Canada: A Review of Research on Race, Ethnicity and Inequality in Education from 1980 to 2017

Abstract

This article offers a systematic review of sociological research in Canada on the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational inequality between 1980 and 2017. Five major research traditions are identified: (1) Mobility / Meritocracy; (2) Individual Discrimination / Prejudice / Racism; (3) Identity / Values; (4) Aboriginal Education; and (5) Institutional Processes, with the first and last as the most dominant. Much of the research conducted in Canada focuses on explaining ‘underachievement’ in relationship to aboriginal and visible minority students while a growing amount of recent work highlights the production and negotiation of racialized identities and hierarchies through schooling processes. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are common, with qualitative research more prevalent in more recent years. This rich body of research is written in both English and French and developed in a context characterized by a detached relationship between the research community and various levels of government policy. Education is provincially mandated yet the bulk of research funding is federally directed. As a result, provincially-funded research is limited and more often contractually-based while federally-funded studies are abundant yet frequently disconnected from direct policy initiatives. The backdrop of multiculturalism, or interculturalism in Quebec, is an important context to understanding the policy implications of all of this research. Schools are a core institutional venue in which issues of multiculturalism are addressed with some scholars decrying the lack of a more sustained social justice focus in education and others applauding the relative improvement of cultural inclusion policy initiatives.