[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-597475-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-597475-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","schools-as-protectorates-stories-two-mikmaq-mothers-tell","Schools as Protectorates: Stories Two Mi’kmaq Mothers Tell","","The paper uses the concept of a “protectorate” to interpret contemporary school landscapes and how educator authority shapes family experience. Drawing on stories shared by two Mi’kmaq mothers, it traces how parents can become marginalized when schools are structured and administered as protectorates. Educators, positioned as holders of superior expert knowledge, make major decisions while parents are guided toward participation in limited, symbolic activities. The analysis challenges whose knowledge counts.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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protectorates”?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It applies Memmi’s protectorate concept to school governance, where educators hold expert authority and shape policies, procedures, and major decisions while parents have limited influence.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How do educator-protectors affect First Nations parents in the school system?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The paper argues that protection plays out more strongly for First Nations parents due to historical, societal, socioeconomic, and political divisions, leading to stronger marginalization of parents’ voices.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What role do Mi’kmaq mothers’ stories play in the argument?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Their experiences reveal narrative threads showing how school structures and administration as protectorates marginalize parents and affect whose knowledge is treated as 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Saskatchewan, and Bill Murphy, Antigonish Education Centre  \nIn 1965, Memmi introduced the concept of a protectorate.―Whenever the  \ncolonizer states, in his language, that the colonized is a weakling, he suggests thereby that this deficiency requires protection. From this comes the concept of a protectorate‖(pp. 147-8) . While this concept is 45 years old, it is an apt metaphor for thinking about current school landscapes, and about how educators are  \npositioned on those landscapes to use their professional knowledge of teaching and learning as protectors of children and parents. We assert that while all parents experience ―protection‖ in their children‘s schools, such protection plays out more strongly with First Nations parents because of historical, societal, socioeconomic, and political divisions (Shields, Bishop, & Mazawi, 2005) . As we inquire into  \nstories two Mi‘kmaq mothers tell of their experiences with teachers and  \nadministrators, we pull forward narrative threads that make visible how parents are marginalized when schools are structured and administered as protectorates.  \nWe invite a reconsideration of who is seen to hold knowledge on school  \nlandscapes and whose knowledge counts.  \nSeeing Schools as Protectorates  \nIn 1965, Memmi introduced the concept of a protectorate.―Whenever the colonizer states, in his language, that the colonized is a weakling, he suggests thereby that this deficiency requires protection. From this comes the concept of a protectorate‖(pp. 147-8) . This concept continues to be poignant. When we use it as a metaphor to think about current school landscapes, we see how educators are positioned to bring their professional knowledge of teaching and learning into a community with the intention of enhancing children‘s education and enhancing  \nparents‘ ability to support their children‘s education. Living within the protectorate structure, educators assume ownership for the school, and establish policies, procedures, and routines forchildren and parents—policies about discipline and homework, procedures for reporting student progress and communicating with parents, routines for the entry and exit of individuals from the school building. Educators determine the school program, including the philosophy to follow, texts and materials to use, groupings of children, and use of physical space. Educators then hold parent and curriculum sessions to orient parents to their way of thinking, to share their knowledge, and to teach parents how to support their children both at school and at home. Wearing a badge of difference–their professional knowledge of teaching and learning–educators act as protectors of parents and children (Memmi, 1965, p. 46) .  \nEducators enter a community with expert knowledge of teaching and learning, which they possess over that of parents. It is this knowledge that positions educators to act as protectors within a protectorate.―It is in the colonized‘s own interest that he be excluded from management functions, and that those heavy responsibilities be reserved for the colonizer‖(Memmi, 1965, pp. 147-8) . In school terms, educators‘ expert knowledge of teaching and learning places them in a superior position over less-knowing parents. Acting as protectors, educators make heavy decisions (Memmi, 1965); they decide about thingssuch as class placements, curriculum, and physical environment with little, if any, input from parents. Parents are invited to participate in light decisions about hot dog days, school t-shirts, and fundraising activities. Further, parents are taught by their protectors how to parent more effectively and how to help their children achieve more in school. Protectors look at schooling through the lenses ofa system, from their vantage point of power, through the structure of the protectorate.  \nThis scripted story of school is an historical one. Educators claim their","cbCaih2MMi7hNqUt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaih2MMi7hNqUt","pdf",280046,22,"English","# Seeing Schools as Protectorates\n## Seeing Schools as Protectorates in Relation to Aboriginal Parents","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper mean by “schools as protectorates”?\",\"answer\":\"It applies Memmi’s protectorate concept to school governance, where educators hold expert authority and shape policies, procedures, and major decisions while parents have limited influence.\"},{\"question\":\"How do educator-protectors affect First Nations parents in the school system?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues that protection plays out more strongly for First Nations parents due to historical, societal, socioeconomic, and political divisions, leading to stronger marginalization of parents’ voices.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do Mi’kmaq mothers’ stories play in the argument?\",\"answer\":\"Their experiences reveal narrative threads showing how school structures and administration as protectorates marginalize parents and affect whose knowledge is treated as valid.\"}]","Schools as Protectorates: Stories Two Mi’kmaq Mothers Tell | PDF",1792085084,55]