Abstract
Building upon previous research investigating discourses of legitimation informing restorative justice practices in educational contexts in Canada and the United Kingdom, the current study takes forward the same conceptual and analytic framework to engage a preliminary analysis of legitimation in the narrative of documents and testimonies found within the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015a, 2015b) or TRC. Shared philosophical principles emergent from Indigenous epistemologies are foundational to both restorative justice and truth and reconciliation proceedings and, accordingly, the current study drew upon insights from an original study epistemologically, analytically and methodologically (Clarysse & Moore, 2017). The conceptual framework guiding the analysis is shaped by van Leeuwen’s (2007) framework of four categories for analyzing processes that legitimate social practices in public communication, education, and everyday interaction. Findings indicate unrestricted and extensive use of legitimation within historical discourse related to the residential schooling system disclosed in Canada’s TRC. Subsequent current-day testimonies of the survivors of Canada’s residential schooling system and their ancestors articulate the lived experience and fallout from education related to this historical discourse legitimation. In contrast to text evidence from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a comparative analysis of text samples from contemporary restorative justice policy, law and practice documents found less pointed and more holistic application of discourses of legitimation to convey the merit of restorative justice practices in educational contexts. This study reinforces the important role of educational discourses in shaping critical awareness of discursive patterns of legitimation and the impact of these patterns of communication on notions of holism and community in educational contexts.
Highlights
Restorative justice processes are emergent from the same philosophical base and Indigenous epistemologies as truth and reconciliation processes (Moore, 2003; Tutu, 1999)
The central research question for this study has two parts: (A) What textual evidence of discursive legitimation strategies are documented in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission? (B) How does the textual evidence found in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada compare and contrast with legitimation discourses shaping contemporary restorative justice and peace-building practice discourse for education contexts?
This study contributes to the growing body of literature investigating findings from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015a, 2015b) and restorative justice in education contexts (Clarysse & Moore, 2017)
Summary
Restorative justice processes are emergent from the same philosophical base and Indigenous epistemologies as truth and reconciliation processes (Moore, 2003; Tutu, 1999). Nuanced differences bound by place, culture and context cannot be overlooked (Gabe, 2013), examples of restorative justice proceedings can be found around the globe (Moore, 2017) Exemplars of these processes include the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa, 1999) and, subsequently, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015a, 2015b). During the first years of the last century the architects of Apartied in South Africa turned to Canadian officials to model their legislative process on Canada’s “elaborate system of administration and territorial segregation of an internally colonized Indigenous population” The impetus for the current study is inspired by the statement of Senator Murray Sinclair, Chair of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that “Education has gotten us into this mess, and education will get us out” (as cited in Anderson, 2016: p. 1)
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