Tarasoff, Lawrence Alexander Michael (2019)
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Tarasoff, Lawrence Alexander Michael (2019) Searching for hidden assumptions: a critical discourse analysis of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement policy. Ed.D thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/75146/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Searching for Hidden Assumptions: a Critical Discourse Analysis of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement Policy Lawrence Alexander Michael Tarasoff BA, MA Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Education School of Education College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow June 2019 © 2019 ii ABSTRACT There exists persistent disparity in the achievement of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal public school students in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The international literature stresses that education has the power to improve the lives and futures of indigenous peoples through the use of government policy. With that in mind, this study sets out to critically analyse BC’s Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement (EA) policy texts to better understand how Aboriginal education in BC is shaped, formed and reformed in the production and interpretation of the province’s policy discourses. The study makes use of interviews and Fairclough’s (2015) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to uncover the discursive and social factors at play in the production and interpretation of BC’s EA policy from the time of its creation in 1999 through to the Ministry of Education announcing their withdrawal from directly supporting the policy in 2016. The study concludes that the processes involved in EA policy production and interpretation within the broad social conditions and specific institutional settings of BC education may combine to sustain the current power relationships within Aboriginal education in BC. However, in some cases, the agency of policy interpreters does allow them to resist those aspects of the policy’s discourses which place western educational value over traditional cultural understandings. Thus, the production and interpretation of BC’s EA policy discourse is both normative and creative and acts to both sustain and subvert the current power relationships between those producing and interpreting the policy. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x ACKNOWLEDGEMENT xi ABBREVIATIONS xii AUTHOR’S DECLARATION xiv CHAPTER 1: BEGINNING AN ANALYSIS 1 1.1. The Rationale for a Critical Analysis of Aboriginal Policy 3 1.1.1. The Current Context 3 1.1.2. My Motivation 5 1.2. Introduction of the Theoretical Framework 6 1.3. Introduction of the Methodological Approach 9 1.4. Research Questions 10 1.5. Organization of the Study 11 CHAPTER 2:.LITERATURE REVIEW 13 2.1. Introduction 13 2.2. Defining Key Terms 14 2.3. Indigenous Education: A Policy “Problem” to be Considered 15 2.4. Methodology 18 2.5. The Goals of Indigenous Education 19 iv 2.6. Indigenous Education Policy in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada 22 2.6.1. System Capacity 24 2.6.2. Indigenous Language and Culture 25 2.6.3. Community and Parental Involvement 27 2.6.4. Early Childhood Education 29 2.6.5. Academic Achievement 29 2.7. Summary of National Policies Review 30 2.8. Current Aboriginal Education Policy in BC 31 2.8.1. Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements 31 2.8.2. Research Studies of EAs 32 CHAPTER 3: THE HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT OF ABORIGINAL POLICY MAKING IN CANADA 37 3.1. Aboriginal Policy Making under Classical Liberalism (from 1867 – 1945) 38 3.1.1. Classical Liberalism 39 3.1.4. Residential Schools 40 3.2. Aboriginal Policy Making from 1945 – 1973: The Growth of Social Justice Liberalism 42 3.2.1. Liberal Concepts of Justice 42 3.2.2. Three Liberal Approaches to Aboriginal Policy 43 3.2.3. Approaches to Aboriginal Education Policy 52 3.3. Aboriginal Policy since 1973: The Rise of Neoliberalism and the Specific Case of British Columbia 57 3.3.1. Bill C-34, a BC Example 58 3.4. The BC Aboriginal Education Context 59 3.4.1. British Columbia’s Policy Context 60 v 3.4.2. Future Direction in BC’s Aboriginal Education Policy Making 64 3.5. Conclusion 65 CHAPTER 4: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 66 4.1. Interdisciplinarity 66 4.2. Critical Discourse Analysis 66 4.2.1. Critique 68 4.2.2. Power and Ideology 69 4.2.3. Discourse 75 4.3. Policy 78 4.3.1 Policy as Text, Policy as Discourse 79 4.3.2 Policy Analysis 80 4.4. Conclusion 81 CHAPTER 5: METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION 82 5.1. Discourse as Social Practice 82 5.2. CDA 83 5.2.1. Orders of Discourse 85 5.2.2. Reproduction of Policy 86 5.3. CDA in this Study 87 5.3.1. Description 87 5.3.2. Interpretation 88 5.3.3. Explanation 93 5.4. Addressing Bias 95 5.4.1 The Analyst’s Assumptions 96 5.5. Data Sources 99 5.5.1. Policy Documents 99 5.5.2. Archival Documents 99 vi 5.5.3. Interviews 100 5.6. Procedure 102 5.7. Ethical Dimensions 105 5.7.1 Ethical Considerations for Human Subjects 106 5.7.2 Rigor: Qualitative Measures of Trustworthiness and Authenticity 108 5.8 Rigor as it Applies to CDA 112 5.9. Conclusion 113 CHAPTER 6: DESCRIPTION 114 6.1. Description 114 6.1.1. Vocabulary 115 6.1.2. Grammar 119 6.1.3. Textual Structures 123 6.2. Conclusion 126 CHAPTER 7: INTERPRETATION AND EXPLANATION 127 7.1. Interpretation 127 7.1.1. Interpretation of Text 127 7.1.2. Interpretation of the Situational Context 131 7.1.3. Interpretation of the Intertextual Context 133 7.2. Explanation 136 7.2.1. Approach to Explanation 136 7.2.2. Power and Reproduction 137 7.2.3. Ideology 138 7.2.4. Effects 141 7.3. Challenges 141 7.4. Agency 142 7.4.1. Discourse, Power and Material Practices 144 vii 7.4.2. Social Relations 145 7.4.3. Institutions 146 7.4.4. Beliefs 146 7.5. Answers to the Research Questions 148 7.5.1 Answering Research Question One 148 7.5.2 Answering Research Question Two 149 7.6. Conclusion 150 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 152 8.1. The Study Summarized 152 8.2. The Study in the Broader Context of Indigenous Education 158 8.3. A Recommendation 159 8.4. The Contribution and Limitations of the Study 160 8.5. Future Directions for Study 161 8.6. Conclusion 161 LIST OF REFERENCES 163 APPENDIX 1 188 APPENDIX 2 190 APPENDIX 3 192 APPENDIX 4 194 APPENDIX 5 195 APPENDIX 6 196 APPENDIX 7 200 APPENDIX 8 201 APPENDIX 9 202 viii APPENDIX 10 204 APPENDIX 11 206 ix LIST OF TABLES 2-1 Key Indigenous Policy Documents & Priorities .................................................. 23 5-1 Formal Features: Experiential, Relational and Expressive Values (Fairclough, 2015) ..................................................................................................................... 88 6-1 Frequency of Positive and Negative Words ....................................................... 116 6-2 Discourse Values ................................................................................................ 118 6-3 Transitivity Examples from Policy Texts ........................................................... 120 7-1 Summary of Producer's and Analyst's Interpretations of Texts ......................... 129 7-2 Policy Interpreters MR ....................................................................................... 130 7-3 Aboriginal Policy Producers and Interpreters in British Columbia ................... 132 7-4 Interpreting Presuppositions ............................................................................... 134 8-1 BC’s EA Discourses ........................................................................................... 153 x LIST OF FIGURES 5-1 Discourse as text, interaction and context (Fairclough, 2014) ............................. 83 5-2 Interpretation stage ............................................................................................... 89 5-3 Situational context and discourse type (Fairclough, 2015, p. 159) ...................... 91 5-4 Explanation (Fairclough, 2015, p. 173) ................................................................ 94 5-5 Provincial and school district policies/objectives sub-themes ........................... 104 5-6 The relationship between provincial and school district themes ........................ 105 7-1 Discourse production explanation ...................................................................... 139 7-2 Discourse interpretation explanation .................................................................. 140 xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank the participants who freely gave their time to take part in this study. I particularly acknowledge the patient support of my supervisors, Michele Schweisfurth and Oscar Valiente, and the unfailing encouragement of my wife, Carrie, children: Jordan, Matthew, Emma and Jacob and my parents: Don and Clarice. I could not have done it without you all. xii ABBREVIATIONS BC British Columbia BCCPAC BC Confederation of Parent Advisory BCCT BC College of Teachers BCPVPA BC Principals and Vice Principals Association BCSTA BC School Trustees Association BCTF