Educating the Colonized Colonizer: Rethinking Francophone Schooling in Canada

Abstract

This article offers a critical reassessment of francophone education in Canada through postcolonial and settler colonial theory. Francophone communities have long framed themselves as colonized minorities resisting linguistic and cultural assimilation. However, this identity often obscures their simultaneous participation in settler colonial structures, particularly regarding Indigenous lands and histories. Adopting a comparative, critical narrative methodology, the article analyzes curriculum frameworks from multiple Canadian provinces, historical documents such as the Parent Commission (1963–1966), and key texts on decolonization and Indigenous–settler relations. Literary and philosophical perspectives complement this analysis by exploring the affective and ethical dimensions of truth-telling in education. Findings reveal that while francophone education emphasizes cultural survival, it often marginalizes Indigenous perspectives or includes them in superficial ways. Curricula across Canada show persistent tensions between gestures of inclusion and deeper structural silences. Institutional and employment precarity among francophone teachers further complicates the adoption of critical pedagogies, especially when they challenge dominant national narratives. The article proposes a pedagogical ethics of truth built around three dimensions: epistemic accountability, affective engagement, and transformative praxis. It calls for curricula co-created with Indigenous partners, validation of emotional responses to injustice, and learning practices grounded in dialogue and land-based inquiry. Ultimately, the article challenges the limits of multicultural inclusion and the myth of francophone innocence. Truth-telling in education, it argues, must move beyond symbolic gestures to become a foundational commitment—one that embraces discomfort and reimagines historical responsibility as an ongoing and relational process.