Community control of education : how the Mohawk community of Kahnawake is reclaiming their schools

This study is an ethnographic exploration of the measures taken by the Mohawk community of Kahnawake to reclaim the education of their youth and of the role that education plays in achieving their self-determination. Through a combination of fieldwork, interviews with teachers, parents, and school administrators, the research is intended to document the challenges that the community faces and the different strategies adopted to overcome them. The legacy of residential schools and the attempt to obliterate Indigenous cultures and languages, continues to keep education and schooling at the centre of Kahnawake's struggle to maximize self-determination. The Kahnawake community continues to define educational curriculum and content. Members express enthusiasm in providing youth with the necessary tools to protect their culture and autonomy by attempting to seek community consensus on curriculum content. Achieving consensus though, can prove difficult as seen by the demise of the Educational Park project. Nonetheless, by examining the Youth Conference and the Entrepreneurial Workshops, this thesis details how Kahnawake schools have been able to respond to the needs of its students. The community's effort to assume control of their education system has created an opportunity to reclaim their history, traditions, and language through a process of decolonization. Through this process, the community is able to assert responsibility for any developments made, which is an essential part of community control of education.