Whose children are they? A transnational minority religious sect and schools as sites of conflict in Canada, 1890–1922 |
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| Authors: | Robyn Sneath |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Education, The University of Oxford, Oxford, UKrobyn.sneath@education.ox.ac.uk |
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| Abstract: | AbstractIn 1874, 6000 Old Colony Mennonites, an ethno-religious minority sect, immigrated to the Canadian prairies from Russia, after negotiating a charter of privileges with the federal government. Chief among these freedoms was the right to educate their children without government interference. Between 1890 and 1922, tensions mounted between the Mennonites and the government over issues related to schooling, culminating in the 1922 exodus to Latin America. Archival evidence – school inspector reports, personal correspondence and German and English-language newspapers – illustrates how a lack of identity with a nation-state rendered government attempts at assimilation through schooling ineffective. The transnational lens elucidates why these Mennonites were not moved by state efforts; their allegiance was to their own community and to the kingdom of God, but not to any particular nation. Successive legislation – the 1890 Schools Act, the 1907 law mandating that the Union Jack flag be flown outside schools, and the School Attendance Act – though not directed solely at the Mennonites, made it harder for them to conduct their schools according to tradition. Schooling served as the primary locus through which their language, religion and worldview were transmitted and these goals often conflicted directly with predominant concepts of education. |
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| Keywords: | Transnational education religion citizenship Mennonites |
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