LEARNING TO SETTLE: YOUNG STUDENTS LEARNING CANADIAN AND INDIGENOUS HISTORIES IN THE FIGURED WORLDS OF SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOMS by Mark Robert Sinke A draft thesis to be submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Mark Robert Sinke 2020 LEARNING TO SETTLE LEARNING TO SETTLE: YOUNG STUDENTS LEARNING CANADIAN AND INDIGENOUS HISTORIES IN THE FIGURED WORLDS OF SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOMS Doctor of Philosophy (2020) Mark Robert Sinke Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning University of Toronto Abstract This research study is an investigation into how children in public elementary schools are educated through social studies curricula into ways of understanding themselves and their relationships to the nation-state, the land, and people with whom they share the land. The questions that have driven this research are these: 1) How do young students construct and negotiate the figured worlds of a social studies classroom where they engage in inquiry-based learning about settler colonialism? 2) What do students connect with, and what are they doing with the stories they hear about Indigenous and Canadian history in public school classrooms? 3) How do students in public school classrooms take up or reject settler colonialism in their learning about history? Examining these questions through the theoretical frame of figured worlds and employing a post-structural ethnographic methodology, the author relies on the fields of curriculum studies and settler colonial studies to ground this study into the experiences of young students in public schools. The frame of figured worlds allows the author to examine the ways that students talk about and enact identities-in-practice as they learn stories about Canadian and Indigenous histories. This thesis sheds light on the specific ways students configure, negotiate, and enact their own subjectivities as they learn about the settlement and growth of Canada on the Indigenous territory it now occupies. ii LEARNING TO SETTLE Data for this study were gathered through research groups, interviews, and classroom observations at two elementary schools in Hamilton, Ontario. Analysis and discussion of these data reveal the complex ways students both take up and\or reject discourses and narratives about settler colonialism, Indigenous resurgence, and reconciliation. The stories and experiences of students in this research reveal ways that education works to maintain settler structures of inequality and elimination through the teaching of social studies. This work also points to ways this can be challenged, and how counter-narratives and discourses are being taken up by students as they navigate their identities-in-practice in response to what they learn, who they learn it with, and the multiple voices that they listen to for guidance. iii LEARNING TO SETTLE Acknowledgements Throughout the long journey of completing this thesis, I have been blessed with the support and accompaniment of many people for whom I am deeply grateful. I am very grateful for the guidance, membership, and friendship of my supervisor, Dr. Jean-Paul Restoule. He helped shape my understanding of research and its role while empowering me with the knowledge and practice I needed to pursue this study. Thank you to Dr. Rubén Gaztambide- Fernández, who helped shape my understandings of many areas that were key to this thesis, and always encouraged me to think deeply about where we find meaning in the things we say, read, write, and research. I am grateful to Dr. Diane Farmer for her model of compassionate consideration about the ways children are included in knowledge production through research. Her guidance and encouragement helped me see the possibilities of researching with children and played an integral role in the development of this research project and thesis. Dr. Fikile Nxumalo and Dr. Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw, thank you for your thoughtful critique and insight into this work and for challenging me to think deeply about its implications and importance. The relationships I was gifted throughout the time I spent at OISE are very precious to me, and I owe a great thank you to Lucy El-Sherif, Fiona Purton, Daniela Bascuñan, Shawna Carroll, Neil Ramjewan, Anjali Helferty, and so many others for your encouragement, love, support, and friendship. I would not have succeeded without each one of you, and I look forward to many more years of conversation and collaboration. The community of my family members, friends, students, and colleagues has supported me for many years with grace and encouragement, and I am grateful for their dedication to getting me through this long process. iv LEARNING TO SETTLE The journey has been long and fruitful, while also challenging and difficult. Throughout it all my partner has held me up and kept me going with her strength and grace. Thank you, Christine, for your unfaltering belief and support to see me through this. v LEARNING TO SETTLE Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introductions .............................................................................................................. 1 Introducing the Author .............................................................................................................. 10 Introducing the Landscape: Hamilton and Settler Colonialism at the Head of the Lake. ......... 17 Introducing the Chapters ........................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2: Settler Colonialism and the Figured Worlds of Canadian Public Education .... 27 Imperatives of Settler Colonialism ............................................................................................ 28 Pedagogies of Settler Colonialism ........................................................................................ 35 Curricular and Educational Responses to Othering and Exclusion ..................................... 39 Settler Education for Young Children ................................................................................... 42 Figured Worlds of Elementary School Classrooms .................................................................. 43 Figured Worlds ...................................................................................................................... 44 Constructed and Re-constructed Cultural Practices. ......................................................... 48 Historical Phenomenon of Cultural Significance. ............................................................ 51 Subjectivity and Social Relations of Power and Privilege. ............................................... 54 Identities-In-Practice ............................................................................................................. 56 Subjectivity, Culture, and Learning in Children’s Lives ....................................................... 61 Student Self and Identity. .................................................................................................. 62 Children’s Cultural Worlds. .............................................................................................. 64 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 69 Chapter 3: Social Studies and Inquiry-Based Learning ......................................................... 73 Settler Colonial Perspectives and Ontario Social Studies Curriculum ..................................... 73 The Formal Curriculum for Elementary School Social Studies ............................................ 74 Citizenship as Canadian Identity. ..................................................................................... 76 vi LEARNING TO SETTLE Indigeneity and Multiculturalism in Social Studies. ......................................................... 78 Inquiry-Based Learning. ................................................................................................... 80 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 85 Chapter 4: Methodology............................................................................................................. 88 Respecting Relationships with Methodological Considerations ............................................... 92 Researching with Children ........................................................................................................ 94 Informed Consent .................................................................................................................. 94 Researcher Relationship ........................................................................................................ 96 Incorporating Student Research Perspectives ....................................................................... 98 Sites of Research ....................................................................................................................