Textbooks: Bureaucratic tools

White Supremacy and the Rhetoric of Educational Indoctrination: A Canadian Case Study


This was a very enlightening, yet scary read. I can’t remember who suggested this, or brought this one into class, but thank you, I think that it has added a lot of dimension into our understanding of the deliberate cultivating of a white racist society in BC. The importance education plays in the role of the development of attitudes and prejudices becomes apparent in the article. We are also enlightened by developing an awareness of the power of textbooks to promote specific ideologies. Even when textbooks present different views, we have to remember that they are only one source which should be used to examine different issues. I think many teachers who only use textbooks in the classroom do so not to deliberately promote a specific point of view, but because textbooks are easy to use. It is hard work trying to find a variety of resources to explore issues – specifically issues that are presented at the reading level of your students.

So, if schools were blatantly used to effectively support white supremacy, then we, in turn, can use schools as a vehicle to undo this by challenging, discussion, and studying these issues in the classroom. I appreciate the efforts of everyone in the classroom in bringing in different resources, the networking has been good. Many hands make light work!