Missing, Punishing & Pushing Kids Out: Manitoba Education Policy Enactment and the Marginalization of Indigenous Youth in Child Welfare

Christine Mayor; Samir Hathout; Melanie Janzen

doi:10.14288/ce.v16i2.186873

Missing, Punishing & Pushing Kids Out

Manitoba Education Policy Enactment and the Marginalization of Indigenous Youth in Child Welfare

Authors

Christine Mayor University of Manitoba https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2121-5898
Samir Hathout University of Manitoba
Melanie Janzen University of Manitoba https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2881-3436

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v16i2.186873

Keywords:

child welfare, education, policy enactment, exclusionary discipline, anti-Indigenous racism, settler colonialism, carceral, Manitoba, youth in care, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, MMIWG

Abstract

The intersecting colonial systems of child welfare and education overdetermine experiences of educational exclusion of Indigenous children in Manitoba. A fictionalized case vignette is used to depict how settler colonialism, carcerality, and anti-Indigenous racism play out in the lives of students with child welfare involvement. Using critical thematic analysis, we analyze reports from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth on the lives and deaths of two Indigenous children, focusing on the role of discretionary education policy enactment. Four themes are explored: racist constructions of the “problem child;” use of exclusionary discipline; being missed from and missed at school; and an ethical responsibility to care rooted in the Cree conceptualization of wâhkôhtowin. Last, examples for educators to enact policy differently to better support Indigenous students with child welfare involvement are provided, with a call to educators to center ethical responsibilities of care for children as their primary duty.

Author Biographies

Christine Mayor, University of Manitoba

Christine Mayor (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Inner City Social Work Program at the University of Manitoba, founder of Creative Community Change Research, and is a Research Affiliate at Centre for Human Rights Research. Her interdisciplinary research program focuses on the intersection of trauma, (anti)racism, educational equity, and drama therapy.

Samir Hathout, University of Manitoba

Samir Hathout is a teacher and a PhD student at the University of Manitoba. He teaches at the high school level and often works with children in Child and Family Services that are in our care.

Melanie Janzen, University of Manitoba

Melanie Janzen is a professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the University of Manitoba. Her research explores the inter-related workings of power and discourses, particularly as they relate to the experiences of teachers and the ongoing marginalization of students.

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Published

2025-04-30

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025)

Section

Articles

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