Pedagogies of Enlightenment or Entitlement?

Abstract

Mindfulness and wellness practices are increasingly becoming part of the curricular landscape in secondary schools in Canada, particularly with growing attention to the mental health of students during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. This research examines the implementation of a school yoga program introduced to students bubbled in classroom cohorts in a school in Gatineau, Quebec. This paper employs Derrida’s framework of unconditional hospitality to ask whether it is possible for diasporas to reclaim indigenous knowledges through practices of ethical relationality, even as his philosophy brings to light some of the impossibilities of overturning the historical power relations entrenched in colonial pasts and the ongoing prevalence of White supremacy.