Arthur, Alison Jane. “History Education in Nova Scotia: Purpose and Practice.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:11:26 +0000

Citation:

Arthur, Alison Jane. “History Education in Nova Scotia: Purpose and Practice.” MEd thesis, Acadia University, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the state of history education in southwestern Nova Scotia. There, history courses are being remodeled to fit the learning outcomes model where students must be able to demonstrate certain learning outcomes as designated by the provincial curriculum. Does this rigidity seriously reduce the teacher’s freedom and flexibility in how he or she chooses to conduct history education? Does history lack status compared to other disciplines in the schools and the educational community at large? Is there a common understanding shared by the province, the school board, the teachers, and their students about the value of teaching history? And, in a larger sense, what is the purpose of teaching history?

METHODOLOGY:
The research approach involved two main strategies: participant interviews and a scholarly review of the applicable literature. All student and teacher interview participants were from schools that serve rural areas, as the research focuses on the special circumstances of small rural schools as opposed to larger urban educational settings. The courses examined were Global History and the newly developed set of courses that fulfill the Canadian history graduation requirement. Eleven history teachers in southwestern Nova Scotia were interviewed, approximately fifty per cent of history teachers in that region. Also interviewed were 17 senior high school history students (11 females and 6 males) from a rural high school with an enrollment of approximately 550 students in grades 7 to 12. Two curriculum officials, one at the board level and one from the Nova Scotia Department of Education, were also interviewed.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study finds that the province of Nova Scotia has a well constructed history curriculum. Even with the looming threat of standardized testing, the study found that the curriculum was progressive in its approach, that it allowed a great deal of flexibility for teachers, and that it gave importance to history education. At the classroom level, however, the study found that history education lacked direction and apparent purpose. Many teachers were unclear about the purpose and importance of their craft and as a result, their students were also unclear about the purpose of studying history. Teachers seemed focused on teaching content and failed to see that there is no purpose in such teaching if content is divorced from a meaningful context. This lack of purpose contributed to a preference, at the school level, for the sciences, mathematics and language arts. This was further exacerbated by assigning history course loads to unqualified teachers who did not have a background in history.

DISCUSSION:
This thesis includes a discussion of the relevant literature regarding the purpose of history education, an examination of official provincial documents for history courses taught in Nova Scotia, and recommendations for professional practice and professional development based on findings.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:

This study suggests that teachers be encouraged to bring a community focus to history classes, and to make the lessons of the past immediately relevant to issues and concerns in the lives of their students. It suggests that teachers be given the chance to bring the new history curricula to life in their classrooms, and be exposed to professional development opportunities through in-service or teacher mentor programs. Similarly, it recommends that history become a political study where the issues and concerns that students see in their communities can be brought into sharper focus through historical inquiry.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Barbre, James Orman III. “Powers of Depiction: A Textual Analysis of Secondary-Level History Books Currently in Use in Toronto, Ontario and Stillwater, Oklahoma.” (2006)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:35:28 +0000

Citation:

Barbre, James Orman III. “Powers of Depiction: A Textual Analysis of Secondary-Level History Books Currently in Use in Toronto, Ontario and Stillwater, Oklahoma.” Ph. D. Diss., Oklahoma State University, 2006.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the cultural and national assumptions that find their way into classrooms through the texts that are used. How do Canada and the United States represent themselves in history textbooks? How do they represent their interaction with each other, both historically and currently? By approaching this topic through the examination of textbooks from two countries that share a profoundly common heritage, the author hopes to contribute to a future framework of analysis for examining other countries that do not have such a common heritage and perhaps not so friendly a set of relationships.

METHODOLOGY:
Discourse analysis is used to examine how Canada and the United States represent their interactions and experiences with each other, and so themselves, by emphasizing particular events and their outcomes. Four textbooks, two from Canada and two from the United States, were chosen because of their emphasis on national character though the teaching of each nation’s history. From the United States, two 11th and 12th grade textbooks from Stillwater, Oklahoma were analyzed: America: Pathways to the Present, and Making America: A History of the United States. Two textbooks from Toronto, Canada were also analyzed: the grade 10 text Canada: A Nation Unfolding (Ontario edition) and the grade 12 text Defining Canada: History, Identity and Culture.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
While each country covered its own history in seemingly great detail, there were omissions from the greater historical account of interaction between the two nations. One indicator of omission was the extent to which the Canadian texts included influences from United States in the shaping of Canadian written history, and the extent to which the United States textbooks did not include Canada. Regardless of the exact historical accuracy of the accounts for both countries, Canadian history books were consistent in presenting the United States in negative terms when discussing national expansion, military conflict, economic activity, Canadian national identity, communications and entertainment, and the environment. While the American texts did not include as much information or references relating to Canada as the Canadian texts did for the U.S., the references included were overwhelmingly positive or neutral and served to reinforce the historical tale of the United States.

DISCUSSION:
This study provides an overview of scholarly literature as it relates to nationalism, civics education, and the presence of economic interaction between Canada and the United States. It also discusses the contextual background of textbook production, the importance of text, and the importance of civics education in both countries. The analysis of the textbooks was divided into the following major themes: considerations for civics education and economic reality; the rule of ownership and nationalism; orientation of the texts; economic interaction between the nations; military conflict; and the importance of omission or dilution.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
A useful extension of this study would be to analyze history texts from different countries that share relations, such as Mexico and the United States, Poland and Germany, the island country of Cyprus, Israel and Syria, and Iraq and Iran. This would provide a useful litmus test to gauge how civics education is used to reinforce a particular civic orientation as it is taught by the schools. Staying within the confines of the nation-state, one could examine the attitudes of members of minority groups who take the same mainstream history courses as other students. Similarly, one could evaluate the compatibility of the civics education that students received in their schooling with the experiences they have once they leave the education system.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Barton, Keith C. “Historical Understanding among Elementary Children.” (1994)

viviane gosselin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:23:39 +0000

Citation:

Barton, Keith C. “Historical Understanding among Elementary Children.” PhD diss., University of Kentucky, 1994.

Abstract/Summary:

This study examined the historical understanding of students in two elementary classrooms; the purpose of the project was to the investigate the kinds of knowledge students had about history, the way they thought about the topic, the social context in which their understanding had developed, and the way they approached new historical information. The researcher collaborated with the teachers of a fourth-grade and a combined fourth- and fifth-grade classroom to plan and implement history instruction which focused on active student involvement. Data was collected through approximately ninety hours of participant observation, thirty-three open-ended interviews with twenty-nine different students, and the analysis of 278 written compositions produced as part of classroom assignments. Students began the year with a great deal of information about the past, but most of their knowledge centered on aspects of everyday life, rather than the political and diplomatic history that forms the core of most textbooks and curricula. Students had developed their previous historical understanding not primarily from school instruction but from the media and from interactions with relatives. Although students understood some aspects of the interpretive nature of history, they did not fully appreciate the role of evidence in the creation of historical accounts. Students also overnarrativized their historical knowledge: they simplified history into a story of limited temporal and spatial dimensions, and thought of historical development as proceeding in a simple, linear fashion as the result of human rationality. Students also explained historical events in terms of the attitudes and intentions of individuals, and did not understand the role of political or economic institutions in history. Students quickly began to see how the beliefs and attitudes of people in the past were different, but had less insight into why those ideas were different or why they changed over time. This study suggests that instead of ignoring prior historical understanding, instruction at school should build upon the knowledge students bring with them, help students extend and refine their understanding of the nature and purpose of history, and attempt to expand and diversify their perception of change over time.

Source/Credit:

Hong Kong University Library

Briscoe, Angela. “Representations of Mohawk & Native Histories in High School Textbooks: A Comparative Analysis of English-Language & Mohawk Textbooks in Quebec.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:38:15 +0000

Citation:

Briscoe, Angela. “Representations of Mohawk & Native Histories in High School Textbooks: A Comparative Analysis of English-Language & Mohawk Textbooks in Quebec.” M.A. Thesis, Concordia University, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study begins with the premise that history education is particularly important to the reclamation of cultures, heritages, and histories by the Native peoples of Canada because the subject aims to teach students about where their ancestors have come from. This, in turn, conditions the reaim of possibilities that students can envision for the future. The overall aim of this research is to identify and articulate some of the differences between Native and western approaches to studying and teaching history. This thesis asks four central questions: What discourses are used to teach Mohawk youth about historical events? What are the main characteristics and principles of the historical discourses presented in the Mohawk text? Are those discourses also represented in the English-language history textbook for Quebec high schools? And, finally, how might changes be made to the content of the English-language provincial textbook to include Mohawk self-representations of their communities’ histories?

METHODOLOGY:
The research approach used in this study draws heavily from developments in action and community-based research methods, and employs a theoretical and conceptual approach that aims to reflect the interests and concerns of Native people. Proceeding from the assumption that multiple histories exist and are taught to young people to instill in them an appreciation of their political and cultural heritage, the design for this research aims to describe and interpret Mohawk historical discourses as represented in the social studies text Seven Generations. The English language text approved for Quebec’s History 414, Diverse Pasts, was also analyzed to compare Mohawk and ‘mainstream’ representations of key events, concepts, and issues. The provincial textbook analysis is used as a point of contrast which serves to highlight those characteristics that are most distinctive about Mohawk self-representation. This analysis is also influenced by key informant interviews with Mohawk people specializing in the fields of history and education.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This analysis found that the Mohawk discourses presented in Seven Generations affirm, explain and argue the legitimacy of Mohawk claims to sovereignty and territory. The discourses presented in Diverse Pasts, on the other hand, are ambivalent in their representations of Mohawk claims to sovereignty and territory, and generally omit critical discussions of Mohawk claims and issues related to colonization. Seven Generations contributes to the national identity and culture of Mohawk students through the reiteration of principles of world view, sovereignty, and territorial claims. However, the language used in Diverse Pasts presents Native people generally as “Other” and contributes to the identify formation of those Quebecois students who identify with a European-Canadian subject position. Therefore, discourses in Diverse Pasts and Seven Generations reveal a dichotomy between representations of the Iroquois and Mohawk as distinct, autonomous and diverse nations and representations of Native peoples as a homogeneous group with tenuous claims to self-determination and dismissible claims to territory. The author concludes that the representations of native peoples in both texts are examples of the dividing practices described by Foucault (1983), wherein discourses mediate knowledge of ourselves and others through polarized understandings of groups.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes discussions of the following topics: residential schooling and policies of assimilation; textbook representations of “Indians”; literature in the field of multi-cultural education and curriculum development concerning race-, class-, and gender-based inequalities; the processes of knowledge production and reproduction of social inequalities; history and multi-cultural education in Quebec; and indigenous critiques of historiography.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
An important area for future research would be to consider how discourses communicated in history curriculum, including classroom teaching and textbooks, shape young peoples’ awareness and understandings, if at all, of contemporary social and political issues. Further research on the consumption of discourses by high school students could also be used to expand our understanding of the role and relative importance of textbook content for the formation of young peoples’ political awareness and engagement. This study also suggests further research concerning the role of history education in shaping young peoples’ sense of citizenship and national identity.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Broom, Catherine Anne. “Historical Study of Citizenship Education in British Columbian Social Studies Guides.” (2007)

ulrike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:08:01 +0000

Citation:

Broom, Catherine Anne. “Historical Study of Citizenship Education in British Columbian Social Studies Guides.” PhD. Diss., Simon Fraser University, 2007.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

This study focuses on conceptualizations of “good citizens” in British Columbia’s Social Studies curricula over the course of the 20^th century. Three key questions guided the study: (1) How was citizenship defined in the 1916 American report which created Social Studies, and what pedagogical strategies were recommended to achieve it? (2) How did each of the major revisions of British Columbia’s Ministry of Education’s Social Studies curricula in 1985, 1997 and 2005 affect the conceptualization of citizenship and the recommended teaching methods? (3) Having identified the two most significant conceptual shifts in citizenship education in British Columbia’s Social Studies curriculum guides, what possible factors may have influenced these shifts in conceptualization and pedagogy?

METHODOLOGY:

The research is based on three major components: a literature review, historical document content analysis and interpretation. The primary methodological focus rests on ideas of power and knowledge, as well as the connections between politics and curriculum guides. The documents analyzed comprised Social Studies revisions made into the 21^st century in 1985, 1997 and 2005. Findings are then compared to programs for citizen education outlined by Osborne (1996), Sears and Hughes (1996), and Evans (2004). Other Ministry-related documents were examined, including Ministry school reports, Royal Commission reports and several educational journals.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

This study finds that the curriculum guides implemented some fundamental shifts in how schooling was articulated, based in progressive philosophy, including a student-centered approach to education; new middle schools; the removal of Grade 8 exams and the implementation of a common program; and health, physical exercise, and library studies. However, these philosophic changes did not fundamentally reformulate the manner in which curricula were conceptualized or presented, nor did it change conceptualizations of good citizens. While the conceptualization of the purpose of civic education (to make “good citizens”) and the qualities of good citizens in government programs did not drastically change from earlier programs, the recommended pedagogy did, switching from a progressive-based philosophy to a “structure of disciplines” approach in the 1960s. Moreover, this study suggests that philosophy, supported by public intellectuals and nurtured in public dialogue, has the power to transform curricula if not actual teaching practice.

DISCUSSION:

This study includes a discussion of citizenship education, philosophy of history, the history of Social Sciences in the BC curriculum, and conceptualizations of “good citizens.”

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:

Future work could explore the connections between the findings of this research and social inequities. For example, how do early curriculum guides compare to later ones in their references to western culture and multiculturalism? The study also suggests that a new philosophy is needed in Social Studies education, and research discerning the nature and practice of this new pedagogy is warranted.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Chana, Tejwant K. “Intercultural Discourse Among White and Non-White Youth in Multi- Racial and Multi-Cultural Canada.” (2002)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:40:27 +0000

Citation:

Chana, Tejwant K. “Intercultural Discourse Among White and Non-White Youth in Multi-Racial and Multi-Cultural Canada.” M. Ed. Thesis, University of Alberta, 2002.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This research study investigates the contemporary perceptions, knowledge, and experience of grade 12 students regarding “racial” and cultural diversity within Canadian society upon the immediate completion of public high school. The purpose of conducting this research was to gain a grounded understanding, through the youths’ voices, of their views of Canadian society, the realities surrounding “racial” and cultural identities as experienced by young people in a pluralistic school environment, and lastly the role of education in preparing multicultural citizens.

METHODOLOGY:
Data collection occurred over three phases: first, a survey questionnaire was administered to a total of forty-one grade 12 students (thirty-four were white and seven were non-white); second, a series of school and classroom observations were conducted; and third, in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of ten students. The participants all attended a local public high school in Edmonton, Alberta, and were intentionally chosen as part of the study’s objective to investigate the knowledge, perceptions and experiences of students regarding “race” relations upon the immediate completion of high school. Ten students were then selected for the interviews from the larger group solely on the basis of race; five were white and five non-white.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
Based on the students’ responses from the survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews, the author concluded that students, white and non-white, who are publicly educated in Alberta are not equipped with an adequate conceptual framework around the areas of “race,” culture, and ethnicity; nor are they equipped for peaceful participation in a multi-racial and multi-cultural infrastructure. Students identified their present views as stemming primarily from their understanding of Canadian history as it was taught to them in school. All of the students deemed Canada and Canadians to be synonymous with “white;” non-whites were perceived as immigrants with fixed cultural traits irrespective of the number of years in Canada or if they were born in or raised in Canada. Non-white students found the curriculum to be alienating as the content taught did not reflect their ethnocultural backgrounds and histories both within Canada and abroad, as it did with their white peers.

DISCUSSION:
Discussion topics include: the theoretical origins of racism; the historical roots of international colonialism; modern Canada’s historical roots of racism; how the Canadian educational system is “managing” the increased “racial” and cultural diversity in Canada; Canada’s present post-colonial social context; the definitions of “race,” ethnicity and culture; Canadian history and perceptions of Canada’s present societal context; the presence of “others(s)” in Canadian History; “Canadian” identity; and the relationship between curriculum and cultural representations.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
When asked if students would like to learn about other cultures, a significant majority of the students (white and non-white) answered “yes.” Because the students themselves juxtaposed history with their present understanding of Canada, the study presents recommendations for revisions to the Alberta Curriculum to provide an inclusive framework of Canada’s history and development. Also, the study recommends the creation of a course or unit focusing on cultural diversity to help provide students with both the conceptual and practical tools to address and engage in issues related to racism and inequity. Further research is suggested to address questions such as how female students cope with racism, especially as it relates to findings concerning the relationship between racism and violence in males; and how perceptions of “race,” gender and culture intersect with one another.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Chowen, Brent William. “Teaching Historical Thinking: What Happened in a Secondary School World History Classroom.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:24:26 +0000

Citation:

Chowen, Brent William. “Teaching Historical Thinking: What Happened in a Secondary School World History Classroom.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study was designed to examine the results of teaching students to use historical thinking and higher-level thinking skills in a secondary school world history classroom in suburban Texas.

METHODOLOGY:
Using an interpretivist framework, this study examined a variety of sources (lesson activities, instructional methods, student questionnaires, student interviews, think-aloud sessions and classroom discussions) in an effort to determine the extent and nature of historical thinking that occurred during the second semester of a year-long world history course. Historical thinking is generally defined as a process of using historical information, such as deciphering context, perspective, point of view, and perceived facts, to understand the past. Data were collected in the classroom of the researcher, positioning the teacher as both participant and researcher. The study was conducted in a suburban high school district in Texas adjacent to a major city in a large metropolitan area. The course was Pre-AP world history and enrolled twenty tenth-grade students (twelve female and eight male students).

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
Interpretations of the data revealed that students exhibited signs of historical thinking and critical thinking skills in guided classroom discussions and activities. Students expressed that they felt most comfortable and successful during classroom activities where the teacher guided them through the processes of historical thinking. Several times during class discussions, when presented with guided questions, students exhibited higher level thinking skills. Although students often skimmed documents or misread them, class discussions showed that with guidance, students could develop the ability to look at critical factors to assess the reliability of primary source documents. However, independent student work showed a decrease in the signs of historical thinking. In written assignments, students did not generally use the information gathered through class discussions and activities to develop historical arguments. Students appeared unable, or unwilling, to reference or cite documents outside of their textbooks and instead preferred to make general statements about people or the past without providing any evidence to support their claims.

Students’ efforts in both written surveys and class discussions also revealed a perceived disconnect between their work and the work of professional historians. Based on individual written survey responses and group class discussions, students displayed the belief that a historian is a career professional who studies history professionally and publishes within that field. Following this line of reasoning, the tenth-grade students in this study did not identify the skills they used in classroom work as those used by professional historians.

DISCUSSION:
The study includes a discussion of the role of history in the U.S. school curriculum, and a summary of research in history education. Also discussed is the movement towards historical thinking and its role in the classroom, teacher preparation, and the impact of testing on students and curriculum.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
Students are not professional historians. However, the practice of teaching students to think like historians implies that students and historians can find common ground. If students consistently view historians as professionals with no connections to students, students will continue to view historians’ skills as unattainable and useless in practical situations. What appeared to be lacking in students’ responses was the connection between their work with documents and the concepts of historical thinking. Students also failed to understand the connection between historical thinking and their own skill level working with documents. Future study could explore why students fail to utilize primary source documents in essays or how history education practices could be tailored towards connecting historical thinking in the classroom with the role of the historian. Research is also needed to determine why some students choose not to actively participate in class. Interviews with these students may help researchers determine whether these students choose not to participate due to a lack of understanding, or whether other factors are present that influence their decisions. Examples of these factors include the influence of gender roles, racial diversity, student personality, or past experiences with teachers or history. This type of study would also help teachers to determine how best to engage and assist students who choose not to participate before proceeding with the activity.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Clark, Penney Irene. “Take it away, Youth! Visions of Canadian Identity in British Columbia Social Studies Textbooks, 1925 – 1989.” (1995)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:44:40 +0000

Citation:

Clark, Penney Irene. “Take it away, Youth! Visions of Canadian Identity in British Columbia Social Studies Textbooks, 1925 – 1989.” Ph.D. Diss., The University of British Columbia, 1995.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This dissertation examines the way British Columbia social studies textbooks have portrayed particular world views and perspectives over time, both by what they include and what is omitted. This study considers the conception of the ideal Canadian in the texts in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, class, age, disability and how the texts identify and teach civic values. The study also looks at the conception of Canada as a nation inherent in the texts, specifically in terms of conflict and cooperation in Canada’s past and present; Canada’s relationship with Great Britain and the United States and the accomplishments and qualities in which Canadians take pride. It also considers the conception of the student reader, primarily through an examination of pedagogical approaches employed.

METHODOLOGY:
This study is a qualitative analysis of 169 textbooks approved by the British Columbia Department of Education for use with British Columbia elementary and secondary social studies curricula in three periods between 1925 and 1989: 1925-1939, 1960-1975, and 1970-1989. These periods correspond to three educational turning points: the 1925 Putman-Weir Report, the 1960 Chant Report, and the 1970 establishment of the Canada Studies Foundation. Social studies textbooks were selected for study because this curricular area has been generally recognized as having “good citizenship” as its ultimate goal. The texts were examined in the context of social, economic, political and educational events in each period.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
In the Putman-Weir era, Canadian identity involved a sense of increasing independence within an enveloping allegiance to Great Britain and its empire. Textbooks encouraged the adoption of characteristics of good citizenship such as loyalty to country and empire through the use of heroic figures. The concept of Canadian identity was both inclusive and exclusive. It was a gendered concept, excluding women. It was inclusive of most immigrants because they were needed to people the land. It was exclusive of Asian immigrants because they were viewed as unable to assimilate. It also excluded Native people, who were seen as being unable to contribute to national progress. In the Chant era, Canada’s independence from Great Britain began to be taken for granted. Textbooks were more concerned with Canada’s relationship to the United States and its role on the world stage. Textbook authors saw a thriving anti-Americanism as an important part of what made Canadians Canadian. “Canadianness” included women only in peripheral roles. Most immigrants received a joyous welcome in these texts. These “new Canadians” were expected to contribute to the ongoing tide of progress in which Canadians were engaged. A negative tone pervaded discussion of Native peoples. The Canada Studies era was characterized by two dominant movements. These were promotion of Canadian nationhood and a greater inclusiveness. Ironically, pride in Canada, as well as optimism for its future, was less evident in the Canada Studies era texts. Inclusion was the watchword of this era.

DISCUSSION:
This study demonstrates the value of the textbook as cultural artifact. The text is an important historical data source because it provides evidence of world views deemed suitable to place before students.

The study supports George Tomkins’ theme of stability and change. Stability is reflected in the view that the purpose of social studies is citizenship education. What has changed is the degree to which the concept of Canadian identity has become one of inclusion rather than exclusion and the way in which citizenship education is interpreted in the textbooks. With respect to the conception of Canada as a nation, this study supports other findings that a consensus version of Canadian history is presented in the texts. Conflict, except for high profile incidents (such as the Riel resistances) is glossed over. This study also found that texts in the Canada Studies era were much more bland than previous texts due to the presence of an ‘omnipotent narrator’ and resistance to making what could be construed as negative statements about certain groups of people.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study calls for changes in the nature of textbook narratives. Textbook authors, for example, might include themselves in the narrative by describing their own perspectives on historical events, allowing student readers better opportunities for engagement with text content. Textbooks should also aim, Clark concludes, to present events as the result of choices made by fallible human beings, rather than “inevitable” occurrences. Student activities could be provided which assist students to consider possible consequences if different decisions had been made at key historical turning points.

In terms of implications for pedagogy, the thesis makes the point that teachers need to take up the task of tearing down the edifice of truth as represented by textbooks and assist students to learn to probe beneath the surface of textbook discourse for the latent messages they deliver.

Source/Credit:

Penney Clark

Cooke-Sawyer, Sheryl. “Gender bias and sex role stereotyping in grade seven history textbooks.” (1998)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:46:36 +0000

Citation:

Cooke-Sawyer, Sheryl. “Gender bias and sex role stereotyping in grade seven history textbooks.” M. Ed. Thesis, The University of Western Ontario, 1998.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The problem of gender bias and sex role stereotyping in learning materials serve as a backdrop for the author’s principle thesis question: to what extent is gender bias and sex role stereotyping present in texts used to teach History in Ontario schools?

METHODOLOGY:
This study analyzed three textbooks available to grade seven classes in one urban southwestern Ontario school board: Origins: A History of Canada; Community Canada, and Canada: Years of Challenge to 1814. The analysis involved numerical counts of photographs and illustrations in which women and men appear together and separately; an assessment of the type and breadth of historical fields presented in the narrative (for example, economic, political, cultural and social history); the number of references to women; the presentation of women and their activities; and an examination of language and neutrality. Suggested activities and exercises were also reviewed to see if students were encouraged to contemplate other points of view.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study demonstrates that gender bias and sex role stereotyping do continue to be present in at least three textbooks used to support grade seven History programs. Within these books, gender bias is present in the form of exclusion as the contributions of girls and women to the development of Canada are largely ignored and the majority of content is dominated by males. When females are included, it is often in stereotypical nurturing and housekeeping roles while males are frequently shown as political figures, explorers, and discoverers. Students who use these books are exposed to such images of males and females without any necessary discussion about the lack of female presence or the representation of the people who are depicted. Cooke-Sawyer argues that the imbalance of females and males and the incomplete portrayal of both sexes in textbooks could result in the perpetuation of sex role stereotypes and gender biases which may negatively affect the development of a student’s self-concept.

DISCUSSION:
This study provides a brief overview of gender bias and sex role stereotyping in society, the role of girls and women in society, and an investigation of these issues within the Ontario education system. Also discussed are the roles of teachers and textbooks in the classroom, and the rationale for teaching history in schools.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
The textbooks that are analyzed in this study are limited to three. A logical extension would be to expand the research to include all grade seven texts used by the Board of Education in Ontario and nation-wide. Future studies could also aim to record the thoughts and opinions of students, particularly girls, who are exposed to textbooks that are gender-biased, and how they related to the opinions of students whose textbooks are more gender-balanced.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Cutrara, Samantha. “Historic Space: A Transformative Model of History Education.” (2007)

ulrike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:10:59 +0000

Citation:

Cutrara, Samantha. “Historic Space: A Transformative Model of History Education.” M.A. thesis, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 2007.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

This study examines the popular version of national history that students are exposed to in Canadian schools. It addresses two overarching issues: Do students think about history conceptually and spatially and if they do, can this conceptual thinking be harnessed to produce an analytical understanding of historical (re)presentation? The study further seeks to test the applicability of “Historic Space,” a model of history education that aims to reconcile traditional, linear, national history and feminist tools of analysis and deconstruction, within the schools. Historic Space encourages students to challenge representations within historical timelines and ask questions such as: Why are these particular stories important for understanding the nation? According to whom? Who and what are included? What roles do they play? Who and what are left out? Why?

METHODOLOGY:

During February and March of 2007, eleven students in total were interviewed, nine girls and two boys. Posters were placed in Toronto-area local libraries and recruitment letters were distributed to recruit the participants, upper-level high school students who had completed the mandatory class “Canadian History Since World War I.” With the consent of their parents, students completed two, sixty- to ninety-minute interviews with a friend of their choosing. The two interviews were split into five sections and based on Hilda Taba’s Concept Formation strategy. The first section explored the students’ relationship to history: Did they like it? Did they pursue history outside of school or do well in the grade 10 course? The second, third and fourth interview sections were based on instructional learning strategies like primary source investigation that formed a base to evaluate whether students were able to think of history spatially, and how students interpreted ‘alternative’ histories.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

This study found that students do think of history as a collection of concepts within abstract space. Based on student interviews, this study concludes that the static tools used to teach Canadian history and the lack of questions asked of it render it dull and obsolete in the lives of Canadian youth. The research found that after the introduction of conceptual learning strategies students became progressively active and comfortable in constructing their own understandings of history through strategies such as Taba’s Concept Formation strategy, Tony Buzan’s Mind Map, Joseph Novak’s Concept Map, and primary source investigation. Mind mapping, specifically, was found to be an essential first step in allowing students to become comfortable with mapping history and making connections between concepts (such as gender, race and class) previously seen as unrelated. Thus, Historic Space is identified as a transformative model of history education that allows students to look for, think about, and construct the rules of history.

DISCUSSION:

This study includes a discussion of feminist theory, relevant literature on instructional approaches to history education including historical mapping, and the use of primary sources in history education.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:

Although this research concluded students responded to conceptual learning strategies in history education, it also recognized that an intersectional discussion of race, class and gender needs to be introduced throughout many levels of curricula before students can be comfortable understanding and using Historical Space. Therefore, future research is needed to explore this multi-layered introduction into the curricula to facilitate a transformative experience in history education.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Dennis, Erica. “The Experiences of Black High School Girls in the Toronto Education System: A Race, Class and Gender Analysis.” (2003)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:48:28 +0000

Citation:

Dennis, Erica. “The Experiences of Black High School Girls in the Toronto Education System: A Race, Class and Gender Analysis.” M.A. Thesis, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 2003.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The purpose of this study is to critically examine the experiences of Black high school girls in the Toronto educational system with respect to issues of racism, sexism and class inequality. It will also explore whether and/or to what degree implementing alternative versions of schooling for these girls can lead to different outcomes not only in their education, but in their whole lives. What type of education did they receive? What were the teachers’ attitudes to Black girls? How did their race, gender and class affect their gaining a meaningful education?

METHODOLOGY:
Two sources of data are used for this research. Data was first collected from a review of literature that speaks to the experiences of Black students in general and Black female high school students in particular. Common themes from this literature review were also identified and examined. The second source of data is from the Self; that is, an account of the author’s lived realities in high school and the tremendous challenges she faced. Overall, the data collection and analytical stages will include not only reflection and analysis, but also reinvention and discovery of the personal self.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
The education system is still a powerful bastion of racism, sexism and classism. It is partly through the activities of schools that the reproduction of racism and sexism is confirmed. Black women are not regarded as playing a special and specific part in the schools and in the curriculum; instead, it is as if they do not exist. It is assumed that the experiences of White males are general to other sectors of the population. Another way in which invisibility is illustrated, aside from simply disregarding Black women, is the production of interpretation and explanation from a White male viewpoint as if it is the only legitimate stance. This study also finds that the curriculum is discriminatory by providing Blacks with few role models and failing to mention the contributions that Blacks have made to Canadian society.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: a herstorical perspective of Black women in Canada; a review of relevant literature concerning the educational experiences of Black women; teachers attitudes towards Black students; the relationship between curriculum and representation; and personal reflections from a critical anti-racist and Black feminist standpoint.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
Students do not enter schools as generic, disembodied youths. Questions of racial identity are real, and race is a significant part of a student’s identity. The education system needs to take on an anti-racist discursive framework as well as a Black feminist framework to better address the needs of Black females, who are presently made to feel inferior and devalued due to their race, gender and class. This has to be done from a critical non-European framework, and teachers can play their part by promoting ways of knowing and behaving that may not be considered in the mainstream curricula.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Dion, Susan. “Braiding Histories: Responding to the Problematics of Canadians Hearing First Nations Post-Contact Experiences.” (2002)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:26:35 +0000

Citation:

Dion, Susan. “Braiding Histories: Responding to the Problematics of Canadians Hearing First Nations Post-Contact Experiences.” PhD diss., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 2002.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This research project was initiated by an unwillingness to accept as “natural” the knowledge and truth about Aboriginal people conferred by dominant society and a desire to accomplish change in the “ways of knowing” about Aboriginal people in the schools.

METHODOLOGY:
The Braiding Histories project has two central strands and is intricately connected with a writing project entitled Braiding Histories: Learning from the Life Stories of First Nations People. The first part of this project includes the Braiding Histories stories and an analysis of the writing of the stories themselves. These stories are meant to respond to the need for “tellings” that will disrupt the “taken for granted ways of knowing” about First Nations people that are produced and reproduced by the school curriculum. The second strand is an empirical study, utilizing questions initiated by post-structural theory, that involves an investigation of how texts that detail post-contact history get taken up in the classroom. Working with three intermediate teachers in Ontario and using the Braiding Histories stories as a starting point, the author explores how non-Aboriginal teachers, working with predominately non-Aboriginal students, comprehend and make use of their stories. Data were gathered through three main processes: initial interviews with teachers, a series of three planning sessions prior to teaching the stories and a fourth at the conclusion of the project, and classroom audio recordings and samples of student work.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
The prevailing classroom discourses that dominate teachers’ approaches to First Nations subject material continue to perpetuate an understanding of Aboriginal people as “Romantic Mythical Other.” The study found that teacher concerns with “teaching well” and “taking care” of the needs of their students contributed to an emphasis on attention to historical details, without attending to the context or significance of those details. This study also finds that the teachers studied were able to structure students’ engagement with the Braiding Histories stories in ways that were framed by their existing scaffolding. Rather than disrupt, the text was used in ways to reproduce existing ways of knowing about the relationship between Aboriginal people and other Canadians.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of “historical amnesia” in the classroom; Aboriginal representation and the Ontario School Curriculum; “dangerous memories” and schools as a critical site for learning; prevailing classroom discourses; multiculturalism and the People of Native Ancestry documents; anti-racist education and the 1991 Native Studies Guide; critical pedagogy; decolonizing education; and the concept of voice. The project also deals with difficult learning, notions of telling and (re)telling stories, the difficulties and questions associated with retelling, teaching and responsibility, and empathy and the history classroom.

IMPLICATIONS OF FUTURE RESEARCH:
Given the findings concerning the scaffolding that structures teachers’ approaches to the stories, is it possible to work with teachers to investigate and explore the scaffolding that structures their work? Is it possible to dismantle and reconstruct a scaffolding that would serve transformative practice? One approach might be to prepare a Protocol for Teachers to use with the Braiding Histories stories that would provide teachers with adequate support for sharing the stories with their students in a way that does not do violence to the hope of changing “ways of knowing.” Concerning implications in the classroom, how do teachers define learning? How are their expectations of themselves as teachers implicated in their classroom practice?

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Donato, Ines. “Portraying women: Government education documents and history textbooks of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.” (2002)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:52:03 +0000

Citation:

Donato, Ines. “Portraying women: Government education documents and history textbooks of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.” M.Ed. Thesis, York University, 2002.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
Focusing on the way women are portrayed in grades 7 and 8 textbooks throughout three decades (1970s, 1980s and 1990s), this study has three central goals: to investigate the portrayal of women in grade 7 and 8 history texts used in the last three decades; to explore the roles played by board and government personnel in textbook production, particularly with respect to gender representation; and to contribute to the study of pedagogical practices by comparing the Ministry of Education’s and York Catholic District School Board’s policies on Gender Equity and Curriculum over three decades in relation to textbooks.

METHODOLOGY:
Using feminist theory and textual analysis as a theoretical framework, three themes are explored across intermediate textbooks: Native Peoples, the Fur Trade, and the settlement of New France. One textbook from each decade was analyzed: Canada: Colony to Centennial (1970); Discovering Canada: Settling a Land (1982); and Canada Through Time Book One (1992). In analyzing content, data was collected on gender representation on each topic and within each text. The work is based on representation (photographs, drawings/sketches, tables and graphs), historical events (mainly through prose written about each topic or subtopic, as well as poetry, letters, and diaries that were included within the text) and values and beliefs (either subtly incorporated into the text or interpreted by the reader). These portrayals of females are analyzed in relation to provincial and federal government documents and school board (York Catholic District School Board) policies.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
Although education has undergone significant changes within the three decades in question, traditional images of women evident in the 1970 text continued to be vividly present in the 1992 text as well as in the 2000 textbook Canada: The Story of Our Heritage currently being used by many Ontario students and teachers. There is an obvious gap between the proposals and promises of documents and policies and the actual content of textbooks. Native females and other women during the period of the fur trade and French settlement were largely absent from the textbook and there have been few progressive changes. Women are still largely invisible in the making of history: they are portrayed as helpmates, maternal care givers and moral pillars. Although these are roles that women have held in history, curriculum has fallen short in demonstrating the value and significance of these roles and in showing other roles women have played in the making of Canadian history.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of the relationship between knowledge and text, and between feminist theory and education; it also includes an overview of Ontario government and York Region School Board education policies during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
How do educators put a halt to perpetuating inequitable curriculum? It is proposed that texts be written by and reviewed by a wider cross-section of Canadians and that Native people be included in the writing process. Why couldn’t intermediate students also be asked to review sections of a textbook since they are the primary audience for these texts? The hopeful future for the education of girls and boys lies in valuing all males’ and females’ experiences. This can only be accomplished in its entirety by giving a greater voice in history textbooks to females who, like their male counterparts, contributed to the making of the history of Canada.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Donnelly, Debra J. “Adventures in Flawed Time Machines: Feature Films, Teacher Pedagogy and Deep Historical Understanding.” (2012)

ulrike — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 18:48:25 +0000

Citation:

Donnelly, Debra J. “Adventures in Flawed Time Machines: Feature Films, Teacher Pedagogy and Deep Historical Understanding.” PhD diss., Monash University, 2012.

Abstract/Summary:

Debra J. Donnelly’s dissertation introduces an Australian voice and perspective into the scholarly discourse in the new area of history education and film. The research project outlined in this dissertation explores the relationship between the use of historical feature film in the secondary history classroom in Australia, its link to, and implications for the creation and development of historical understanding. The research project examines theoretical and empirical work in the fields of education, history and media. In addition, Donnelly’s research investigates current methods of film utilization in teaching history, explores the impact of implementation, and develops guiding principles for optimizing historical understand when using feature films in history classrooms.

The dissertation is composed of eight chapters. Chapter one introduces the purpose of the research. In chapter two, Donnelly includes a literature review of recent scholarship on the topic of historical understanding. Chapter three is a synthesis of the published literature in the field of visual learning, and film in particular, and its relation to history, history education and the imperative for multi-literature history students. The methodology of the research project is explained in chapter four. Chapter five outlines the findings of the teacher and student self-completion questionnaires. The teacher semi-structured interviews are described and analyzed in chapter six. Chapter seven presents two case study descriptions and findings, which includes detailed narratives of two teaching units from each teacher and their assessments based on classroom observation, unstructured teacher interviews, and document analysis. In chapter eight Donnelly discusses her findings based on a grounded theory approach. Lastly, in chapter nine, Donnelly proposes six guiding principles as recommendations for teacher practice when using film to teach history, as well as a model for film’s role in the development of historical understanding and consciousness.

Source/Credit:

Emily Chicorli

Fisher, Bruce Hubert. “‘The Be-All and End-All of Teaching’: Nova Scotia’s Provincial Examinations in History, 1893-1972.” (2000)

ulrike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:14:53 +0000

Citation:

Fisher, Bruce Hubert. “‘The Be-All and End-All of Teaching’: Nova Scotia’s Provincial Examinations in History, 1893-1972.” M.A. thesis, Saint Mary’s University, 2000.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

This study examines secondary-school history education in Nova Scotia during the era that provincial history examinations were written (1892-1972). It strives to give insight into how these examinations affected secondary school history education in Nova Scotia during the provincial examination era. This issue is particularly pertinent as the province of Nova Scotia considers the re-introduction of external assessment.

METHODOLOGY:

Research about Nova Scotia's secondary school history education is based upon an examination of five sources of information connected to the provincial examination era: the documents which organized the history courses, primarily the courses of study; the prescribed textbooks; the provincial examinations; the comments of the examiners; and the observations of many educational officials as well as comments from the Journal of Education which provides a record of provincial examinations written in history from the beginning of the provincial examination era in 1893 up to and including the provincial examinations of 1950. The Journal also includes information regarding history course offerings, Chief Inspector of Schools reports, reports on educational reform, and speeches from educational officials in Nova Scotia.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

This dissertation finds that provincial examinations severely constricted secondary history education in Nova Scotia by forcing teachers and students to focus upon the memorization of textbook information for the provincial history examinations. Examination questions rarely asked students to judge, analyse, apply knowledge, be creative, or to give opinions. Yet the history examinations were the focus of the entire history education system, and the importance of the examinations made prescribed textbooks central to history courses. These textbooks, both organizing and providing content for the history courses, provided a tightly organized and chronological mass of historical information to be memorized for the provincial history examinations. History education was handcuffed by the examinations and, as a result, students and teachers were limited in their study of history.

DISCUSSION:

This study includes a discussion of secondary history education in Nova Scotia during the provincial examination era, the textbooks that held the prescribed content for history courses during this time, the provincial history examinations themselves as well as the examiner’s notes, and a literature review of history education in Nova Scotia.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:

This study strongly suggests that the present-day move towards external assessment would be the wrong move and would negatively affect secondary history education in Nova Scotia. Further research is required to explore the experiences and consequences of external assessments in other provinces or during other eras.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Gibbons, Joanne. “The State of Canadian Studies in Canada’s Schools.” (2003)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:53:56 +0000

Citation:

Gibbons, Joanne. “The State of Canadian Studies in Canada’s Schools.” M.A. Thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This thesis focuses on the current state of Canadian Studies in elementary and secondary schools across the country. Its main objective is to assess the degree to which grades one to twelve students across the country are given the opportunity to study Canada in their Social Studies courses.

METHODOLOGY:
This study includes an assessment of elementary, intermediate, and secondary Social Studies curriculum guidelines in all Canadian provinces in 2002. Due to financial and time constraints, the thesis measures only what is outlined in the curriculum guidelines and not what is actually taught in the schools. For the sake of clarity, grade levels are divided into three groups: elementary, grades one through six; intermediate, grades seven through nine; and senior high, grades then through twelve. There are two exceptions: Ontario, where the elementary social studies program is divided into two strands (Canada and the World, and Heritage and Citizenship); and Quebec, where the groups are divided into cycles.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This thesis argues that there are a sufficient number of Canadian Studies courses available to students in elementary and secondary schools across the country. The author qualifies “a sufficient number of courses” to mean that a majority of the provinces provide at least one Canadian Studies course with a significant amount of national content in their elementary, intermediate and senior high curricula. Sufficiency was measured by looking at the amount of national content found in the social studies curricula set by the provinces. The study also found that individual provinces differ in the quantity of national content found in their Social Studies program, and that graduation requirements may hinder students’ ability to take Canadian Studies courses. The greater the number of Canadian Studies courses offered to students, the author concludes, the more in-depth the national focus. She finds that a strong identity is emphasized across the country (except in Quebec and the Northwest Territories) in Social Studies curricula. National history is available to all senior high students across the country, but is only required in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of civic education and its recent manifestation in Canadian schools, a review of relevant literature pertaining to Canadian Studies, and a discussion of the alleged crisis in Canadian Studies. It also examines whether there is a stronger local or regional identity in post-Confederation provinces, whether there has been a breakdown of national history in Canada and whether or not regional or provincial histories are given more importance than national history in the curriculum.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
One problem area that the provinces should address are the requirements for senior high graduation. Without making Canadian Studies courses mandatory for graduation, there is no guarantee that students will take these courses even if they are offered. Post-secondary admissions could also be changed to reflect a Canadian Studies course requirement. Similarly, a wider selection of choice within a discipline could enable students to take Canadian Studies courses from a variety of perspectives. Future research questions could also explore why secondary school students decide to take or to reject Social Studies courses.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Gillis, Renée Marie-Anne. "Une histoire au pluriel : la question d'un programme d'études d'histoire nationale au Canada". (2006)

ulrike — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:02:51 +0000

Citation:

Gillis, Renée Marie-Anne. "Une histoire au pluriel [microforme] : la question d'un programme d'études d'histoire nationale au Canada." MA Thesis, University of Manitoba, 2006.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTION:
The thesis asks whether it is advisable to pursue the development of a pan-Canadian curriculum on the history of Canada.

METHODOLOGY:
The paper examines arguments in popular and academic history in favour of the development of national norms for the teaching of Canadian history in public school curricula. The study considers the political, pedagogical and cultural implications of the question and examines the historical context of the debate. The study includes an analysis of the possibilities and challenges of the development of a pan-Canadian history curriculum through an examination of the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol (WNCP) project for the creation of a common curriculum framework in social studies (1995 - 2002).

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
Through a consideration of the social and educational factors that influence curriculum development, and an analysis of the purposes and methods of teaching history, the thesis concludes that is inadvisable, for pedagogical reasons, to pursue a pan-Canadian curriculum that defines national history content for all educational jurisdictions.

DISCUSSION:
The thesis examines the long-standing debate in Canada about the meaning, role and purpose of teaching national history. Although educational jurisdictions can and have attained some agreement about pedagogical approaches to the teaching of history, there remains significant disagreement about a pan-Canadian history curriculum and its possibly political motivations. The paper observes that among Canadian provinces, territories and regions there is a widespread conviction that the "national historical narrative" is in fact not a single history but rather a multiplicity of collective memories with some elements in common.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:
There would be considerable value in a comparative study of changing educational practices in the teaching of history, such as the teaching of historical thinking or historical literacy, and the impact of these practices on learners.

RÉSUMÉ
Ce mémoire examine les arguments populaires et universitaires en faveur de la création de normes nationales pour les programmes d'études d'histoire au Canada. L'étude définit les dimensions politiques, pédagogiques et culturelles de la question en considérant le contexte historique du débat. Elle analyse les possibilités et les défis de l'uniformisation des programmes au moyen d'une étude de cas du projet de collaboration du Protocole de l'Ouest et du Nord canadiens pour la création d'un cadre commun en sciences humaines (1995--2002). En considérant les tendances pédagogiques et sociales qui influent sur le développement curriculaire au Canada, ainsi que certaines questions liées aux buts et aux méthodologies de la discipline de l'histoire, le mémoire prend position contre l'élaboration d'un programme national d'histoire dans les écoles canadiennes.

Source/Credit:

Renée Gillis

Harding, James Craig. “Teachers’ Conceptions of History Education: A Phenomenographic Inquiry.” (1999)

ulrike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:17:03 +0000

Citation:

Harding, James Craig. “Teachers’ Conceptions of History Education: A Phenomenographic Inquiry.” Ph.D. Diss., University of British Columbia, 1999.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

This project recognizes that the shape of instruction in history education is subject to individual beliefs, knowledge and ways of understanding. Accepting this premise, a teacher's conception of history education is vital to any understanding of how it is characterized or delivered in a classroom. Therefore, the central questions of this study are: (1) what are teachers’ conceptions of history education, (2) what are the constituent components of these conceptions, and (3) upon what sources of teacher knowledge are these conceptions based?

METHODOLOGY:

Fourteen public high school teachers who taught social studies for the Calgary Board of Education were interviewed in an effort to explore what teachers think are the purposes of history education for them as teachers. Research was conducted by a phenomenographic approach aiming at the description, analysis and understanding of experiences. In a formal and transcribed interview, each teacher was asked the following: (1) briefly describe the most significant lesson or series of lessons you teach in the history section of social studies, and (2) briefly state the topic and central ‘things’ you want students to acquire.) These were sent to each teacher a few days prior to the formal interview.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

This dissertation found that the interviewees had six ways of seeing the purposes of history education for teachers. Their conceptions are focusing upon historiography, developing social studies methodology, developing a national collective identity, developing a non-national identity, developing an understanding of current issues, and developing lessons from the past. University scholarship, educational materials, the wisdom of practice, and the role of students and collegial interaction are discussed as prominent in shaping conceptions of history education. The study concludes that a link of some form between undergraduate courses in history and teacher education courses would aid in developing the content for the discipline. Moreover, the research suggests that making explicit the purposes of history may benefit both pre-service teachers and history students.

DISCUSSION:

This study includes a discussion of theoretical understandings of “history education,” sources of knowledge which are believed to shape teacher conceptions of history education, and phenomenographic research.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:

The notion of multiple conceptions of history education raises questions regarding the extent to which students understand teachers’ aims in teaching history. Research has yet to be conducted on students’ thinking patterns necessary to understand the different conceptions of history education. Further research is also necessary to discern whether the conceptions derived from this research are similar to those of other teachers, and to what extent they represent or reflect effective pedagogical practice.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Lazare, G. “A Feeling for the Past: Adolescents’ Personal Responses to Studying History.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:55:47 +0000

Citation:

Lazare, G. “A Feeling for the Past: Adolescents’ Personal Responses to Studying History.” PhD. Diss., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The study aims to to discern how a student makes the exercise of reading history relevant to his or her own life, and what part in the body of a historical text students relate to. Other topics of inquiry include the relationship between students’ emotional engagement while reading history and final grades; which sources of historical information are most engaging for adolescent learners; and how students relate the study of history to their sense of personal development and national identity.

METHODOLOGY:
Fifty-four Grade 12 and OAC students from a multi-cultural, urban high school in Toronto, Canada, participated in this study. The students were drawn largely from working class, immigrant neighborhoods and the primary language for 74% of the school population was not English. The students read two historical accounts, both dealing with primary accounts of refugee experiences in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Students were asked to mark the places in the text where they recalled a memory from their own life with Ms (memories), Es (emotions) and Ds (distractions), complete a History Questionnaire aimed at assessing how they engage with the past, and provide written accounts of their emotions and memories.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
The study finds that adolescent readers make personal connections between history texts and their own experience. Content analysis of specific “engagement spots” in the readings established that young people use their subjectively experienced understanding of the world to take meaning from history texts. By finding that student’s final grades in Grade 10 Canadian History were negatively correlated with their most intense emotion and memory ratings, the study demonstrates that students who engaged least with the assigned readings earned the highest grades, confounding the widely-held belief that studying Canadian history is a transformative experience resulting in informed and responsible citizens. The study also found that adolescents believe the history lessons they experience at home or from the media are less reliable yet more engaging than classroom learning. These results provide call attention to the importance of extra-curricular history learning and also remind educators that adolescents are not passive recipients of curriculum, but have agendas of their own.

DISCUSSION:
Five areas of research serve as a backdrop for the study: current debates in history education, constructivist learning theory, the communicative theory of emotions, recent works in “emotionology,” and insights from the nascent field of historical consciousness. The discussion also explores the following topics: whether or not secondary school students make connections between the historical passages and their own personal experience; whether participants’ most intense emotions correlated with the texts that incited such emotions; and the ways in which students relate the study of history to their personal development and national identity.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study has implications for the ways that students might be encouraged to respond to reading history. “Action research” projects (partnerships between district schools and universities) could explore the following issues: is it in students’ interests to wrestle with potentially controversial historical accounts in the classroom? Might indifference to the past and skepticism toward the study of history invite neo-conservative social movements, as Martha Nussbaum (1995) and Charles Taylor (2002) have warned? Similarly, does emotional engagement depend on students’ ability to see themselves reflected in learning materials? If so, can lessons be made more personally relevant to adolescents given the ethnic and cultural diversity in our schools?

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Lévesque, Stèphane. “Journey into the World of the School: High School Students’ Understandings of Citizenship in B.C. and Québec.” (2001)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:57:43 +0000

Citation:

Lévesque, Stèphane. “Journey into the World of the School: High School Students’ Understandings of Citizenship in B.C. and Québec.” Ph. D. Diss., The University of British Columbia, 2001.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study examines (1) what teachers formally and informally present to high school students in citizenship education and (2) what students learn from these classes in English Canada and Quebec. It begins with two presuppositions that the ‘nation’ and ‘state’ remain central institutions in the life of democratic citizens and that public schooling is a good thing for our democratic societies.

METHODOLOGY:
Two multi-ethnic high schools, one in Québec (Montréal) and one in British Columbia (Vancouver) are used to examine how students construct and understand citizenship in light of their school experience. These classrooms were chosen because much of the burden of Canadian citizenship education has officially been assigned to history (grade 10) in Québec and social studies (grade 11) in B.C. This study uses the above high-schools as case studies in a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with both students and teachers and direct observation in the classroom.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study argues that the future of democracy is dependent on the education of young citizens. The civic competencies that permit students to think, deliberate, participate, and ultimately live democratically are not innate; they have to be learned. Citizenship education helps develop these competencies. Canadian schools, and more specifically school subjects such as history and social studies, been identified by the state as the critical link between education and citizenship and as the locus for the creation of democratic citizens. Documents and interviews from both locations suggest that citizenship education is the raison d’être of history and social studies education. The study also finds that citizenship education takes on its full meaning when those who learn it in the classroom can express their own views, concerns, and understandings.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: the historical and political issues concerning citizenship education in Canada; the origins of modern citizenship; an analysis of citizenship education in democracy; how Canada’s two historical nations have utilized different conception of citizenship and citizenship education; and a comparative study of both B.C. and Québec students’ understandings of their national identity, nation, and citizenship.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study suggests the urgent need for more discussions and research in Canada on the nature of citizenship education. Discussions with students, teachers, and staff in both locations suggest that Canadians have little experience of their country as a whole and illustrates an urgent need for a pan-Canadian consensus on what to teach and how. It also suggests the need to incorporate a more active role for students in determining with adults the nature of their schooling. The challenge here is for public schools to contribute actively to the development of the various civic competencies needed by students to become democratic citizens. The study concludes that educators must reconsider how citizenship is taught and learned in the classroom and that more resources and energy need to be invested in the research and development of citizenship education in Canada.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Martin, Daisy A. “Teaching for Historical Thinking: Teacher Conceptions, Practices, and Constraints.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:00:03 +0000

Citation:

Martin, Daisy A. “Teaching for Historical Thinking: Teacher Conceptions, Practices, and Constraints.” Ph.D. Diss., Stanford University, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
Learning history is not an exercise is memorizing and dictated particulars. It requires asking questions of sources, understanding evidentiary arguments and other vital ways of thinking. These themes are explored through the study’s guiding research questions: What do experienced history teachers know and do to help their students think historically? This question is followed by secondary questions: what are some conception(s) of history that include teaching for historical thinking; how are these conceptions formed and maintained; and how do experienced history teachers assess for historical thinking?

METHODOLOGY:
The primary unit of analysis for this study is the teacher and her classroom. Data was collected from three history classrooms and teachers, two at the secondary level and one at the university level. Using qualitative methods, data was collected on teaching practices through observing, audio-taping and taking field notes in class. Documents and resources were also collected and each teacher was repeatedly interviewed to learn more about their practices and conceptions. Overall, approximately fifty hours were spent observing each high school teacher’s lessons and twenty-two hours observing the college professor. This translated into about 25% and 50% of each focal course.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study finds that the three teachers in question varied in their conceptions of historical thinking, and suggested that this was connected to their professional settings. The historical concept perspective was common to both high school classrooms, but the concept of historical context has a less obvious presence. Other contextual factors identified as important to shaping teacher practice include professional expectations and colleagues, the students they teach, their teaching load, the time they lack, and for the high school teachers, state curricular and testing mandates. This study also finds that there are key aspects to representing history as an interpretive way of knowing in a history course and curriculum, including: historical reading and writing, using sources that can prompt and inform different analyses, and requiring that particular disciplinary conventions be attended to in student tasks.

DISCUSSION:
This study begins with five assertions: historical thinking exists; young people are capable of it; teaching matters in its development; history teachers’ knowledge and beliefs influence instructional choices and moves; and particular types of instruction constitute “teaching for historical thinking.” It also includes a discussion of: relevant literature concerning history education and historical thinking.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
Considering that this study looks at only three teachers teaching in fairly different contexts, the findings are limited in their scope and serve more to push forward the thinking of those interested in history education rather than making convincing claims about the state of the field, suggestions for reform, or the success of particular practices. More research on teachers’ practices is also warranted. This study suggests that there are instructional practices that history teachers may use routinely, e.g. current events, use of video and film, perspective-taking exercises, but little is known about how they are used in the classroom or what the goals, successes and challenges are in their use.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Miller, Grant R. “Engaging Diverse Learners in Historical Thinking.” (2007)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:01:49 +0000

Citation:

Miller, Grant R. “Engaging Diverse Learners in Historical Thinking.” Ph.D. Diss., Boston College Lynch School of Education, 2007.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The overriding question guiding this research is: what happens when students engage in doing history utilizing the principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? The UDL offers a framework teachers in the United States can use to address the requirements of IDEA 1997 and 2004 amendments, providing students with special needs access to the general curriculum.

METHODOLOGY:
This study focuses on tenth grade student learning in accordance with the three heuristics that Wineburg (1991) identified historians as using: sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration. Working with a team of computer designers, the computer program Think Like a Historian was created to support the three principles of UDL (recognition, strategic, and engagement networks) and to facilitate historical thinking in students. The computer program and ‘intervention units’ developed around it provided students with a wealth of sometimes conflicting primary sources and a guiding research question such as “Who started the Battle of Lexington?” The research design included three stages of data collection: 1) pre-intervention data collection, 2) data collected while developing and team-teaching the intervention units; and 3) post-intervention data collection. Over the course of one semester 23 tenth-grade students from Lawton High School, a suburban school in a Massachusetts public school district, participated in three ‘Doing History’ intervention units.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study explored the effect that UDL supports embedded in a digital learning environment had on tenth-grade students’ historical thinking. Major findings included: 1) performance scores and tallies of supports showed a positive relationship between the use of embedded UDL supports and student ability (i.e. to evaluate and corroborate sources); 2) performance scores indicated a drop between the first and second intervention unites; 3) interviews and survey data showed how intervention unites prompted a limited epistemological shift in students’ understandings about history and what historians do; and 4) interviews and surveys illustrated how Think Like a Historian was an engaging approach to history instruction for a majority of these students. Findings also indicated that this approach to learning history was engaging for students with and without learning disabilities. Students seemed to favor this approach to traditional textbook or lecture-based learning because using Think Like a Historian allowed them to construct their own knowledge.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: relevant literature concerning history as something you do rather than something you know; Doing History with K-12 students; and findings resulting from the implementation of Doing History in a specific grade 10 History classroom.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
Additional research is required to explore the effects of the supports embedded in Think Like a Historian. Findings indicate that there was a positive relationship between the number of times students clicked on these supports and their final performance, yet the nature of this relationship requires further study. Future studies with larger and more diverse samples should explore ways to encourage struggling students to take advantage of the supports provided and what scaffolds can facilitate students’ evaluation of non-written sources. Also, literature needs to be developed to include ideas for how to expand the process of historical thinking to include inquiry (i.e. scaffold students’ selection of topics, questions, and relevant sources) and ways to support this process for diverse learners.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Montgomery, Kenneth E. “A Better Place to Live”: National Mythologies, Canadian History Textbooks, and the Reproduction of White Supremacy.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:03:26 +0000

Citation:

Montgomery, Kenneth E. “A Better Place to Live”: National Mythologies, Canadian History Textbooks, and the Reproduction of White Supremacy.” Ph.D. Diss., University of Ottawa, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This dissertation examines some of the ways that Canadian textbooks have represented race, racism and antiracism in relation to the nation and national identity from 1945 to 2005. In using textbooks as a cultural site to comprehend the embeddedness of racism within them and, by implication, in the social order that created them, the author illustrates how racism has permeated and continues to permeate the banal structures and taken-for-granted experiences that organize life in a “racial state.” This study also considers the ordering of knowledge about race, racism, and the ways that opposition to racism articulates the representation of the nation-state.

METHODOLOGY:
This study analyzes a total of 27 textbooks sanctioned by the province of Ontario for use by grade 10 students of Canadian history since 1945. The study has been limited to textbooks of the post-WWII era, and is focused on assessing the validity of the claim by conservative critics that the “content” of Canadian history represented in the schools is now substantially different than it was at mid-century. The choice of grade 10 survey textbooks was done to limit the literally hundreds of resources approved for use in history classrooms and to take advantage of the introduction of a mandatory grade 10 Canadian history credit post-WII. This study also focuses on survey textbooks rather than pamphlets or specialty books and on student (rather than teacher) resources.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This analysis illustrates that Canadian history textbooks have been - and continue to be - problematic in the way they reproduce certain myths about race, racism, and nation, as mandated knowledge for high school students. These myths continue to be fostered in even the most recent textbooks despite explicit efforts by those responsible to make learning materials more inclusive and less biased. It is found that the combined effect of the representations of race, racism, and opposition to racism has been to depict the space of contemporary Canada as one largely antithetical to racism. Moreover, the very concepts of race, racism, and antiracism, through such representations, work to racialize the nation of Canada and Canadian national identity. This is accomplished by upholding white supremacist state formation in the depiction of the Canadian nation as a model of racelessness and one morally superior to all others.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: the relationship between textbooks and racialization; the debate concerning the “death” of Canadian history; a review of literature on textbook analysis and the role of textbooks in the “imagined community” of the nation; the socio-political and curricular context surrounding the production of textbooks since 1945; and suggestions on how to adapt textbooks to antiracist dialogues.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study provides insights into how Canadian history textbooks present and represent a racialized view of Canada and Canadians. It suggests the following questions concerning future research projects: how might race, racism and anti-racism be better represented in textbooks; what should be done with our current history textbooks; should more “bias checklists” be formulated and more stringent standards for approval be adopted; should we do away with nationalist narratives all together given that they are always and already racist; and how, then, should we teach Canadian history?

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Montgomery, Kenneth E. “The Imagined Canadian: Representations of Whiteness in Flashback Canada.” (1999)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:31:07 +0000

Citation:

Montgomery, Kenneth E. “The Imagined Canadian: Representations of Whiteness in Flashback Canada.” MA thesis, University of Ottawa, 1999.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study involves a critical examination of the racialization contained within a secondary school Canadian history textbook entitled Flashback Canada (Cruxton & Wilson, 1994). The primary goal is to understand how the racialized concept of whiteness is represented in the textbook. The guiding purpose of this study is to generate a theory about the representation of ‘whiteness’ in public school Canadian history textbooks, and particularly, to see what role, if any, whiteness might play in the production and reproduction of racisms in contemporary educational curricula. This project is also concerned with how ‘race’ articulates and intersects with concepts of ‘the nation’ and ‘ethnicity.’

METHODOLOGY:
This study is grounded in the theory and pedagogical principles of both “anti-racism” and “critical multiculturalism.” The first part of this project involves the survey of a number of key studies exploring the content of school textbooks in an effort to establish methodological guidelines for the study. The rationale for choosing a textbook as the unit of analysis is based on an anti-racist understanding that the state-sanctioned education system is implicated in the production and reproduction of racisms in society. The second part includes a study of Flashback Canada, focusing primarily on the historical narratives of Canada’s past and how “naturalized meanings” reinforced ethnic, national and racial divisions and constructed the category of ‘whiteness.’

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
Flashback Canada racializes Canada and Canadians as white. This is not a singular or pure whiteness; rather, it is an hierarchy of white ethnicities which are positioned to varying degrees as constitutive of the nation. “British” individuals are at once represented as the best and most natural form of Canadian and the most supreme form of whiteness. Other ethnically and nationally named groups exhibit many of these same characteristics, though not to the same degree of ‘perfection.’ These racializations are not, in any way, natural, but rather they are naturalized by the textbook through repetition and their presentation as unproblematic. It is suggested that textbooks like Flashback Canada be replaced or rewritten to tell histories without hierarchically categorizing groups of people as racialized essences.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: the terms racialization, anti-racism education and multi-cultural education; the relationship between history textbooks and racialization; a survey of key studies in the area of Canada textbook analysis since 1970; processes of racialization; and issues concerning the writing and re-writing of history textbooks.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
While this study examines the potential of Flashback Canada to influence children to adopt a particularly white supremacist viewpoint on Canadian history and citizenship, a logical extension would be to look at the effects of such hierarchical representations on young readers. Similarly, more research is needed into the political economy and historical circumstances surrounding the production of the textbook and how this influences the nature of its content. However, simply replacing or rewriting textbooks is inadequate as this must be paired with the occurrence of critical and liberating approaches by the students and educators who use them. Students and teachers must be given the tools that will enable them to question the textbook in many of the same ways this study has. The best method to convey these tools, and structure the classroom, would also benefit from future research.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Peck, Carla. “Multi-Ethnic High School Students’ Understandings of Historical Significance: Implications for Canadian History Education.” (2009)

ulrike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:58:56 +0000

Citation:

Peck, Carla. “Multi-Ethnic High School Students’ Understandings of Historical Significance: Implications for Canadian History Education.” Ph.D. Diss., University of British Columbia, 2009.

Abstract/Summary:

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.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Pinto, Meg. "Reconciliation in Canadian Museums." (2013)

Anne Marie — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 21:37:12 +0000

Citation:

Pinto, Meg. "Reconciliation in Canadian Museums." Ph. D. Diss, University of East Anglia, 2013.

Abstract/Summary:

This dissertation focuses on developing practical methodology for museums in Canada, and discusses the following subjects:

*Understanding the implications of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the museum field

*Understanding residential schools, the '60s scoop, and other key issues of which museum staff should be made aware

*Understanding the effects of trauma on individuals and communities and how trauma directly affects the relationships between museum employees and Aboriginal communities

*Examining standard museum methods for handling traumatic subjects and how these can have negative effects for those concerned

*Revising Canadian history to move past the 'Nation-building' or 'Progress' model: developing integrated history galleries that can encompass both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal histories and worldviews

*The concept of Healing Exhibits: examining successful ways of displaying trauma and assisting communities in recovery

*Using the Circle as an encompassing methodology for working toward Reconciliation in museums

Most museum professionals that I have spoken with have felt at a loss as to how to manage traumatic subjects within the gallery space and admit that this is simply not something that museologists have expertise in. Yet, experimenting with what to do can be dangerous and risks re-traumatizing those concerned. Though this work is primarily targeted to museums that collaborate with Aboriginal community groups, it may also be useful for any small to medium sized museum focused on local history.

The full work is available for free download here:
https://www.academia.edu/7624879/Reconciliation_in_Canadian_Museums

Abstract:

Since the late 1980s, Canadian museum personnel have been actively engaged in collaboration with Aboriginal communities on issues to do with exhibition design and collections management. Despite these collaborative successes, tensions between museum employees and Aboriginal community members are commonplace, indicating that problems still remain within the relationships that have developed.

This thesis examines the implications of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada for the future of museum practice. It argues that unresolved colonial trauma is preventing those in the museum field from moving past an initial phase of relationship- building to a successful era of partnership. When viewed through the lens of trauma, the museum field is heavily influenced by denial on the part of museum personnel as to the extent of violence committed against Aboriginal peoples at Indian Residential Schools and the resulting level of dysfunction present in current relationships between Aboriginal communities and non-Aboriginal museum employees. I provide a revised account of Canadian history, which includes the aspects of colonialism that are most often censored, in order to situate these problems as part of the historical trauma that is deeply embedded in Canadian society itself.

John Ralston Saul’s concept of the Métis nation is used as a framework for reconciliation, portraying Canada as a country that is heavily influenced by its Aboriginal origins despite the majority belief that the national culture has been derived from European social values. As a response to this proposition, the Circle is presented as the primary Canadian philosophical tenet that should guide both museum practice and Canadian society in the future.

Source/Credit:

Meg Pinto

Ridenour-Wildman, Shannon Lynn. “A comparative study of indigenous content of multicultural teacher education textbooks in Canada and the United States.” (2004)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:06:56 +0000

Citation:

Ridenour-Wildman, Shannon Lynn. “A comparative study of indigenous content of multicultural teacher education textbooks in Canada and the United States.” Ph.D. Diss., The University of Oklahoma, 2004.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
To better understand the manner in which teachers learn to conduct multicultural education, this study will examine multicultural textbooks used in multicultural teacher education courses in Canada and the United States. To address the issues of content, comparison, and implications effectively, this study is guided by the following questions: how are teacher education textbooks in Canada and the United States addressing issues of diversity as they pertain to cultural commonalities in indigenous populations; and what, if any, are the variations in content that address indigenous groups in textbooks within both countries?

METHODOLOGY:
This study involves a qualitative content analysis focusing on multicultural teacher education textbooks from Canada and the United States that have been used in Education courses. These textbooks (7 from Canada, 6 from the United States) span over a period of 20 years and were either listed on a course syllabus or confirmed as being in use by a professor. The study examines themes regarding indigenous world view and cultural commonalities as present in these textbooks. This study aims to contribute to a greater understanding of how indigenous groups, their culture, and their education are depicted in Canadian and American textbooks and how these textbooks address indigenous concerns similarly or differently.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study found that there was a reasonably good discussion of cultural commonalities in terms of social, historical and political issues facing the indigenous population in both countries. However, the discussion of indigenous worldviews was nonexistent in Canadian textbooks and only found in one United States textbook in varying editions. For classroom teachers, this signifies a serious lack of a basic framework for understanding why their indigenous students see the world differently than they do.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: multiculturalism in the Canadian and American contexts; a review of relevant literature concerning multicultural education research in Canada and the United States; a survey of the indigenous content of the textbooks;

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study focused on only two countries. Research on other countries could provide more information on the varied approaches to multicultural teacher knowledge presented across the globe. Similarly, studies interviewing professors to discuss what information they provide to their students about specific cultural groups through supplemental reading and other media could provide deeper insight into how students are prepared for teaching multicultural education. Further research could also examine what professors and students think is missing regarding content in multicultural teacher preparation courses.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Rukszuto, Katarzyna. “Minute by Minute: Canadian History Reimagined for Television Audiences.” (2003)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:08:19 +0000

Citation:

Rukszuto, Katarzyna. “Minute by Minute: Canadian History Reimagined for Television Audiences.” Ph.D Diss., York University, 2003.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This dissertation explores the meaning of “Canadian heritage” by analyzing the Heritage Minutes, a series of 60-second dramatizations of important figures and events in the Canadian past sponsored by Charles Bronfman’s CRB Foundation and Canada Post. The series exhibits the centrality of race, the mythology of Canadian wilderness, and the unresolved difficulties with difference and plurality that organize discourses of national identity. The implications of the particular narratives of belonging embedded in the Minutes and the relationship between identity, culture and representation form the larger context of this discussion. The study attempts to answer such questions as: what kinds of ideas about Canadian national identity are provided in the Minutes and do they contain counter-dominant perspectives and different notions of belonging?

METHODOLOGY:
In order to answer these questions, this analysis is informed by two interconnected theoretical developments: the “narrative turn” in social history and other social sciences, and the study of cultural forms as developed by cultural studies. The focus of this study is The Heritage Minutes; associated learning materials for schools and community-based and electronic initiatives serve as secondary data. The Heritage Minutes aired on all major television networks, at Cineplex-Odeon movie theatres, and in some home videos.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study demonstrates that the Heritage Minutes promote a “grand narrative” of Canadian national unity that is couched in the primacy of European settlement and in the assimilationist maxim of “unity out of difference.” While heritage lesson plans show some degree of flexibility in the kinds of interpretive frameworks utilized in the classroom, the predominance of lesson plans stressing personal histories, and the omission of controversial issues, suggest that the Heritage Project is not the best resource for teachers wishing to do critical work in the classroom. Moreover, this study finds that corporate involvement has replaced history with heritage. The heritage version of history rearticulates contradictions, conflicts, and regional, ethnic, class and other cleavages within the narrative of national belonging. An immediate result of the heritage curriculum, coupled with other education “reforms,” is that students are likely becoming less learned. A more general effect of the corporate agenda on history teaching, both in schools and mass media, is that Canadians are in danger of becoming citizen-consumers, devouring commercial versions of national unity cause instead of historical understanding.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of key developments in theories of cultural characteristics of “the nation” and nation-building processes, and shifting conceptions of Canadian national identity and social difference. Also presented here is a critical assessment of the literature concerning the “heritage industry” and what it means to “inherit.” Other discussion topics include the political and representational difficulties of representing heritage, the “history wars” in Canada, the implications of Heritage Minutes lesson plans and resources in the classroom, and the implications of increasing corporate interest and involvement in history teaching.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study raises some interesting implications concerning the role of corporate funding in history education. Two questions that are particularly pertinent in the face of this increasing new historical consciousness among Canadian business leaders are: a) what interests are supported by these enterprises? and b) what are some implications of the corporate sell of Canadian history? The ability of corporate organizations to make a mark on the classroom goes beyond the excellence of the material programs they create, and must be seen in the context of the cutbacks and restructuring of the education sector. Considering the combination of larger classes, less preparation time, and, in some provinces, the legislative shift of control of the curriculum from the school boards to a business-friendly government, what are the larger implications of corporate involvement in the classroom?

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Skoufaras, Kyriaki Sunday. “Examining our Histories within Quebec and Canada: A Proposal to Increase the Minority Experience in the Grade 10 History Curriculum.” (2004)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:10:29 +0000

Citation:

Skoufaras, Kyriaki Sunday. “Examining our Histories within Quebec and Canada: A Proposal to Increase the Minority Experience in the Grade 10 History Curriculum.” M.A. Thesis, Concordia University, 2004.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This thesis raises the issue of whether or not inequalities in the Quebec grade 10 history curriculum reflect underlying institutional racism, and considers the effect this has on teaching and learning. Why does the history curriculum omit minorities’ histories? Has this been an intentional omission in order to distort historical fact? Perhaps it is an oversight that reflects an ignorance of Quebec’s multicultural society? It is contended that by including minority cultures and their experiences in the history curriculum, their pasts will be validated and their voices heard.

METHODOLOGY:
This paper pertains in particular to the grade 10 history curriculum. The current grade 10 history curriculum is a synopsis of the time period between the “discovery” of the America’s by the Europeans in the 15th century to the present day. The course summary used in this analysis is largely based on four commonly used French texts: Le Québec: heritages et projets, a comprehensive and popular text often favoured because it caters directly to the provincial exam; Mon histoire; Nouvelle histoire du Québec et du Canada; and the workbook Découvrir L’Histoire du Québec et du Canada – Cahier d’apprentissage 4e secondaire which contains many of the graphs, pictures and documents used on the provincial exam.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study finds that the current Quebec history curriculum is too Eurocentric and monocultural for today’s world. A revised history curriculum that recognizes and respects differences and cultural diversity is proposed as an alternative to the one currently being used. This curriculum will include the “missing pages” of minority groups that are missing from the current texts, specifically including the stories of Italian, Jewish, Arabic, Haitian, Caribbean, African, Chinese and Greek minorities. The main issues that should be covered for each group include their emigration from their mother country, their entry and acceptance into Canadian/Quebec society, their integration/assimilation, and other aspects of their social lives such as work, education, economic status, and so on. It is hoped that this will do for the minorities the same that the current curriculum does for the French Quebec culture – validate their pasts and their experiences in Canada.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: the definition and benefits of a multicultural education; the various difficulties involved in the implantation of a multicultural education; the weaknesses and objectives of the history curriculum in Quebec; the reasons why curriculum change is necessary; and a proposed history curriculum that recognizes and respects differences and cultural diversity as an alternative to the one currently being used.

IMPLICATIONS OF FUTURE RESEARCH:

It is often difficult to find documented histories of some cultures. It should therefore become common practice to incorporate the oral histories of ethnic and minority cultures into the curriculum to supplement current texts. Where are the heroes and heroines of the non-dominant class? How can minority students be expected to succeed on equal terms with the dominant class when they cannot relate to what they are learning? Teachers must also take matters into their own hands, creating their own materials through the use of other reading materials, TV programs, video recordings, and student-based research to create a history curriculum that is reflective of their students. The proposed changes in this paper can also be applied in various ways to other parts of the curriculum.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Sliwa, Stephen G. “Practicing History: A Case Study of the Professional Knowledge Base of a Novice History Teacher.” (2003)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:12:01 +0000

Citation:

Sliwa, Stephen G. “Practicing History: A Case Study of the Professional Knowledge Base of a Novice History Teacher.” M.A. Thesis, Queen’s University, 2003.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The rationale for this study is grounded in discovering how teachers expand their knowledge base for teaching beyond what they establish during their pre-service education at a Faculty of Education. This study has three purposes: to discover the types of knowledge that a novice history teacher developed for teaching; to develop an understanding of the factors that influenced the development of a novice teacher’s professional knowledge base; and to explore effective practices for teaching history at a secondary school level.

METHODOLOGY:
This study used qualitative research methodology to gather data about how one novice teacher approached her instructional duties and what influenced her thinking about instruction. The participant in the study was Rayleen, a 25-year-old teacher who had graduated four months earlier from a teacher education program. Data were collected over a two-year period through the use of techniques that are associated with qualitative research: observation, in-depth interviews with the informant and an analysis of artifacts including lesson plans and the Teacher’s Day Book/Planner. During this time Rayleen was interviewed three times in Year One and three times in Year Two. The first was a formal, structured interview that sought to gather background information concerning personal experience and lesson planning. The second interview followed a classroom observation session to further the researcher’s understanding of the observation. The third interview focused on materials developed by Rayleen (such as a concept map, a student performance task designed by the informant or a particular lesson plan).

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study found that Rayleen’s professional knowledge base reflected many components of the professional knowledge base outlined by Shulman (1987) in his research: subject matter knowledge, knowledge of the curriculum, general pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics and knowledge that resembled aspects of what Shulman termed pedagogical content knowledge. She demonstrated the depth of her subject-matter knowledge in both Year One and Year Two by attending to the key facts relating to diverse events in Canadian history. By the mid-point of her second year of teaching, Rayleen had extended the application of her subject matter knowledge by teaching historical inquiry skills to her students, such as chronology and causation. By the end of her second year it was also found that she was developing a deeper understanding that the provincial history curriculum was composed of both content and skills-development components. This study also found that Rayleen’s intended purpose behind several classrooms activities was simply to engage students in the subject matter or to develop and awareness about an event, to “feel history” rather than to develop a deeper understanding of the content of concepts or to build on prior knowledge.

DISCUSSION:
This study includes a discussion of: the literature regarding knowledge development and knowledge schemas relevant to the teaching of history; categories of teacher knowledge as defined by Shulman (1987); a comparison of Rayleen’s beliefs, thoughts, and judgments in Year One and Year Two; and defining an effective practice for teaching history.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This study highlighted the impact that mentoring relationships and collaborative inquiry has on a new member of the teaching profession. Additional study might focus on the impact that professional collaboration has on the growth and development of teacher knowledge. New research initiatives might also consider defining the role of the academic subject departments within secondary schools in supporting the development of new teachers or in fostering support of subject-specific teaching. This type of research would further understanding of factors that influence how teachers approach their instructional role or view effective teaching in relation to their subject or grade-level.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Smith, Clare E. “How Do Pre-Service Teachers on Practicum Approach Teaching History with Pupils?” (2007)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:14:27 +0000

Citation:

Smith, Clare E. “How Do Pre-Service Teachers on Practicum Approach Teaching History with Pupils?” PhD. Diss., University of Calgary, 2007.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study is primarily interested in exploring the meaning that pre-service teachers attach to their understanding of history teaching both prior to and during the experience of teaching history. It aims to uncover different approaches to teaching and interpreting history by social studies/history pre-service teachers at several points in their initial teacher education course. It also attempts to reveal the ways that beliefs and attitudes, contexts and resources influence the decision-making of history pre-service teachers.

METHODOLOGY:
The research illustrated pre-service history teachers’ historical work in two locations: (a) the University of Calgary, Canada, where history was part of the social studies curriculum; and (b) the University of Oxford, England, where history was its own curriculum area. The first phase of research involved a guided focus group session in each location on history teaching designed to explore pre-service beliefs and approaches to teaching history. The second phase of research involved observing and interviewing six pre-service history teachers (three from each location) at three different points in their practicum classrooms. It was hoped that this research would lead to a closer understanding of three elements of teaching practice: the texts at work; the dimensions of time in the classroom setting; and how pre-service teachers experienced a kind of mimetic experience in practice (the understanding of what it means to teach that each pre-service teacher brings into the classroom).

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This study found that pre-service teachers of history commonly call on their own personal experiences of human life to understand history, together with historical methodological approaches, to analyze historical texts. This goes somewhat against the idea of history being seen as a discipline where an objective quest for the truth deems personal identity as interference. The study also suggests that pre-service teachers consider history to be at once exciting and dangerous, a subject that needs to be both active and grounded for pupils. In both locations, the study found that participants saw it as their role to make history active (using a constructivist concept of learning) and accessible in the classroom. Participants used a wide variety of resources during their lessons, suggesting a great degree of complex thinking about historical texts. They also expressed nervousness at teaching unfamiliar aspects of history. Finally, participants felt it was their duty to develop critical thinking skills in their students—to equip them with the skills to evaluate any text, historical or otherwise, with a critical eye.

DISCUSSION:
A hermeneutic scaffolding was chosen as an appropriate structure for this study. This allowed the study to explore the symbolic understanding of teaching history as grounded in interactions with social, personal and natural environments; the relationship between theory and agency; the relationship between language and power in research and teaching; and the ways that “concrete rationalities” have shaped contextual understanding rather than a search for “cultural universals.” This study also includes a discussion of the ways that historical thinking has evolved within and outside the curriculum; the relationship between belief and practice; the inheritance of school history; the position of history education in the schools; the connection between history and fiction; and the influence of history education on pre-service teachers.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
Limited as it was to two locations and the observation of six pre-service teachers, the scale of this study lends itself to expansion to include comparisons between history education in different provinces or international locations. Future research might also be extended to include: observation of pre-service teachers as they start and continue their careers to chronicle how thinking about history grows during a teacher’s career; an exploration of the nature of dialogue between mentor and pre-service teacher; and the processes of group meaning-making around history (compared to that of individuals) when encountering historical texts.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Sodonis, Mary Anne. “Discourse and Politics of Canadian History Curriculum Documents used in Ontario Secondary Schools, 1945-2004.” (2005)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:16:02 +0000

Citation:

Sodonis, Mary Anne. “Discourse and Politics of Canadian History Curriculum Documents used in Ontario Secondary Schools, 1945-2004.” PhD. Diss., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, 2005.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study was designed to familiarize educators with Ontario secondary school history curriculum documents from 1945 to 2005 and to acquaint them with the discursive changes that have occurred over time. Three core research questions drove the study: which of the competing discourses were most visible in Ontario secondary school Canadian history curriculum documents at particular points in time; what was considered worth knowing, understanding and doing in the field of history as conveyed through these curriculum documents; and what influences weighed upon the writing and secondary school history curriculum.

METHODOLOGY:
Research centered on Tier 1 documents (provincial and national Royal Commission reports), Tier 2 documents (generic curriculum policy papers), and Tier 3 documents (subject-specific curriculum policy papers). The study reconciles more traditional historical approaches that rely heavily on positivist traditions (analysis, inquiry, and historiography) with more recent socio-linguistic and socio-political interpretations of the past that stress the role of language and positional power in influencing thought and action. This study relies heavily on genealogy, a method that focuses on historical roots and de-emphasizes the evolutionary trend in policy creation in favour of ruptures and continuities.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
This dissertation found that Canadian history curriculum documents and textbooks from 1945 to 2005 in Ontario were highly political, though not directly partisan. These documents were found to construct a vision of the past that students were expected to acquire, to advance specific notions of citizenship, and to reflect, produce and legitimize state values and ideals. The curriculum documents also established regimes of practices that either reinforced or transformed the nature, role and purpose of secondary school Canadian history and positioned students and teachers into power relationships congruent with the eras in which they were written. The study suggests that in order for substantive changes to occur in the classroom, educators must first understand the ways in which official curriculum is used to serve specific purposes.

DISCUSSION:
The dissertation includes a discussion of recent trends in secondary school Canadian history curriculum, a brief overview of the Canadian History curriculum in Ontario (1945-2004), a discussion of the relationship between history curriculum and the model citizen, and a discussion of the content of Canadian history curriculum as militaristic, constitutional, political and dominated by males.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
This dissertation suggests further study into how history curriculum is negotiated, interpreted, assimilated, and disputed in the classrooms of Ontario. This could be facilitated by interviewing educators who affected the creation and implementation of curriculum, and by researching other organizations, such as Historica and the Dominion Institute, involved in the creation of history curriculum. A number of questions directly affecting curriculum also need to be addressed. What connection, if any, should be forged between history, heritage, and citizenship education? What specific links should be made between civics and history in Ontario? Who, exactly, should study secondary school history? What relationships should exist between secondary schools, colleges and universities concerning Canadian history?

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Tangelder, Mary L.R. “Imagining the Nation: A Textual Analysis of Canadian and Australian History Education Materials.” (2001)

Anne Marie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:17:36 +0000

Citation:

Tangelder, Mary L.R. “Imagining the Nation: A Textual Analysis of Canadian and Australian History Education Materials.” M.A. Thesis, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 2001.

Abstract/Summary:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This study examines the relationship between citizenship and history education by identifying different approaches to citizenship education in the teaching of national history. The purpose is to broaden and strengthen the body of literature concerning the relationship between history and citizenship education in the formal school setting. Through a cross-cultural examination of education materials produced in Australia and Canada, the study aims to stimulate a discussion of possibilities for reflective-active citizenship education, and to move beyond, not simply to critique, the ideas presented in the materials analyzed.

METHODOLOGY:
This study is a critical textual analysis that aims to examine, through different interpretive practices, the explicit and implicit meanings of texts as part of the discourse of the nations through which notions of citizenship are produced and regulated. A comparative textual analysis of four cases of education materials produced in Australia and Canada is undertaken to gain a better understanding of how a multicultural “settler” society might teach citizenship through education about natural history (either in history curricula or civics curricula), in the context where legal membership as a citizen is not contingent on either ethnic or cultural membership. Two sets of education materials were chosen from each country. These materials encompassed a set of activities and resources made available to teachers to complement the school curriculum. Each of the four educational initiatives are either partially or fully funded by provincial, state or federal governments: the Dominion Institute and Historica in Canada, and Discovering Democracy and Teaching Heritage in Australia.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
Despite the tensions within the discourse of national identity in democratic multicultural societies, the educational materials examined in this study reveal that readily available and widely distributed narratives continue to construct exclusive notions of national identity and citizenship behaviour. On the other hand, these same materials also presented a wide and diverse range of activities that can be used to challenge the dominant and exclusive presentations of national history. The four cases examined in this study illustrate that there is no single framework or method for teaching citizenship education through history education. Essential historiography skills, such as the ability to examine historical documents, to analyze critically the construction of historical narratives, and to understand the complex factors that lead to historical change, continuity, or development, can also be considered citizenship skills, as these are essential skills for participation in political life. The study also found that few structured opportunities exist within history education materials for students to examine their own relationship to the histories examined.

DISCUSSION:
Discussion topics include: scholarly literature in the field of history and citizenship education; democratic citizenship education in Australia and Canada; the relationship between history and citizenship education; a review of current debates concerning history education in Canada and Australia; problemetizing “empathy” as a pedagogical tool; the skills associated with critical citizenship literacy; and a comparison of citizenship education in Canada and Australia.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH:
Further research is needed to build upon the numerous possibilities presented in the four case studies concerning the proliferation of active-citizenship education. While the educational materials analyzed in this study identify diverse actions such as voting, protest, lobbying, negotiation, debate, and challenging dominant national narratives as important citizenship actions, the same materials provided few structured opportunities for students to disagree, to study or to enact protests, or to engage in dissent or political action. Such opportunities might encourage students to imagine the agency of citizens and in turn, allow them to envision their own potential agency.

Source/Credit:

Mary Chaktsiris

Zanazanian, Paul. "Historical Consciousness and the Construction of Inter-Group Relations: The Case of Francophone and Anglophone History School Teachers in Quebec." (2009)

Anne Marie — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:07:20 +0000

Citation:

Zanazanian, Paul. "Historical Consciousness and the Construction of Inter-Group Relations: The Case of Francophone and Anglophone History School Teachers in Quebec." Ph. D. Diss., Université de Montréal, 2009.

Abstract/Summary:

This three-article dissertation looks at the effects of historical consciousness on the negotiation of ethnicity and the structuring of group boundaries among national history teachers in Quebec. The province’s ambiguous ethnic dominance between Francophones and Anglophones sets the stage for revealing how teachers from Quebec’s parallel history classrooms historicize meanings of the past for ethno-cultural awareness and agency. Depending on how inter-group realities are constructed, these educators can either promote inter-group comprehension or preserve rigid co-existence.

The first article theorizes how social actors’ differing capacities to historicize the past, or to generate moral life patterns for temporal orientation, underlie their negotiations of ethnicity and agency toward the “significant Other.” By developing a repertory of parallel and equal tendencies of historical consciousness for grasping fluctuations in ethnic boundary maintenance, the article moreover argues how social actors’ willingness to recognize human moral and historical agency is central to group boundary porosity.

The second article discusses the findings of an exploratory study conducted on inter-group attitudes and mutual in-class treatments between Francophone and Anglophone educators in Montreal national history classrooms. Whereas most Francophone respondents are indifferent to Anglo-Québécois social realities and historical experiences, all Anglophone ones know and transmit those of the Franco-Québécois to their students. Mirroring each group’s sociological status, this divergence implies a dissimilarity in how past inter-group relations are historicized. Possible non-recognition of Anglo-Québécois moral and historical agency moreover explains the prevalent indifference among Francophone respondents.

The last article touches upon an in-depth study conducted on Francophone national history teachers’ historical consciousness of the Anglo-Québécois. By testing my aforementioned repertory, the study analyzed how respondents historicize temporal change when negotiating ethnicity and structuring group boundaries. While their views on “history” and their historicizing of different thematic contexts overwhelmingly lead respondents to reinforce ethno-cultural differences and to not recognize human moral and historical agency, half of them nonetheless demonstrate openness to learning about and transmitting Anglo-Québécois social realities and historical experiences. Despite such willingness, reliance on pre-established historical visions for constructing inter-group realities nevertheless highlights the exclusion of the latter when respondents set out to develop a national identity among students.

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux effets de la conscience historique sur les négociations de l’ethnicité et la structuration des frontières intergroupes chez les enseignants d’histoire nationale au Québec. L’ambiguïté de dominance ethnique entre Francophones et Anglophones contextualise la façon dont les enseignants de ces groupes historicisent les significations du passé pour se connaître et s’orienter « ethniquement. » Selon leurs constructions des réalités intergroupes, ils peuvent promouvoir la compréhension intergroupe ou préserver une coexistence rigide.

Le premier article théorise comment les capacités à historiciser le passé, ou à générer des formes de vie morales pour une orientation temporelle, soutiennent la construction de l’ethnicité. En développant un répertoire des tendances de conscience historique parallèles et égales afin de comprendre les fluctuations dans le maintien des frontières ethniques, l’article souligne l’importance de la volonté à reconnaître l’agentivité morale et historique des humains à rendre les frontières plus perméables.

Le deuxième article discute d’une étude sur les attitudes intergroupes et les traitements mutuels entre des enseignants d’histoire Francophones et Anglophones. Alors que la plupart des répondants francophones sont indifférents aux réalités sociales et expériences historiques des Anglo-québécois, tous les répondants anglophones en sont conscients et enseignent celles des Franco-québécois. Cette divergence implique une dissemblance dans la manière dont les relations intergroupes passées sont historicisées. La non-reconnaissance de l’agentivité morale et historique des Anglo-québécois peut expliquer l’indifférence des répondants francophones.

Le dernier article présente une étude sur la conscience historique des enseignants d’histoire francophone à l’égard des Anglo-québécois. En mettant le répertoire de conscience historique développé à l’épreuve, l’étude se concentre sur la manière dont les répondants historicisent le changement temporel dans leurs négociations de l’ethnicité et leurs structurations des frontières. Tandis que leurs opinions sur l’« histoire » et leurs historicisations des contextes différents les amènent à renforcer des différences ethnoculturelles et à ne pas reconnaître l’agentivité morale et historique de l’Autre, presque la moitié des répondants démontre une ouverture à apprendre et transmettre les réalités et expériences anglo-québécoises. La dépendance sur les visions historiques préétablies pour construire les réalités intergroupes souligne néanmoins l’exclusion de ce dernier groupe dans le développement d’une identité nationale.

Source/Credit:

Paul Zanazanian