon Aboriginal youth around the turn of the century. The curricula of the Regina Indian Industrial school, as well as other western Industrial schools, was shaped by Victorian ideologies of gender, which promoted separate spheres for men and women, a cult of domesticity, sexual division of labour, and binary oppositions. The curriculum of the Regina Indian Industrial School became a method of conveying Euro-Canadian discourses of Victorian gender ideals. While boys in the Indian industrial schools were educated to become breadwinners, girls were socialized into domestic roles. Employing feminist, post-colonial, and poststructural theories and research methods, this study provides a textual analysis of records of government and church officials regarding gender and the curriculum of the Regina Indian Industrial School.