Indian education in Canada : implementation of educational policy, 1973-1978
Date
1988
Authors
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Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This thesis examines the political interaction between the Canadian federal government and the Indian Nations within Canada in the sphere of educational policy implementation from 1973
through 1978. In 1973, the federal government adopted a new educational policy for Indians which was based on the National Indian Brotherhood's policy document, Indian Control of Indian Education, and which incorporated the principles of parental responsibility and local control. This new educational policy was
a radical change from previous educational policy, which had incorporated principles of assimilation into mainstream Canadian
society and widespread integration into provincial school systems.
The first five years of implementation of the new educational policy transpired within the context of a mutually agreed upon process of "partnership" and "consultation". On the national level, the Joint Cabinet/National Indian Brotherhood Committee forum was utilized to raise the question of an Indian right to education. Legislative changes to the Indian Act regarding provision of educational services to Indians were sought through a joint consultative Indian Act revision process. In conjunction
with the exploration of these long-range methods of policy implementation, a more immediate method of educational policy implementation occurred through the transfer of education programs
or program aspects to Band Councils. Program transfer guidelines served as the primary instruments for effecting this method of
policy implementation. The initiation of a Cultural/Educational Centres Program under the auspices of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development also provided an avenue for
educational policy implementation.
In spite of the intended mode of educational policy
implementation, claims and counterclaims regarding the consultative/participatory nature of implementation of Indian control of Indian education resounded throughout 1973-1978. The
culmination of misunderstandings, misinterpretations and frustrations regarding "consultation" in policy implementation was the unilateral withdrawal of the National Indian Brotherhood from the Joint Committee process in April of 1978. The value of
jointly pursuing legislative change to the education sections of the Indian Act came into question as well among Indian leaders in
1978, in light of the perceived threat to aboriginal and Indian rights in general resulting from Prime Minister Trudeau's tabling
of Bill C-60, an Act to Amend the Canadian Constitution.
The disconsonance during 1973-1978 between the Indian Nations and the federal government regarding the consultative/participatory nature of educational policy implementation can be
partially understood in terms of a failure to clearly differentiate between the actual process of consultation and the unilaterally written products of consultative meetings. Organizational aspects of the National Indian Brotherhood also
impinged on the manner in which it could participate in the consultative forums. Federal government - Indian Nation interaction in the sphere of educational policy implementation
intermeshed with the overall political interaction between these two entities in the continual struggle to define the political
relationship between Canada and the indigenous Indian Nations.
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Citation
Degree
Master of Education (M.Ed.)
Department
Indian and Northern Education
Program
Indian and Northern Education