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Social Science Social Work

"I Thought Pocahontas Was a Movie"

Perspectives on Race/Culture Binaries in Education and Service Professions

edited by James McNinch & Carol Schick

Publisher
University of Regina Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2009
Category
Social Work, Native American Studies, Minority Studies
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780889772113
    Publish Date
    Nov 2009
    List Price
    $29.95

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Description

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.

About the authors

James McNinch is an emeritus professor and the former dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. He previously served as the director of the university's Teaching and Learning Centre and prior to that was director of the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the post-secondary institution of the Métis peoples of Saskatchewan.

James McNinch's profile page

Carol Schick's profile page