RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

This study examines the relationship between a student’s ethnic identity and his/her ascription of significance to historical moments in Canada’s past. The project seeks to address the failure of most previous studies to directly invite students to reflect on the relationship between their ethnic identities and their explanations of the historical significance of moments in their nation’s past.

There are two major research questions presented. First, what criteria do students employ to ascribe significance to phenomena in Canada’s past? Secondly, what is the relationship between a student’s ethnic identity and his/her ascription of significance to phenomena (such as people, events, places, etc.) in Canada’s past?

METHODOLOGY:

Research was conducted in three urban secondary schools in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. A total of twenty-six students participated in the study. Most (17) of the participants were born in Canada. Seven of the participants were immigrants to Canada, and two were Aboriginal. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their demographic information and write a paragraph describing their ethnic identity in a way that made sense to them. Then, in small heterogeneous working groups, students completed a “timeline” task. They were asked to select, out of thirty, the ten most significant events in Canadian history. Several group and individual interviews were held focusing on the students’ understandings of how their ethnic identity may have influenced the decisions they made in the timeline task. Grades ten, eleven and twelve social studies teachers in the students’ schools were also asked to provide information in the form of a questionnaire. Questions included the use of teacher and student materials, teaching approaches and activities, and the teachers’ understandings of historical significance.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

This study found that students’ ethnic identities impacted both their decisions about significance and the narrative template they used to locate themselves in the nation’s past. Moreover, the student’s ethnic identity played a central role in determining the shape of the narrative he/she created and the criteria he/she employed to select the events for his/her narrative. Some students self identified in terms of a single ethnic identity whereas others described themselves in terms of multiple ethnic identities. Only two students resisted the category “ethnic,” preferring instead to describe their identities entirely on their own terms. In their interviews and questionnaires, it was quite common for students’ explanations to include multiple types of historical significance. These were contemporary significance, causal significance, pattern significance, symbolic significance and significance for the present-future. Moreover, students employed three different narrative templates to construct the history of Canada: the “Founding of the Nation” narrative, the “Diverse and Harmonious Canada” narrative, and the “Diverse but Conflicted Canada” narrative.

DISCUSSION:

This dissertation addresses significant gaps in the literature on students’ historical understandings surrounding the articulation of ethnicity and diversity in the classroom. It also demonstrates the need for researchers to more directly examine the relationship between students’ ethnic identities and their historical understandings. The study also includes a discussion of the terms “ethnicity,” “ethnic identity,” “historical understanding” and student understandings of “historical significance.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between students’ ethnic identities and their understandings of historical significance, more studies that provoke students to think about such relationships are required. Researchers must also investigate teachers’ understandings of historical significance, including the ways in which identity impacts these understandings. Moreover, an investigation into the relationship between other aspects of one’s identity (e.g., class and gender) and conceptions of historical significance would enrich understandings of the complicated interplay between identity and conceptions of history.