SCHOOLS AS PROTECTORATES: STORIES TWO MI’KMAQ MOTHERS TELL

Résumé

In 1965, Memmi introduced the concept of a protectorate. ―Whenever the colonizer states, in his language, that the colonized is a weakling, he suggests thereby that this deficiency requires protection. From this comes the concept of a protectorate‖ (pp. 147-8). While this concept is 45 years old, it is an apt metaphor for thinking about current school landscapes, and about how educators are positioned on those landscapes to use their professional knowledge of teaching and learning as protectors of children and parents. We assert that while all parents experience ―protection‖ in their children‘s schools, such protection plays out more strongly with First Nations parents because of historical, societal, socioeconomic, and political divisions (Shields, Bishop, & Mazawi, 2005). As we inquire into stories two Mi‘kmaq mothers tell of their experiences with teachers and administrators, we pull forward narrative threads that make visible how parents are marginalized when schools are structured and administered as protectorates. We invite a reconsideration of who is seen to hold knowledge on school landscapes and whose knowledge counts.