"I thought Pocahontas was a movie" : perspectives on race/culture binaries in education and service professions

University of Regina Canadian Plains Research Center (Author). Schick, Carol. (Added Author). McNinch, James, 1947- (Added Author).

Summary: A significant contribution to the understanding of systemic racism in Canadian institutions, this collection of essays arising out of the unique Prairie context interrogates how professionals practicing in law, education, health, and other helping professions engage with issues of race and culture. This book examines the challenges and resistance found within professional groups working with Aboriginal and racial minority peoples. For teachers, social workers, healthcare providers, and professors, the greatest barriers to working across difference may be themselves and their assumptions about what the nature of the "problem" of difference is considered to be. The authors in this volume advocate, question, and critique the uses of what are often considered to be binaries of race and/or culture. They offer examples from professional fields that illustrate the complexity of teaching that finds problems in a culturalist approach as well as a critical orientation that is still found wanting. Will addressing inequality as a race, gender, class, or sexual orientation issue provide greater forward movement than focusing on cultural issues? The answers in this collection are never either/or and must look beyond theoretical orthodoxy for inspiration, if not new questions.

Record details

ISBN: 9780889772113
Physical Description: print
xxi, 191 p. ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Regina, SK : CPRC Press, 2009.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Introduction -- Language as an agent of division in Saskatchewan schools -- Lost in translation: anti-racism and the perils of knowledge -- From racisim to critical dialogue in the academy: challenges of national minorities at the University of Regina -- A circle is more than a straight line curved: Mis(sed)understanding about First Nations science -- Encountering stangers: teaching difference in the social work classroom -- Native studies beyond the academic-industrial complex -- The more things change...;the endurance of "culturism" in social work and healthcare -- Well-intentioned pedagogies that forestall change -- From Stonechild to social cohesion: anti-racist challenges for Saskatchewan -- "I thought Pocahontas was a movie": using critical discourse to understand race and sex as social constructs.