Neo-colonialism in Our Schools: Representations of Indigenous Perspectives in Ontario Science Curricula

Abstract

Motivated by the striking under-representation of Indigenous students in the field of science and technology, the Ontario Ministry of Education has attempted to integrate Aboriginal perspectives into their official curricula in hopes of making a more culturally relevant curriculum for Indigenous students. Using hermeneutic content analysis (HCA), a mixed-method framework for analyzing content, this study examined how and to what extent Aboriginal content is represented in Ontario’s official science curriculum documents. Given that very little has been published in this specific area, this research sheds light on the current state of the representation of Aboriginal cultures in contemporary Canadian science curriculum.Motivé par la sous-représentation marquante des étudiant(e)s indigènes dans les domaines de science et de technologie, le Ministère de l’Éducation d’Ontario essaya d’intégrer des perspectives autochtones dans leur programme officiel dans l’espoir de créer un environnement plus représentatif des particularités culturelles des étudiant(e)s indigènes. En employant l’analyse du contenu herméneutique, un encadrement de méthode mixte pour analyser du contenu, cette étude examina comment et jusqu’à quel point le contenu autochtone est représenté dans les documents officiels des programmes des sciences. Étant donné que très peu eut été publié dans ce domaine, la présente recherche fournit un éclairage sur l’état de la représentation des cultures autochtones dans les programmes contemporains des sciences canadiennes

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