Are we there yet? The road to reconciliation in Ontario public school curricula since 2007

Abstract

This research is a multi-layered examination of existing policy frameworks and curricula surrounding Indigenous education in Ontario public elementary schools: how these documents have evolved and been adapted within the Ontario public elementary school system, focusing on the years since the turn of the 21st century. Since 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Education has taken a new approach to Indigenous education within public school classrooms. They have certainly made strides towards providing an equitable workspace for Indigenous students within mainstream classrooms and curricula, but have policy makers and educators alike gone far enough? Does the existing framework adequately provide for the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for teaching and learning by upholding Indigenous world views and knowledge systems within the constraints of colonial curricula and pedagogy? Or do these provisions simply mask a modern and more covert form of assimilation within the public education system? If this is so, why should we, and how can we, provide a more authentic Indigenous educational experience within Ontario’s public elementary school classrooms?