Tag Archives: curriculum

New Brunswick History Curriculum: Language Rights and Place-based History Education

      2 Comments on New Brunswick History Curriculum: Language Rights and Place-based History Education

As part of our History curriculum series, and as a complement to December’s post on collaborative curricula, Cynthia Wallace-Casey discusses New Brunswick’s unique diverse, regional, and bilingual approach to History and Social Studies curricula.  As the only officially bilingual province in Canada, New Brunswick holds a unique position regarding history education and collaborative curriculum development. In this province, it is as… Read more »

Sex Ed, Gay-Straight Alliances, and the Alberta Curriculum

      1 Comment on Sex Ed, Gay-Straight Alliances, and the Alberta Curriculum

Shawn W. Brackett and Nancy Janovicek The Alberta government is engaged in a six-year comprehensive overhaul of the K-12 school curriculum, the first major reform in thirty years. In response to calls for consultation with stakeholders, the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta (CCSSA) has proposed an alternate sex education program that reflects Catholic teachings. Inclusion and diversity are… Read more »

Ontario History Curriculum: Many Questions to be Answered

      3 Comments on Ontario History Curriculum: Many Questions to be Answered

By Samantha Cutrara This academic year I’ll be writing a series of blog posts for Active History focused on history education in Canada. In these posts, I’ll be outlining the Canadian History and Social Studies curricula for each province and identifying some possible opportunities for collaboration between historians/archivists and teachers in elementary and secondary schools. As I mentioned in my… Read more »

Do you know what the children are learning?

      9 Comments on Do you know what the children are learning?

By Samantha Cutrara What is the purpose of learning history? Are we doomed to repeat it? Do we lose grounding? Are we stranded without space or place? Does history provide us with the skills for understanding evidence or content for narrating experience? As adults, as educators, as historians, we answer these questions with a blend of cliché and seriousness, never… Read more »

Democratically Creating Historical Thinking for the Common Good

      3 Comments on Democratically Creating Historical Thinking for the Common Good

By Stanley Hallman-Chong The history curriculum in Ontario is part of a larger set of curricula that embrace several other subjects and disciplines, including Social Studies, Civics, Geography, Law, Politics, and Economics. Hence when the Ontario Ministry of Education proceeded to review its history curriculum, it sought to create a common structure and an element of unity that would encompass… Read more »

What will the future history of today look like? Digital literacy for the next generation.

      4 Comments on What will the future history of today look like? Digital literacy for the next generation.

Ian Milligan argues that we will need to make dramatic changes to history undergraduate curriculums by aggressively implementing digital literacy programmes. This will benefit both our students and the historical profession.

The New Huck Finn

      2 Comments on The New Huck Finn

A new edited version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be published with the most offensive terms edited out. What are the merits and problems of this approach to difficult classic literature?

History on Stage: Performance Art and Commemoration of the Winnipeg General Strike

      No Comments on History on Stage: Performance Art and Commemoration of the Winnipeg General Strike

by Jamie Trepanier Playwright Danny Schur is convinced that the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 has more than enough compelling storylines for a major musical production, and that its message is one that is still relevant today. “The story has all of the elements of high drama:  societal unrest, government suppression of rights, aftermath of war, dramatic death in the… Read more »

New Active History Paper: Citizenship Literacy and National Self-identity by Larry A. Glassford

      No Comments on New Active History Paper: Citizenship Literacy and National Self-identity by Larry A. Glassford

Abstract The content of history textbooks and curriculum is an important factor in the political socialization of succeeding generations of students. This study of representative classroom textbooks authorized for use in Ontario at three distinct eras of the 20th century shows how the main lines of interpretation have shifted over time. During the pre-World War II era, the persistent underlying… Read more »