Overcoming Historical Factors that Block the Quest for Educational Equity in Canadian Schools

Remedying school inequities in Canada requires actively confronting the challenges connected to Canada's national identity and history. These challenges uphold historically rooted, ongoing inequities that are tied together by three themes: the legacy of colonialism and the displacement and resource acquisition that provided (and continues to provide) wealth for the ruling elite; enslaved and under/unpaid racialized/ migrant labor that built and continues to uphold the infrastructure of the nationstate; and the discourses of Canadian identity centered on the perceived “nice and polite” Canadian and the peaceful multicultural mosaic of its vast land. Any effort to fully understand and address educational projects for change in Canada must engage with these three themes central to Canada's identity.