Abstract
This paper provides an analysis of the 72 equity and inclusive education policies that were drafted by eight school boards across southwestern Ontario in response to the Ministry of Education’s mandate. Drawing on the theoretical work of Sara Ahmed (2012), our analysis of the policy documents suggests that these policies function to protect the institution and its image rather than seeking to challenge social and educational inequities. Our findings demonstrate that these documents fail to construct localized policies that include procedures, enactment strategies, and evaluation methods that respond to existing challenges within each local context, and ultimately function as “non-performative” that fail to address enduring systemic inequities in the Ontario education system. This paper contributes to the field of critical policy studies that seeks to uncover and make visible the structural processes that reproduce subordination and marginalization in education. The paper contributes to a growing body of literature that seeks to problematize the reproduction of systemic barriers in the context of Canadian education, where discourses of liberal multiculturalism have long replaced the need to acknowledge systemic racism and other inequities. As the inclusion of equity policies across Ontario’s school boards are meant to demonstrate a concern for social and educational equity and an effort to make remedial changes, the findings of this study problematizes such efforts, which has implications for the realization of equity in Ontario schools.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Past and Present in the Humanistic Education
KEYWORDS
Critical Policy Analysis, Non-Performative, Equity Policy, Document Analysis
