Creating "Gateways" into Social Studies Classrooms

THEN's "Imagining Gateways" conference was held in Halifax over Oct. 27^th- 29^th and was a real whirlwind. Although it came and went by so fast over the course of those three days, here is a summary of what I took from this great conference. 

Thursday evening:  The event held at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia (or the PANS to us locals) was great.  There were few attendees, over a dozen, but the information relayed to us through the archivists was really superb.  A colleague of mine was commenting on how exciting it was to see the archives produce excellent and relevant documents for educational use in comparison with what is available through the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.  Archivists ‘Barry & Gary,’ as we came to know them, were extremely knowledgeable (as to be expected), but they were also so enthusiastic when it came to educational resources that the PANS could offer to teachers and were adamant that teachers could become more involved with the PANS.  Both discussed different ways that students could use the archives in the classroom, from using historical pictures (as the archives holds over 100,000), discovering relevant Nova Scotian history (such as Helen Creighton’s personal fonds), and exploring their already organized virtual exhibits.  I was ecstatic to see so much desire to work with schools, which is what the conference was all about: joining institutions such as archives and museums with schools to work together.  Not to sound too corny, but archives really can be used as “gateways” to top-notch primary source documents! 

Friday morning:  The Nova Scotia Social Studies Teachers' Association (NSSSTA) sessions held at Lockview High School in Fall River were very intriguing.  I attended a session by the Historica-Dominion Institute and the THEN/HiER panel discussion: “Do History Teachers and Historians Talk? Should They?” I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by the Historica-Dominion Institute, which was about much more than the Historica minutes that they are well known for.  The representatives from Historica provided the group with information on the vast amount of educational programs they run, such as Sir John A. Day, where the teacher holds a birthday party for our first prime minister! and My Parks Pass, a year long pass to all the national historic sites and parks in Canada that are given to every grade eight student in the country.  This literally blew my mind, what a great way to teach your students using hands-on, experiential learning! 

The THEN/HiER panel session held great promise but I was left thinking, “Where are the teachers that should be here listening to this great discussion?”  There were a handful of people in the session, of which perhaps three were teachers, and the rest academics, archivists or museum professionals.  The potential for collaboration between these groups is obviously immense; it is just a matter of bridging the gap between them.  “The students you have today, are mine tomorrow,” a very important statement made by Dr. James Morrison, that many teachers and academics seem to forget.  I believe that the panel discussion was very well done and well received by those of us in attendance, however I was left wishing we had more time to continue our discussion.  

Overall I believe the portion of te conference I was most impressed with during the three day conference was the evening at the archives, spent with stories and songs by Ben Caplan, and some of the most inspiring individuals from the PANS.  Their genuine passion for the collections held within the walls of the archives really hit home with me, and as a researcher and as an educator I was enthralled with how many resources are available to teachers through the PANS website, before even walking in the doors! 

“Imagining Gateways” truly was an appropriate title for this conference; I believe there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, especially in hooking teachers’ interests when it comes to using the institutions that hold our provincial and national history that are readily at their use.   As I walk the line between both research and teacher, I am very glad to see that there are people out there trying to make these “gateways” for schools and historical institutions to utilize one another’s assets. 

Do you have any suggestions for how to create new “gateways” to enhance teachers' use of museums, historians, and archives? 

All images by author.