Education as a Tool of Power: Ethnocentrism, Ethnocide, and Power Displacement in Selected Contemporary Memoirs of Indian Residential School Survivors

Mgr. Martin Ondryáš

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Tato práce se zabývá tématem rezidenčních škol pro původní obyvatele Kanady se speciálním zaměřením na témata etnocentrismu, etnocidy a narušení struktury moci v komunitách původních obyvatel v důsledku vlivu povinného vzdělávání dětí původních obyvatel v rezidenčních školách. Práce analyzuje zmíněné koncepty ve čtyřech memoárech publikovaných autory, kteří tyto rezidenční školy navštěvovali, těmito autory jsou Theodore Fontaine (Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools: A Memoir), Bev Sellars (They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School), Auguste Merasty (The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir) a Fred Sasakamoose (Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL's First Treaty Indigenous Player).

Abstract:

This thesis deals with the topic of Indian residential schools in Canada and the concepts of ethnocentrism, ethnocide, and the disruption power balance in the Indigenous communities as a result of the influence of the Indian residential school policy. The thesis analyses these concepts in four contemporary memoirs of the residential school survivors: Theodore Fontaine’s Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools: A Memoir (2010), Bev Sellars’s They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School (2013), Auguste Merasty’s The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir (2015), and Fred Sasakamoose’s Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL's First Treaty Indigenous Player (2021).

Keywords

Indian Residential Schools, Canada, ethnocentrism, ethnocide, memoirs, residential school survivors

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 21. 4. 2022

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 20. 6. 2022
• Supervisor: Mgr. Pavla Buchtová
• Reader: M.A. Michael George

Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Master programme / field:
Teacher Training for Primary and Lower Secondary Schools / Lower Secondary School English Language Teacher Training