Decolonizing the contact hypothesis: A critical interpretation of settler youths’ experiences of immersion in Indigenous communities in Canada


Abstract


This case study explores non-Indigenous youths’ experiences of cultural immersion in Indigenous communities in Canada. This research acknowledges and situates itself in the socio-political context of Aboriginal-Settler relations, drawing upon historical and recent impediments to these relations, with an emphasis on continued colonial injustices to Indigenous communities. As such, a critical post-colonial emancipatory paradigm is adopted in understanding the theoretical framework of the contact hypothesis. In this study, two groups of youth composed of undergraduate university students participated in a series of focus groups and interviews, while keeping journals about their experiences in an Indigenous community-immersion program. Participants’ experiences of immersion benefitted their relationship to Indigenous community through the personal connections they formed with the community and the heightened awareness they developed related to diversity among Indigenous communities and the challenges facing their hosts. Findings suggest potential areas of social intervention that could ameliorate relations and foster intercultural understanding, while also highlighting critical considerations for intercontact theory. Furthermore, it is proposed that the contact hypothesis can, ironically enough, be used to decolonize Canadian youth.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i24212113v1i1p64

Keywords: indigenous immersion, contact hypothesis, intercultural contact

References


Alfred, T. (2009). Colonialism and state dependency. Journal de La Santé Autochtone, 5(2), 42–60.

Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Assembly of First Nations [AFN] (2009). Canadian Indian residential school system. Retrieved April 6, 2013 from http://www.sabresocials.com/norm/Law%2012/Residential%20Schools.pdf

Barker, A. J. (2009). The contemporary reality of Canadian imperialism: Settler colonialism and the hybrid colonial state. The American Indian Quarterly, 33(3), 325-351.

Barlow, F. K., Paolini, S., Pedersen, A., Hornsey, M. J., Radke, H. R., Harwood, J., Rubin, M, & Sibley, C. G. (2012). The contact caveat: Negative contact predicts increased prejudice more than positive contact predicts reduced prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 1629-1643. doi: 10.1177/0146167212457953

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513-531. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.32.7.513

Chui, T. (2013). Immigration and ethnocultural diversity in Canada: National Household Survey, 2011. [Ottawa]: Statistics Canada = Statistique Canada. Retrieved from http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/301/weekly_checklist/2013/internet/w13-19-U-E.html/collections/collection_2013/statcan/CS99-010-2011-1-eng.pdf

Clarke, J., Aiello, O., Chau, K., Atcha, Z., Rashidi, M., & Amaral, S. (2012). Uprooting social work education. Creativity: insights, directions, and possibilities, 6(1), 81-106.

Coates, K. (2004). A global history of Indigenous people: Struggle and Survival. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cole, E.R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American Psychologist, 64(3), 170-180.

Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A.L. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Corbin, J. & Strauss, A.L. (2007). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques, 3rd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cushner, K. (2004). Beyond tourism: A practical guide to meaningful educational travel. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Education.

Cushner, K. & Brislin, R.W. (1996). Intercultural interactions: A practical guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Davis, L. (2010). Alliances: Re/envisioning indigenous-non-indigenous relationships. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Department of Justice Canada (2011). The employment equity act. Accessed July 26 2013. http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-5.401/index.html

Dittmer, L.D., & Riemer, M. (2012). Fostering critical thinking about climate change: Applying community psychology to an environmental education project with youth. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 4(1), 1-9.

Dixon, J., Durrheim, K., & Tredoux, C. (2005). Beyond the optimal contact strategy: A reality check for the contact hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(7), 697-711.

Dovidio, J.F. & Gaertner, S.L. (2000). Aversive racism and selection decisions: 1989 and 1999. Psychological Science, 11(4), 305-319.

Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., & Kawakami, K. (2003). Intergroup contact: The past, present, and the future. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 6(1), 5–21.

Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American post-colonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Ermine, W., Sinclair, R., & Jeffery, B. (2004). The ethics of research

involving Indigenous people. Saskatoon, SK: Indigenous people’ Health Research Centre. Retrieved from http://iphrc.ca/assets/Documents/ethics_review_iphrc.pdf

Evans, M., Hole, R., Berg, L.D., Hutchison, P., & Sookraj, D. (2009). Common insights, differing methodologies: Toward a fusion of Indigenous methodologies, participatory action research, and white studies in urban Aboriginal research agenda. Qualitative Inquiry, 15, 893-910. doi: 10.1177/1077800409333392

Evans-Cambpell, T. (2008). Historical trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(3), 316-338.

Festinger, L. (1957), A theory of cognitive dissonance, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Finchilescu, G.F., & Tredoux, C.G. (2008). Intergroup contact, social context and racial ecology in South Africa. In U. Wagner, L. Tropp, G.F. Finchilescu & C.G. Tredoux (Eds.). Improving intergroup relations: Building on the legacy of T.F. Pettigrew (pp. 179-194). Oxford, England: Blackwell.

Gaertner, S. L., Dovidio, J. F., & Bachman, B. A. (1996). Revisiting the contact hypothesis: The induction of a common ingroup identity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20(3), 271–290.

Glover, M., Dudgeon, P., & Huygens, I. (2010). Colonization and racism. In G. Nelson, & I. Prilleltensky (Eds.). Community psychology: In pursuit of liberation and well-being, 2nd Ed. (pp. 353-370). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Government of Canada. (1985). Indian Act. Ottawa, ON: Minister of Justice. Retrieved March 10, 2013 from http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-5/

Government of Canada (2010). Fact sheet - Urban Aboriginal population in Canada. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100014298/1100100014302

Green, T. (2008). Discomfort at work: Workplace assimilation demands, social equity, and the contact hypothesis. North Carolina Law Review, 86, 379-442. Retrieved April 23 from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1018311

Gyepi-Garbrah, J., Walker, R., & Garcea, J. (2013). Indigeneity, immigrant newcomers and interculturalism in Winnipeg, Canada. Urban Studies, 51, 1795-1811. doi: 10.1177/0042098013502826

Hart, M. A. (2010). Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and research: The development of an Indigenous research paradigm. Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work, 1(1), 1-16.

Hean, S., & Dickinson, C. (2005). The contact hypothesis: An exploration of its further potential in interprofessional education. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 19(5), 480–491. doi:10.1080/13561820500215202

Henry, F., & Tator, C. (2006). The colour of democracy: Racism in Canadian society, 3rd Ed. Toronto, Canada: Nelson.

Kovach, M. (2005). Emerging from the margins: Indigenous methodologies. In L. Brown & S. Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-oppressive approaches (pp. 19-36). Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Maxwell, J. A. (2009). Designing a qualitative study, 2nd Ed. In L. Bickman & D.J. Rog (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of applied social research methods (pp. 214-253). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Nelson, G., & Prilleltensky, I. (2010). Community psychology: In pursuit of liberation and well-being. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

O’Brien Teengs, D., & Travers, R. (2006). River of life, rapids of change: Understanding HIV vulnerability among two-spirited youth who migrate to Toronto. Canadian Journal of Aboriginal Community-based HIV/AIDS Research, 1, 5-28.

Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49(1), 65–85.

Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2005). Allport’s intergroup contact hypothesis: Its history and influence. In J.F. Dovidio, P. Glick, & L. Rudman (Eds.), On the nature of prejudice fifty years after Allport (pp. 262-277). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Pettigrew, T.F., & Tropp, L.R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751–783. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.751

Regan, P. (2010). Unsettling the settler within: Indian residential schools, truth telling, and reconciliation in Canada. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.

Reid, A.D., Teamey, K., & Dillon, J. (2002). Traditional ecological knowledge for learning with sustainability in mind. The Trumpeter Journal of Ecosophy, 18(1), 113-136.

Rigney, L.I. (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous anticolonial cultural critique of research methodologies: A guide to Indigenist research methodology and its principles. Wicazo Sa Review, 14(2), 109-121.

Statistics Canada (2006). Aboriginal Peoples in Canada in 2006: Inuit, Métis and First Nations, 2006 Census: First Nations people. (Cat. No. 97-558-XIE2006001). Ottawa, ON. Retrieved April 6, 2013, from http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-558/p16-eng.cfm

Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33(1), 1-39.

Tamburro, A. (2013). Including decolonization in social work education and practice. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 2(1), 1-16.

Townley, G., Kloos, B., Green, E.P., & Franco, M.M. (2011). Reconcilable differences? Human diversity, cultural relativity, and sense of community. American Journal of Community Psychology, 47, 69-85. doi: 10.1007/s10464-010-9379-9

Tredoux, C., & Finchilescu, G. (2007). The contact hypothesis and intergroup relations 50 years on: Introduction to the special issue. South African Journal of Psychology, 37, 667–678. doi:10.1177/008124630703700401

Uribe, J. (2006). A Study on the Relationship between Canadian Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State. Canadian Foundation for the Americas. Retrieved from http://focal.ca/pdf/Aboriginals_Uribe_Relationship%20Canadian%20Aboriginal%20Peoples%20and%20Canadian%20State_March%202006.pdf

United Nations. (2008). United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. Retrieved April 6, 2013 from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf.

Wesley-Esquimaux, C.C., & Smolewski, M. (2004). Historic trauma and aboriginal healing. Ottawa, Ont: Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Retrieved from http://epub.sub.unihamburg.de/epub/volltexte/2009/2903/

Wright, S. C., Aron, A., McLaughlin-Volpe, T., & Ropp, S. A. (1997). The extended contact effect: Knowledge of cross-group friendships and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 73-90.

Wu, Z., Hou, F., & Schimmele, C. M. (2011). Racial diversity and sense of belonging in urban neighborhoods. City & Community, 10, 373-392. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6040.2011.01374.x

Yin, R. K. (2009). Case-study research: Design and methods, 4th Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.