Eugenics in the Canadian province of Alberta is often framed as a closed chapter, epitomized by the province’s Sexual Sterilization Act (1929–1972) and the 2,800 people forcibly sterilized under its mandate. These overt acts of state-sanctioned violence exemplify what political geography terms hard power—direct, coercive control over populations. Yet while the explicit mechanisms have ended, the underlying logic of ranking human worth persists in subtler, institutionally embedded forms. Drawing on Critical Disability Studies, educational policy analysis, and Joseph Nye’s hard/soft power framework, this paper examines ability grouping, streaming, and assessment practices in Alberta’s K–12 curriculum as a form of soft-power eugenics. These mechanisms—diagnostic categories, "gifted" programs, individualized education plans, and streaming policies—operate under the guise of support and meritocracy while quietly reproducing structural inequality. They normalize exclusion by framing stratification as neutral, efficient, and evidence-based, obscuring the continuities between past coercion and present-day containment. Foucault’s concept of bio-power helps illuminate this shift: from punishing and excluding to regulating and "optimizing" life, producing compliant and “normal” citizens. By positioning educational stratification within a lineage of eugenic thinking, this paper challenges the assumption that contemporary schooling is free from such legacies. Instead, it argues that unless these soft-power mechanisms are dismantled, Alberta’s education system will continue to determine who thrives and who is quietly left behind—reproducing inequality under the banner of inclusion.

Authors:
Steven Sheppard, University of Calgary, Canada
John Williamson, University of Calgary, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Steven Sheppard is a current doctoral student at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Steven is currently working on his dissertation as it relates to inclusion, sport and disability within the Albertan K- 12 school system

John Williamson, PhD, is an adjunct assistant professor and sessional instructor at the University of Calgary and Diverse Learning Coordinating Teacher at St. Anne Academic Centre. His award-winning work focuses on inclusion.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/W-Williamson

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