Schools as "Really Dangerous Places" for Indigenous Children and Youth: Schools, Child Welfare, and Contemporary Challenges to Reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) final report called attention to the damage induced by government policies and practices and outlined a pathway toward reconciliation in which education and child welfare system reforms play a central role. Drawing from 61 interviews with teachers and parents of Indigenous children in Alberta, this paper addresses the question: what do intersections between schooling and child welfare systems contribute to prospects for meaningful reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada? Findings suggest that, despite formal commitments to acknowledge and address colonial legacies of residential schooling, obligations to fulfill state child welfare and educational objectives continue to situate schools, for many Indigenous families, as "dangerous places."

Consultation in Canada

In the United States there has been an increasing focus on consultation as an indirect service delivery model that is cost effective and preventive. Despite the substantive nature of the consultation field in the United States, the status of consultation in Canada remains less clear. In reviewing the Canadian literature on consultation, it became apparent that the conceptualization of consultation is varied. In order to obtain clarification, a systematic evaluation of the consultation literature in Canada was initiated. The present review describes consultation in Canada from its origin in 1960 to the present. Canadian journals relevant to the education field were examined and articles extracted that dealt with school consultation. This resulted in a sample of 24 articles drawn from 12 Canadianjournals. Chronological trends and themes are noted and it is concluded that school consultation in Canada differs from that in the United States, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Although less empirical research has been conducted on school consultation in Canada than in the United States, the Canadian literature on school consultation is characterized by a multitude of types of consultation.