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Faculty of Graduate Studies

Annilea Dove Purser

  • BA (Brock University, 2023)

Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Arts

Topic

Governing Education, Educating Governance: Negotiating Authority in First Nations Education Governance in BC

Department of Political Science

Date & location

  • Wednesday, August 26, 2026

  • 8:30 A.M.

  • Clearihue Building

  • Room B007

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Kelly Aguirre, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

  • Dr. Lois Harder, Department of Political Science, UVic (Co-Supervisor)

  • Dr. Justin Leifso, Department of Political Science, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

  • Dr. Todd Milford, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Victoria 

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Stan Dosso, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, UVic

     

Abstract

This thesis examines how First Nations education governance is enacted in British Columbia and what governance practices reveal about the tensions between advancing First Nations self-determination and meeting dominant settler-colonial education frameworks. In recent years, BC has seen significant policy developments related to First Nations education jurisdiction which has manifested in relation to First Nations-controlled schools and Indigenous Education Councils (IECs). 

To explore these tensions and the relationship between governance and education, I establish a conceptual framework articulated as the governing education, educating governance paradigm. Governing education refers to the ways settler states use state schooling to produce legitimacy and normalize authority on Indigenous lands. Educating governance refers to the ways First Nations education imperatives enact and reproduce governance in ways that exceed formal state recognition. Through applying this analytical framework to the key sites of First Nations controlled schools and IECs, I argue that BC’s contemporary First Nations education policy landscape simultaneously expands possibilities for First Nations governance while strictly organizing the conditions under which that governance can occur. 

In the case of First Nations-controlled schools, First Nations are constrained by policy manifestations of curriculum equivalency and the “logic of improvement” (Midzain-Gobin, 2025) where First Nations authority is expanded but remains measured against settler-defined standards of education. However, the case of Lalme'Iwesawtexw, Sq'éwqel’s community school, demonstrates that governance is not fully constrained as everyday acts of resurgence (Corntassel, 2017) continue to reproduce Indigenous knowledges and, in turn, governance. 

In the case of IECs, First Nations education governance is constrained by their consultative positioning and lack of formal decision-making power. Nonetheless, using the concepts of (re)mapping (Temin, 2023) and processual governance (Borrows, 2010), I argue that IECs are also expansive sites of First Nations governance as they open space for relationship and process within settler schooling structures. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates that First Nations education governance in BC is both constrained and expansive: settler policy frameworks shape the conditions under which governance is recognizable, yet First Nations governance continues to exist and reproduce in forms that exceed the terms of settler recognition.

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