How the acorn unfolds in education: Mapping the legal and normative orders that interact to inform First Nation youths' right to education through legal pluralism and critical legal pluralism

• Main Author: Robinet, Patricia
• Other Authors: Milward, David (Law), Gunn, Brenda (Law) Borrows, John (Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law, University of Victoria Law School)
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: First Nations; Right to Education; Legal Pluralism; Critical Legal Pluralism; Canada
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/33638

The current education mandate for First Nations in Canada has been described as a “inexcusable educational-rights vacuum” for which First Nation students and communities pay a “heavy price”. To better gauge the effectiveness of the current education mandate, this study employed the socio-legal approaches of legal pluralism and critical legal pluralism and found that no participant felt that their right to education was fully actualized. From the perspective of First Nation students, their right to education necessarily includes: adequate funding for post-secondary education, learning from an Indigenized curriculum, and learning in an environment that is free from discrimination and racism. This study also found that the participants of the study situate themselves in a plurality of legal orderings. They draw on Treaties, international human rights laws, and First Nation laws to inform their perceptions on their right to education, even though these legal orderings and laws are not necessarily validated or recognized by Canada through official state law. February 2019