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Compulsory Schooling and Cognitive Imperialism: A Case for Cognitive Justice and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples

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The Palgrave Handbook of Education Law for Schools

Abstract

Compulsory education laws for Indigenous children in Canada based on Eurocentric knowledge systems have interrupted their normative holistic education, generated cognitive imperialism, induced cultural genocide and intergenerational trauma, and negatively affected their overall success outcomes for themselves and their self-determining communities. Contemporary educators, especially Indigenous educators, are now faced with ameliorative challenges for reconciling the traumatic, nihilistic effects of compulsory education, decolonizing the assimilation model, generating ethical space for Indigenizing the compulsory curricula, and creating a balanced compulsory curricula reform based on respect for constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous peoples. Accomplishing these challenges, the authors assert, a critical examination of public schooling and the Indigenizing of the academy are set to generate innovative, better educational systems for Indigenous children in Canada based on the hard lessons learned from the past.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Marie Battiste & James [Sa’ke’j] Youngblood Henderson

Authors
  1. Marie Battiste
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  2. James [Sa’ke’j] Youngblood Henderson
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Correspondence to Marie Battiste .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business, Law, Education & Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Karen Trimmer

  2. School of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Roselyn Dixon

  3. Faculty of Business, Law, Education & Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Yvonne S. Findlay

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Battiste, M., Henderson, J.[.Y. (2018). Compulsory Schooling and Cognitive Imperialism: A Case for Cognitive Justice and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. In: Trimmer, K., Dixon, R., S. Findlay, Y. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Education Law for Schools. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77751-1_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77751-1_28

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