Race and Fear of the ‘Other’ in Common Sense Revolution Reforms

Authors

  • Laura Elizabeth Pinto Niagara University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v4i2.182344

Keywords:

Race, Education Policy, Curriculum, Social Justice, Canada, Ontario, Democracy, Common Sense Revolution, Racism, Ideology, Anti-racism

Abstract

During the 1990s, Ontario experienced significant social policy reform under the Progressive-Conservative government’s controversial, but straightforward, platform called the Common Sense Revolution (CSR), promising to solve Ontario’s economic problems with lower taxes, smaller government and pro-business policies intended to create jobs. The ideological framing led to policy direction which dismantled existing provincial policies and institutions designed to promote equity. This paper begins by providing evidence to support how the CSR functioned as racist across a broad swath of policy areas, through ideology and coded language, structure and program cuts, and processes. Based on interviews with sixteen policy actors, the paper reveals how the provincial curriculum policy formulation process overtly overlooked and dismantled anti-racism and social justice in curriculum policy.

Author Biography

Laura Elizabeth Pinto, Niagara University

Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, Niagara University and Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty, Department of Theory & Policy Studies, OISE, University of Toronto

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Published

2013-02-15

Issue

Section

Articles