colonial mind in post-secondary education, The

McGill Journal of Education, Spring 2002 by Paticia J Vickers

PERSPECTIVES

ABSTRACT. This article links my personal experience as a First Nations doctoral student to Paulo Freire's teachings on oppression. The spirit of his writing has inspired me to work toward transformational change. I also draw on other discussions of colonialism including the writings of Edward Said. I explore, in the Canadian context, what I refer to as the "colonial mind." The colonial mind is exhibited in relationships and produces polarized behaviours that result from superior - inferior stances. Oppressive attitudes and actions are often unconscious, unintentional, and trans-generational. The First Nations student must identify oppression within academic institutions and the cultural oppression that exists in both general society and academic institutions. Both forms of oppression, institutional and cultural, exhibit similar features and grow from the same root of superior -- inferior dynamics. Freedom from oppression, both cultural and institutional, requires the individual to (a) identify the beliefs that support oppressor/ oppressed dynamics; (b) identify the actions and attitudes that perpetuate oppression and; (c) exert the will to change personal behaviours in relationships with others. The perspective in this manuscript does not represent a voice for all First Nations people; rather, this is a personal perspective based on my experience as both a student and a teacher.

L'ESPRIT COLONIAL DANS L'ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR

RESUME. Cet article etablit un lien entre mon experience personnelle d'etudiante autochtone de doctorat et les enseignements de Paulo Freire sur l'oppression. L'esprit de son ouvrage m'a incitee A vouloir des changements en profondeur. Je m'inspire egalement d'autres analyses du colonialisme, notamment des ecrits d'Edward Said. Dans le contexte canadien, j'etudie ce que j'appelle . L'esprit colonial se manifeste dans les rapports humains et aboutit a des comportements polarises decoulant de positions de superiorite-inferiorite. Les actes d'oppression sont souvent inconscients, involontaires et se transmettent de generation en generation. L'etudiant autochtone doit cerner l'oppression au sein du milieu universitaire et l'oppression culturelle qui existe a la fois dans la societe en general et dans le milieu universitaire. Les deux formes d'oppression, institutionnelle et culturelle, presenten des caracteristiques analogues et decoulent de la meme

dynamique superiorite-inferiorite. Pour se liberer de l'oppression, aussi bien culturelle qu'institutionnelle, l'individu doit a) preciser les croyances qui favorisent la dynamique oppresseur-oprime; b) cerner les actes et les attitudes qui perpetuent l'oppression; et c) etre anime du desir de modifier des comportements personnels par rapport aux autres.

Introduction

My purpose in writing this paper is to critically examine the impact of what I will call "the colonial mind" on post-secondary education and on First Nations people attempting to gain higher education in Canada. "Colonialism," in this paper, refers to the dehumanizing process in imperialism where those "new lands" and inhabitants were considered subjects of the Crown. Concerning both colonialism and imperialism, literary and cultural critic Edward W. Said (1993) states: "Both are supported and perhaps even impelled by impressive ideological formations that include notions that certain territories and people require and beseech domination. . . " I will suggest in this paper that the ideological formations were concepts founded on the delusion that the European race was superior to First Nations races in Canada. These acts of racial domination were oppressive acts and continue to impact the First Nations population in Canada today.

The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, (1996) presents the following disturbing statistics: 11% of Aboriginals achieved high school graduation as compared to 18.9% non Aboriginal; 2.6% Aboriginals attained a university degree, as compared to 11.6% non-Aboriginal. These alarming statistics indicate that, although both First Nations and non-First Nations students struggle in the education system, First Nations students are not attaining the same education levels as other Canadian students. Cultural domination over First Nations culture in Canada through colonialism is not only evident in education but also in the socioeconomic rates of28.6% of the total Aboriginal population receiving social assistance (41.5% on-reserve) compared to 8.1% non-Aboriginals receiving social assistance (Report of the Royal Commission, 1996, p.168).

The colonial mind is based upon historic and Eurocentric beliefs of superiority that subjugated First Nations people and made them wards of the government. The colonial mind justified appropriating First Nations hereditary lands and resources for the colonialists' material gain with the resulting social and economic crisis in the First Nations population in Canada today. Colonialist thought rationalized annihilation of such people as the Beothuk and deemed the inhabitants of the land 'savages, "heathens' and 'pagans' in need of domination with the intent of 'civilizing' the uncivilized. Indeed it was only in 1949 that First Nations were recognized as provincial citizens and gained the right to vote in British Columbia elections compared to "white" women receiving the vote in 1917 (Mathias & Yabsley, 1996). Such colonialist assertions of superiority justified the appropriation of lands, and legislation determining jurisdictional authority over an entire people, exiling them and their future generations to dependency, low socio-economic and sub-human status.