Deconstructing Colonial Conceptions: The St. Paul Industrial Boarding School Report of 1896
Date
2023-08
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Abstract
In 1896, acting principal Edward F. Hockley of St. Paul industrial boarding school, submitted his annual report to the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA). In it he informed the Department regarding the day-to-day operations of the school. This thesis bases its analysis on Hockley’s 1896 report. Along with the centrality of Hockley’s report as a primary source for this study, the thesis is structured by analysis of a normalized perception of education, arising from the standardized curricular document used to govern industrial and later residential schools, titled the “Programme of Studies for Indian Schools.” The Programme, and the reports that insisted on its adherence (like that from Hockley), reveals a colonial ideology that was highly hierarchized and normalized. As this thesis demonstrates, Hockley’s report provides a clear window into historical Western conceptions of education, which shaped his perceptions as written. These conceptions were historically contingent, ideologically driven, and largely centred on Western (colonial) views of childhood. To reveal this, the thesis draws three themes from Hockley’s report which, in turn, shape its three chapters: discipline, religion, and play. By studying Hockley’s discussion of these matters, as reflected by his report on St. Paul, wider historical influences are demonstrated, which shaped, informed, proliferated and importantly, authenticated his perceptions of play, discipline, and religion, both for himself and for his superiors as being “normal.” In so doing, the thesis takes inspiration from the works of Michel Foucault and draws on Edward Said’s contrapuntal method of analysis.
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Discipline, Religion, Play, Foucault, Said, Contrapuntal reading, Department of Indian Affairs, Annual report, Programme of Studies for Indian Schools, Indigenous, Colonialism, Residential schools, 1896, Summerhill, Normalizing power, Genealogy, Surveillance, Ten Commandments, Ideological perceptions, Decolonization in Canada, St. Paul industrial boarding school, Edward F. Hockley, Reconciliation, Context of perception, Childhood, Education
Citation
Wilde, N. G. (2023). Deconstructing colonial conceptions: the St. Paul industrial boarding school report of 1896 (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.