Synthesis and Fragmentation: the Case of Historians as Undergraduate Teachers

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By Ruth Sandwell

Collectively, historians’ work consists of constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing a vast edifice of knowledge about which generalizations and synthesis will vary according to the purposes of the historians and the audiences to whom they are directing any particular manifestation of their work. Historians tend to identify their work exclusively with their purposes and audiences as specialist scholars. But if history is a dialogue amongst people about the interpretation of meaningful evidence left over from the past, that dialogue occurs not only in our published articles and at scholarly conferences, but also in our undergraduate teaching. And it is through teaching, not writing, that historians reach what is certainly our largest, and what may be our most important, audience: undergraduate students. Continue reading →

Historical Thinking and Teacher Professional Development: The Poor Cousin of Curriculum Reform

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By Carla Peck

Plaque on the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne, Alberta. Photo Credit: Carla Peck, 2013.

Plaque on the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne, Alberta. Photo: C. Peck, 2013.

Curriculum reform is an enormous and expensive undertaking. Educational jurisdictions across Canada regularly engage in curriculum renewal, investing time, energy and a great deal of money into redesigning curricula to reflect current research, trends and societal priorities in teaching and learning. In Canada, history (and social studies) curricula are no exception, and currently much work is being done across the country to revise how history is taught and assessed in kindergarten through to grade twelve.

But changes to history and social studies curricula do not automatically lead to changes in teaching and learning. Why not? Doesn’t it automatically follow that if curricular content changes, then what is taught and learned will also change? No, it doesn’t.

Allow me to explain. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Thirty-Six: Historical Thinking and Teaching History

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By Sean Graham

As part of Active History’s Historical Thinking Week, the History Slam Podcast looked into how history is taught in high school. To do this, I traveled to an Ontario high school and spoke with both students and teachers about the challenges of teaching history in 2014 and some of the strategies used to get students interested in the past. While everyone had different opinions on what worked and what didn’t, there was unanimity on one point: the material must be presented in an engaging manner.

In the first part of this three-part episode, I talk with a grade 10 student about her changing perception of history. That is followed by my chat with a grade 12 student who is interested in teaching history as a career. The final part features my conversation with two teachers about teaching history, the methods they use in their classes, and the barriers to reaching students. We also discuss the content vs. skills debate and the pros and cons of digital tools in the classroom.
Continue reading →

Democratically Creating Historical Thinking for the Common Good

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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 all of the subjects and disciplines together. With this Hegelian task in mind, we will see how historical thinking became a part of Ontario’s revised curriculum and provide some account for why it took the shape it did. Continue reading →

Historical Thinking in the Secondary School Classroom

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By Lindsay Gibson

What has changed and what has remained the same about historical thinking in secondary schools since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister in 2006 (also happens to be the same year the Historical Thinking Project began)?

It is difficult to make generalizations about historical thinking in secondary school classrooms across Canada because there are differences in curricula, teachers, and students in each province and territory. Furthermore, as a secondary school social studies teacher in B.C. for the past twelve years I have limited experience in secondary school classrooms outside of B.C. beyond attending and presenting at national, regional and provincial social studies and history conferences, meetings, and workshops. In order to make any substantive claims about historical thinking in secondary schools it would be necessary to conduct a contemporary version of the pan-Canadian research study led by Hodgetts (1968), who investigated the teaching of Canadian history, social studies, and civics in schools across Canada.[1] Regardless of these difficulties, in this essay I highlight the achievements that have been made in embedding historical thinking in secondary school classrooms, and discuss the obstacles to increasing the uptake of historical thinking in secondary classrooms across Canada.

The Historical Thinking Project (hereafter HTP) aimed to reform history education by focusing on four interrelated areas: rewriting of provincial curricula, classroom materials, professional development, and valid and efficient assessment strategies. Continue reading →

History Education in Canada without Historical Thinking? A worrisome prospect

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By Heather E. McGregor

Recently Peter Seixas announced that the Historical Thinking Project (the Project) was denied ongoing funding by the Department of Canadian Heritage. This change was said to be because the purposes of the Project do not coincide with, as quoted from The Canada History Fund, “projects that celebrate key milestones and people who have helped shape our country as we know it today”.

Key accomplishments of the Project to date can be viewed here. Jurisdictions across Canada have taken substantial steps to adopt the Historical Thinking Concepts in provincial and territorial curricula, and the approaches recommended through this initiative have begun to make a difference to history education. I am exceedingly disappointed to hear that the federal government is moving towards funding initiatives that are as limited as the celebration of key milestones and key people. The Department of Canadian Heritage seems to be out of touch in setting this direction at a time when decision-makers across Canada have indicated their support for historical thinking as a mandatory part of student learning in public education.  Continue reading →

Lessons from the Past, Promises for the Future: Reflections on Historical Thinking in Canadian History

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By Thomas Peace

“Our historians have almost wholly ignored the existence of slavery in Canada.”

Two weeks ago these words echoed through Fountain Commons here at Acadia University.  Historians, educators and activists had gathered for Opening the Academy: New Strategies for Exploring and Sharing African Nova Scotian Histories. The message those of us in the audience heard was that African-Canadian history remains a marginal field in Canadian history. The words above – evoked at the conference, but originally delivered by T. Watson Smith in 1898 to the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society – still hold true today.[1]

It’s not my intention here to delve into the relative merits of this comparison (though a look through Watson Smith’s address makes one wonder just how far historical research has come over the past 115 years). Rather, I want to use Watson Smith’s statement as a way to introduce a more fundamental point about teaching history and communicating information about the past: it isn’t easy and it’s highly political.

This week ActiveHistory.ca has put together a series of blog posts that focus on the Historical Thinking Project. Scheduled to close its doors at the end of the month, the Historical Thinking Project has made a tangible difference in Canada’s historical landscape. Continue reading →

Podcast – “Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland” by Jan Grabowski

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Hunt for the JewsThe Ottawa Historical Association welcomed historian Jan Grabowski in January.

ActiveHistory.ca is happy to feature here his talk, “Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland.”

Grabowski is a professor at the University of Ottawa. His talk is based on his recent book of the same name (Indian University Press, 2013).

Towards a New Vision: A Long View of Canada’s Foreign Policy and Defence Challenges

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By Greg Kennedy

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable discussion held by the Department of Political Science here at the University of Moncton.  The topic was “Current Foreign Policy and Defence Challenges in Canada” and the roundtable included Jocelyn Coulon, an expert on Canada’s involvement with United Nations peacekeeping operations as well as Jean-François Caron, a political science professor studying Canada’s recent emphasis on bilateral relations with the United States.

Needless to say, I learned a lot.  In particular, I was struck by the importance of the symbolism of the Canadian peacekeeper in public opinion and the ways in which, since the end of the Cold War, military operations have evolved to include more complex counterinsurgency, reconstruction and other kinds of “nation-building”.  My role in this was to bring a historical view to these issues.  Given the current international crises in Syria and Ukraine, and this month’s end to Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, it seems an opportune moment to reflect on our country’s role in international affairs as well as how best to orient our military forces moving forward. Continue reading →

Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD On the Canadian Prairies

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Reviewed by Joanne Epp

When University of Saskatchewan professor Erika Dyck began investigating the use of lysergic acid diethylamide (commonly known as LSD) in psychiatric research, she was surprised at what she found. LSD has a bad reputation, to say the least. It’s widely seen as a dangerous drug that leaves its victims permanently damaged and prone to debilitating flashbacks. LSD has also been used in some decidedly unethical CIA-funded experiments. Yet there was a time when medical researchers saw LSD as a promising therapeutic treatment. Dyck describes Psychedelic Psychiatry as the result of her quest to understand the dichotomy between the public perception of the drug and its early history. Continue reading →