Education for assimilation: language, literature, and acculturation in senior English

This thesis examines the application and role of education in general in the efforts to induce acculturation into and acceptance of settler society hegemony. Specifically, it illustrates how two disciplines currently work to incite passive indoctrination into the status quo, namely English Language Arts and Literature. During the imperial enterprise, language and literature acted as a means for the communication of settler conceptions of 'truth' and 'reality, ' perceptions that subverted Native meanings of both. Supported by the law, institutionalized religion, and violence, this subversion of First Nations understanding contributed significantly to their colonization. Importantly, the application of language and literature and their influence in this context persists today in the neocolonial educational environment. Public schools continue to stress the importance of the 'mother tongue' in providing success for students and recognize its role in advancing assimilation. At the same time, a pronounced lack of 'meaningful' Native representation and a number of fundamental impediments to its incorporation in the English classroom inhibit an understanding of Native cultures and concerns as they are communicated in literature. A qualitative content analysis of these resources, as well as theoretical application, is used to illustrate how all of these mechanisms work in conjunction to perpetuate the settler society objective of acculturation. In so doing, this thesis also recognizes the valuable contributions to pedagogy made by a number of groups and institutions in an effort to combat education for assimilation.