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Who Killed Canadian History?
... Contention in the public domain has centered on museum exhibitions (Conrad, 2008;MacMillan, 2008), commemorations and memorials (Seixas and Clark, 2004) and filmic portrayals (Smith, 2006;Waiser, 9 March, 2006). In the domain of academia, debate has focused on whether political, military, or social history should provide the predominant framework for historical accounts (Bliss, 1991-92;Dummitt, 2009;Granatstein;1998). In education, curriculum (Cardin, 2010;Éthier and Lefrançois, 2011;Granatstein, 1998;Létourneau, 2011;Neatby, 1953;Osborne, 2000;Osborne, 2003;Osborne, 2004;Osborne, 2006;Osborne, 2011) and textbooks (Conrad and Finkel, 2003;Clark, 2006;Clark, 2008;Clark, 2014;Helyar, 2014;Humphries, 1968) have been at the center of the storms. ...
... Contention in the public domain has centered on museum exhibitions (Conrad, 2008;MacMillan, 2008), commemorations and memorials (Seixas and Clark, 2004) and filmic portrayals (Smith, 2006;Waiser, 9 March, 2006). In the domain of academia, debate has focused on whether political, military, or social history should provide the predominant framework for historical accounts (Bliss, 1991-92;Dummitt, 2009;Granatstein;1998). In education, curriculum (Cardin, 2010;Éthier and Lefrançois, 2011;Granatstein, 1998;Létourneau, 2011;Neatby, 1953;Osborne, 2000;Osborne, 2003;Osborne, 2004;Osborne, 2006;Osborne, 2011) and textbooks (Conrad and Finkel, 2003;Clark, 2006;Clark, 2008;Clark, 2014;Helyar, 2014;Humphries, 1968) have been at the center of the storms. ...
... In the domain of academia, debate has focused on whether political, military, or social history should provide the predominant framework for historical accounts (Bliss, 1991-92;Dummitt, 2009;Granatstein;1998). In education, curriculum (Cardin, 2010;Éthier and Lefrançois, 2011;Granatstein, 1998;Létourneau, 2011;Neatby, 1953;Osborne, 2000;Osborne, 2003;Osborne, 2004;Osborne, 2006;Osborne, 2011) and textbooks (Conrad and Finkel, 2003;Clark, 2006;Clark, 2008;Clark, 2014;Helyar, 2014;Humphries, 1968) have been at the center of the storms. ...
Este artículo profundiza en los debates históricos y actuales en Canadá sobre la historia nacional y la enseñanza de la historia en el complicado escenario de trece jurisdicciones educativas de Canadá. En este trabajo se analizan los debates sobre los contenidos en la enseñanza de la historia y en los libros de texto, así como los enfoques en la escuela. Se analizan las formas en que un enfoque de pensamiento histórico está consolidándose en todo el país en el período actual, con una mayor atención a la investigación en la enseñanza de la historia y su difusión y su mayor presencia en los planes provinciales. Se considera el papel del gobierno federal en estos cambios, las organizaciones privadas sin fines de lucro, y los proyectos financiados por el gobierno nacional, tales como el Historical Thinking Project y The History Education Network.
... In Canada, historical thinking is guided by a framework that evolved out of Seixas's (1993Seixas's ( , 2017) theoretical research around how historians 'tackle the difficult problems of understanding the past' (Seixas and Morton, 2013: 7). This call for educational reform was rooted in Canada's 'History Wars' of the 1990s, which took place at a time when nationalists such as Jack Granatstein (1998) and the Dominion Institute rallied for the revival of history in schools -for the purpose of promoting national unity (Seixas, 2010: 19). Rather than engaging in battles regarding which national narrative should be taught over another, however, Seixas proposed that Canada set its 'History Wars' aside, and instead adopt a common framework for historical inquiry, by which students could learn to investigate the past for themselves. ...
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada released a Final Report containing 94 Calls to Action. Included were calls for reform in how history is taught in Canadian schools, so that students may learn to address such difficult topics in Canadian history as Indian Residential Schools, racism and cultural genocide. Operating somewhat in parallel to these reforms, social studies curricula across Canada have undergone substantial revisions. As a result, historical thinking is now firmly embedded within the curricula of most provinces and territories. Coupled with these developments are various academic debates regarding public pedagogy, difficult knowledge and student beliefs about Canada’s colonial past. Such debates require that researchers develop a better understanding of how knowledge related to Truth and Reconciliation is currently presented within Canadian classrooms, and how this may (or may not) relate to historical thinking. In this paper, I explore this debate as it relates to Indian Residential Schools. I then analyse a selection of classroom resources currently available in Canada for teaching about Truth and Reconciliation. In so doing, I consider how these relate to Peter Seixas’s six concepts of historical thinking (Seixas and Morton, 2013), as well as broader discussions within Canada about Indigenous world views, historical empathy and Reconciliation.
... Traditionalists (e.g. Granatstein 1998;Sewall 2010) advocate a celebratory approach to teaching the nation's history to instil patriotism and foster social cohesion. Their critics (e.g. ...
This study examines how secondary history teachers in the United States and Canada understand their role in promoting citizenship and national identities. Building upon Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’, I argue that compulsory history classes are key sites
for imagining the nation and communicating norms about citizenship. While the citizenship education literature has begun to explore teachers’ beliefs about citizenship, researchers in the fields of citizenship education and history education have not examined how history teachers understand
the ‘good’ citizen or the place of their subject in forming national identities. I interviewed thirteen secondary history teachers (seven US/six Canadian) to examine their beliefs about citizenship and national identity. I sought to understand how they engage with broader discourses
about citizenship and the nation. Twelve of the thirteen teachers described the good citizen in ways consistent with Westheimer and Kahne’s models of the personally responsible citizen and the participatory citizen. US teachers also expressed a desire to foster students’ individual
judgement and critical thinking skills, whereas Canadian teachers stressed the importance of fostering national identity as well as students’ responsibility to the collective good.
... Blame for knowledge deficits among the young are variously attributed to, among other things, the school system and the mass media (i.e., Granatstein, 1996). The specialized KIP provides a more socially embedded explanatory approach to the problem, however. ...
Competing claims about the level of ignorance, or knowledge, among the current Nexus generation are addressed. The core of the paper is a theoretical analysis of ignorance in the knowledge society. Specifically, the knowledge-ignorance paradox suggests that the intense specialization demanded by a knowledge economy militates against a broader information society and gives rise to "reading reluctance." To provide evidence for this analysis, the results of a small-scale study testing the idea of a "functional knowledge deficit" are presented. Students were asked to identify metaphorical terms that are commonly used without definition in newspaper captions. The results revealed that students could only identify about 30% of these common expressions, and that they did not do better with terms derived from computers or the popular culture. Significant differences were also found between male and female responses. Both the implications of the findings and further avenues of research are discussed.
... For many in the governing classes, memory has been invested with the character of a "magical" heal-all that can "solve problems where more instrumental approaches, such as political agreements, have failed" (West, 2002: 217). One of the main governmental memorial strategies takes the form of neoconservative retrenchment (Granatstein 1999). In fiery tirades that appropriate the discourse of the memory crisis to attack everything from popular culture to multiculturalism policy, prominent public figures such as Lynne Cheney (wife of Dick Cheney and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under Ronald Reagan) and Jack Granatstein (author of Who Killed Canadian History? and former Director of the Canadian War Museum) have called for a return to the good old days of nationalist "great man" history. ...
... Historians of the 1970s and 1980s, he charged, had spent most of their time researching and teaching students about pork-packing, Marxist labour organizers, prisons and insane asylums, parish politics, and what he derisively described as "the history of housemaid's knee in Belleville in the 1890s." "Really," he added, "Who cares?" 40 The Ontario high school history curriculum did gradually come to reflect that "limited identities" outlook. After the introduction of a new History and Contemporary Studies curriculum in 1987-88, Canadian history came to be taught in Grade 9 or 10 under the rubric "Life in Contemporary Canada" and again in Grade 13/OAC level within a North American comparative history framework. ...
... Similar criticism has been made elsewhere in Canada (see Osborne, 2003;Sandwell, 2012). For historian Jack Granatstein (1998), the educational focus on multiculturalism, whole-child development, and civic education has led to a generation of teachers who "scarcely teach history, so busy are they fighting racism, teaching sex education, or instructing English as a second language for recent immigrants" (p. 3). ...
Cet article s’interesse a la conscience historique des futurs professeurs d’histoire au Canada. Realisee aupres de participants benevoles (N=233) a l’aide d’un outil de sondage en ligne s’inspirant de la recherche pancanadienne Les Canadiens et leurs passes, cette enquete etudie les connaissances de base, la perception de la fiabilite des sources, l’experience en classe d’histoire et la vision de l’histoire en milieu scolaire de futurs enseignants. Les resultats mettent en lumiere le fait que peu d’entre eux possedent une connaissance approfondie de l’histoire canadienne. De plus, ceux-ci ont peu d’experience des methodes d’enseignement basees sur l’enquete historienne. Cependant, une majorite des futurs professeurs a une representation tres pregnante de ce qu’est l’histoire en milieu scolaire et de ses fins. Cet article aborde les retombees de cette recherche, notamment le besoin de communautes professionnelles d’enseignants de l’histoire.
... Paquet (1988) considère que le multiculturalisme entretient des inégalités au sein de groupes culturellement diversifiés, l'égalité n'étant qu'une illusion parce que le multiculturalisme est un facteur pouvant conduire à des conflits, facilitant l'importation et la perpétuation de conflits ethniques et religieux en provenance d'autres pays (Garcea, 2008). Une autre limite du multiculturalisme est le fait qu'il a produit une mauvaise allocation des ressources gouvernementales pour l'intégration des immigrants, qui, par la suite, n'ont pas pu acquérir l'identité nationale de ce pays (Granatstein, 1998). Fleras et Elliot (2002) considèrent qu'il y a 5 grandes catégories d'aspects qui peuvent provoquer des effets à la fois positifs et négatifs en termes de multiculturalisme : division versus unification, essentialisation versus hybridation, marginalisation versus inclusion, hégémonie versus hégémonie, déception versus catalyse. ...
Le multiculturalisme est une nouvelle ère de mondialisation et la diversité culturelle est inévitable, mais cette diversité peut ajouter de la valeur aux entreprises. À l’avenir, il y aura une relation de plus en plus étroite entre la mondialisation, la diversité culturelle, le management opérationnel et la gestion des relations avec les parties prenantes.Le sport est caractérisé par une concurrence féroce. Les organisations sportives sont de plus en plus contraintes de transposer les pratiques managériales présentes dans les entreprises et d’adopter les caractéristiques opérationnelles et structurelles des entreprises commerciales. La pression pour atteindre les objectifs économiques et la concurrence exercée par les organisations sportives a encouragé les dirigeants sportifs à considérer les outils et les concepts appliqués dans les affaires tels que la culture organisationnelle. Contrairement à d’autres domaines d’activité, le sport présente certaines particularités. La plupart du temps dans le sport, une seule organisation peut atteindre son objectif de remporter la compétition, et les situations dans lesquelles plusieurs équipes atteignent leur objectif sont rares. Toutes les équipes, quel que soit le sport et quel que soit le niveau de ressources disponibles, essaient de gagner chaque match et chaque compétition. Aucune équipe qui se respecte n’entre sur le terrain avec l’idée de perdre. Ainsi, au fil du temps, il y a eu des exemples d’organisations qui, avec des ressources minimales, ont réussi à dépasser dans les classements et les organisations de compétitions avec des ressources beaucoup plus précieuses.Tout d’abord, la question du management multiculturel prend de plus en plus d’importance à mesure que la société se mondialise de plus en plus. Ainsi, dans le contexte de la mondialisation, de plus en plus d’individus différents doivent travailler ensemble et former une équipe, et cet aspect est de plus en plus visible dans le sport.Deuxièmement, chaque société et chaque organisation ont besoin de règles pour fonctionner dans un environnement optimal. Ces réglementations doivent être proposées par un organe décisionnel légitime, qui donne confiance à ceux qui sont sous l’influence de ces réglementations. Dans une société de plus en plus mondialisée, il y a à la fois des réglementations internationales et nationales, et celles-ci peuvent influencer positivement ou négativement l’activité des organisations sportives multiculturelles. Par exemple, il y a des réglementations nationales qui exigent un nombre minimum de joueurs locaux ou interdisent l’accès des joueurs qui n’ont pas joué pour leur équipe nationale. D’autre part, il y a des réglementations qui facilitent l’obtention plus rapide d’une citoyenneté ou des réglementations qui interdisent les confrontations sportives entre certains pays ayant connu des conflits historiques.
... cation and heritage projects by national and local governments, churches and religious groups, grassroots movements, and the tourist industry (Black, 2005;Lowenthal, 1998Lowenthal, , 2015Grever et al., 2012). These practices have resulted in clashes, known as "cultural wars" or "history wars" (Anderson, 1996;Ghandi, 1998;Granatstein, 1998;Grever & Stuurman, 2007;Haydn, 2012;Macintyre & Clark, 2004;Taylor & Guyver, 2012;Windschuttle, 1994). Despite the variety of interventions and critiques regarding history education-that is, teaching, learning and the making of educational materials-, in countries all over the world, the idea of an eroding national framework still evokes fierce emotions and concern for politicians, policymakers and the public at large (Carretero, 2011). ...
In the Introduction Carretero, Berger and Grever present an overview of the main issues that are currently discussed in relation to historical culture and history education. They introduce the 38 chapters of the Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education written by scholars from the Americas, Europe and Asia, providing an international and global perspective on these matters. The Handbook is organized into four parts: (a) Historical Culture and Public Uses of History; (b) The Appeal of the Nation in History Education of Postcolonial Societies; (c) Reflections on History Learning and Teaching; (d) Educational Resources: Curricula, Textbooks and New Media. The Introduction also explains the interdisciplinary approach of the Handbook, evidenced by contributions from History, Education, Social and Cognitive Psychology and other Social Sciences.
... Por supuesto, se habrá comprendido que los hechos de los que se reclama aquí la orgullosa transmisión, son los acontecimientos relacionados con el relato nacional de la mayoría blanca descendiente de la colonización inglesa a la que pertenecen las élites locales… La Inglaterra de la Sra. Thatcher sufrió presiones análogas en los años 1980 y 1990 por el retorno de «acontecimientos notables» de la historia nacional (Enrique VIII, la victoria de Nelson en Trafalgar, etc.) (Balwin, 1990), así como en los Estados Unidos, algunos años más tarde, con la querella de los National History Standards (Clark, 2006). En Canadá, durante los años 1990, el ataque de J. L. Granatstein (1998) y de otros contra la historia enseñada en las escuelas (una historia que habría -sin razón, según él-capitulado bajo los obuses de las reivindicaciones feministas, nacionalistas quebequenses, etc.) se inscribe igualmente en los mismos parámetros. Para Clark, los conservadores deploran «la ignorancia» factual del pasado solamente cuando ella concierne a ciertos hechos precisos relacionados con la valoración del nacionalismo. ...
Este articulo presenta y analiza un ejemplo del debate sobre la ensenanza de la Historia que tiene lugar en la mayoria de los paises del mundo desde hace ya varios anos. En este caso, es
el que se realiza en Quebec sobre la ensenanza de la historia nacional en la escuela secundaria desde la reforma iniciada en 2001. Se senala que la ensenanza de la historia en Quebec se centra
desde hace tiempo en la formacion de ciudadania, se muestra la reforma de los programas y el debate que han generado. A continuacion, se analiza la relacion entre los cursos de Historia
actuales y el nacionalismo de Quebec y de Canada. Por ultimo, se analiza la posicion de algunos estudiosos en este debate. Los autores no ocultan su oposicion a los discursos nacionalistas
de los chauvinistas de Quebec incluso si son ellos mismos nacionalistas de Quebec y no apoyan el programa o el estado, incluso si quieren negar las habladurias de los opositores
del programa y si apoyan la idea de centrar el programa en el desarrollo de las habilidades y actitudes criticas relacionadas con la Historia. Con este articulo se quiere contribuir a una
internacional de especialistas en didactica que luchen contra el mismo problema.
... saw national historians and regional and social historians debate the merits of each other's approaches in a variety of books and articles. For more on the history wars see Granatstein(1998), McKillop (1999, and Palmer (1999), as in the References section below. ...
This article examines the state of Atlantic Canadian digital history. As Canadian granting agencies increasingly favour applications deemed relevant to business interests, it is difficult to secure funding to present Atlantic Canadian digital history. In order to secure the funding necessary to conduct Atlantic Canadian digital history, interdisciplinary team research strategies must be adopted, as Canadian granting agencies display greater willingness to support broad, multi-institutional collaborations. Moreover, such institutional partnerships will hopefully revitalize Atlantic Canadian digital history – which thus far has simply replicated the print paradigm – by encouraging historical presentation in novel and engaging ways, such as through educational gaming.
... Historianopetuksen merkitys kansallisen identiteetin vahvistamisessa on jälleen nostettu voimakkaasti esille (esim. Granatstein 1998;ks. myös Perussuomalaisten aateperusta 2013). ...
Historiantutkimuksessa on viime vuosikymmeninä tapahtunut mittavia muutoksia sekä tutkimuskohteiden, tutkittavien aineistojen että menetelmien osalta. Yliopistollinen historianopetus on kuitenkin uudistunut tänä aikana vähemmän, erityisesti jos muutosta verrataan tutkimustyössä ja ympäröivässä yhteiskunnassa tapahtuneeseen kehitykseen. Nämä muutokset ovat heijastuneet opetukseen lähinnä sisältöjen osalta: uudentyyppiset lähteet, tutkimuskohteet ja menetelmät ovat vähitellen siirtyneet myös osaksi akateemista historianopetusta. Itse opetusmuotoihin sekä tapoihin opettaa ja suhtautua niin opetukseen kuin opiske-lijoihinkin tämä muutos on vaikuttanut vähemmän ja heijastuen lähinnä yksittäisten opettajien toiminnassa. Epäsuhta ei toki ole vain kansallinen vaan koskee historian oppiainetta globaalisti. Tämä artikkeli pureutuu yhteen historian akateemisessa opetuksessa varsin sitkeästi istuvaan käytäntöön, arvioinnin opettajajohtoisuuteen.
... 10 En un reciente trabajo, J.L. Granatstein critica la política del multiculturalismo por promover el separatismo, y fomentar "la idea entre los inmigrantes... de que Canadá, y en particular el Canadá de habla inglesa, no tiene cultura ni nacionalidad propia" . 11 Cuestiona la visión del gobierno federal de que la identidad canadiense no está basada en una cultura nacional, sino en los principios de justicia, paz y solidaridad comprensiva, y defiende que tal identidad debería basarse en "la historia y el patrimonio inglés que comparten los canadienses" . 12 Tal y como lo ve Granatstein, "ya que los inmigrantes han venido a una sociedad ya formada, deben aceptar sus costumbres y adaptarse a sus normas" , al tiempo que el gobierno debería convertir a los inmigrantes "en ciudadanos canadienses tan rápido como fuese posible, a fin de proporcionarles el conocimiento cultural que necesitan para comprender y para prosperar en nuestra sociedad" . ...
Well-meaning assimilationists, as well as those threatened that the predominantly English culture in Canada and the United States will be overwhelmed by cultural elements brought by ethnocultural immigrant groups with them, have led the strident attacks against multiculturalism in both countries. Though apparently persuasive, close analysis of these attacks in Canada shows that they are based on lack of understanding or ignorance of the multiculturalism policy. The policy can be understood best by making a distinction between a multination state, with sovereignty rights claimed by national groups within it, and a polyethnic state, with polyethnic rights claimed by its cultural minority groups. The Canadian policy of multiculturalism pertains to the latter. Analysis of its intent and its constituent principles reveals that it is consistent with the democratic ethos of the country; as well, its philosophy has found expression not only in official pieces of legislation but also in the constitutionally entrenched Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Litigation in the courts sustains the view that Section 27 of the Charter, drawing from this philosophy, has given recognition to, and protection for, the rights of ethnocultural members in the country. Indeed, in light of court decisions, and the philosophy behind the policy, there is no need to worry about a kind of multicultural education in which citizenship education occupies a prominent role.
... T'as l'impression de changer de pays même si tu restes au Canada. (MSS female student) From this research, however, we cannot conclude so freely that Québec history courses contribute actively to the formation of sovereignists as claimed by some Canadian critics (see Nemni, 1996;Granatstein, 1998). Of course, programs, textbooks, and teaching practices of teachers are influenced by Québec political and ideological trends, as noted by the following teacher. ...
This article explores how British Columbia and Québec high school students construct and understand their citizenship in light of their history/social studies experience. Two multi-ethnic high schools, one in Montréal and one in Vancouver, provided a window into Québec history (grade 10) and B.C. social studies (grade 11). Key citizenship concepts (rights, participation, cultural pluralism, and identity) developed in political theory guided this study. Using a multiple case study design, this qualitative study employed multiple data collection: document analysis, school and classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews with key participants. The findings suggest that, despite different programs and teaching approaches, students in both sites accord an importance to citizenship. Yet, contrasts emerge between francophone Québécois and anglophone British Columbians, particularly in terms of identity.
... Around the globe, public controversies on collective memory and history canons are always a good indicator for problems and tensions within or between societies. 1 Usually, the spokespersons of these debates criticize the supposed lack of historical consciousness, referring to the selection of topics in the school history curriculum and other historical representations (e.g. Windschuttle 1994;Granatstein 1998;Macintyre and Clark 2004;Grever and Stuurman 2007). But sometimes they also challenge the premises of historical thought. ...
Around the globe, public controversies on collective memory and history canons are always a good indicator for problems and tensions within or between societies. Usually, the spokespersons of these debates criticize the supposed lack of historical consciousness, referring to the selection of topics in the school history curriculum and other historical representations (Granatstein, 1998; Macintyre & Clark, 2004; Grever & Stuurman, 2007). But sometimes they also challenge the premises of historical thought. In Canada, for example, some educators call for an incorporation of oral traditions and cyclical conceptions of time in the history curriculum, including claims for "indigenous epistemologies" as alternatives to modern historical consciousness (Seixas, 2012). Studying the social and cultural consequences of these debates and the last mentioned developments requires a framework of analysis which also involves conceptions of history, allowing us to better understand the dynamic interaction between human agency, tradition, performance of memory, and historical representations and their dissemination. The concept historical culture, broadly defined as "people’s relationships to the past", offers a good opportunity to construct such a framework.
In this chapter we start by outlining the rise of the concept of historical culture. Building on the impressive work of particularly German historians and philosophers, we will also critically assess the various changing meanings of the concept. Next, we will discuss historical culture as a concept of three mutually dependent and interactive levels of analysis: 1. historical narratives and performances of the past; 2. mnemonic infrastructures; 3. conceptions of history. We will conclude with some reflective remarks about our approach, especially in relation to history education practices.
... Students in Grade 1 continue to learn about roles and responsibilities and while grade 5 students will still learn about government and citizenship, there is a marked shift in notions of citizenship, one in which citizenship is now largely defined in relation to active involvement in the community.3 AsGranatstein (1998) argues, the national-political narrative should be the "standard history" and argues this in light of what he sees as a threat to its hegemony. Needless to say, such an argument has elicited various retorts from scholars (seeMcKillop, 1999;Stanley, 2000). ...
Literature on teacher education and encounters with race highlight some of the difficulties that teacher candidates face when they confront their own racialized subjectivities. However, many of these projects focus exclusively on Whiteness studies, explicating how White teacher candidates come to witness their own racialized Whiteness in relation to their epistemological understandings of the world. In this paper, I diverge from this pattern of thought, exploring a subset of the tenets of critical race theory, that of silences and exclusions, pervading my own teaching in a primary/junior social studies methods class and exploring how these structured my lessons. Specifically, I look at how counternarratives, critiques against liberalism, and multiculturalism and encounters with racialized and colonial supremacy were involved in my pedagogical strategies. I conclude by suggesting that although these methods may seem daunting for the primary/junior classroom, they can provide valuable insights for teacher candidate orientations to their own pedagogies. Keywords: social studies pedagogy; anti-racism in practice
... Ces deux monographies, 3 Notre traduction de: « a nation, as a whole, as a society, and not as a collection of races, genders, regions and classes. » (Granatstein 1998, 77) 4 On pourra lire avec grand intérêt le texte de J. M. Careless (1969) dans lesquelles l'auteur n'hésite pas à parler du Canada comme étant une terre occupée par plusieurs peuples, ont été publiées durant la crise constitutionnelle du début des années 1990. On y dépeint un Canada composé par de multiples nations, communautés, régions, identités de genre et de culture. ...
This article seeks to assess the Canadian federation's ability to meet the challenge of diversity in a multinational context. To do so, the author looks back at competing historical narratives and how political leaders proceed to advantage a vision or disqualify others as not reflecting the country's specific values. Second, the author explores the phenomenon of diversity – whether it is societal, ethnocultural, religious, linguistic or national in nature. This is one of the greatest challenges facing contemporary societies. Then, in a third step, the author discusses the central government’s adoption of a minimalist recognition policy inspired by constitutional patriotism. Finally, the analysis focuses on the vision proposed by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, which is synthesized in his statement that Canada would be nothing less than the first post-national state in the world.
Cet article veut évaluer la capacité de la fédération canadienne à relever le défi de la diversité en contexte multinational. Pour ce faire, l’auteur fait un retour sur les récits historiques en concurrence et sur la façon dont les chefs de file politiques s’y prennent pour les faire cohabiter en les mettant en valeur ou, à l’opposé, en cherchant à les disqualifier comme ne reflétant pas les valeurs propres au pays. Puis, dans un deuxième temps, l’auteur explore le phénomène de la diversité – que celle-ci soit de nature sociétale, ethnoculturelle, religieuse, linguistique ou nationale. C’est d’ailleurs ici un des plus grands défis auquel les sociétés contemporaines sont confrontées. Puis, dans un troisième temps, l’auteur discute de l’adoption par le gouvernement central d’une politique de reconnaissance de type minimaliste inspirée par le patriotisme constitutionnel. Enfin, l’analyse se concentre sur la vision proposée par le gouvernement libéral de Justin Trudeau, laquelle est synthétisée dans sa déclaration voulant que le Canada constituerait rien de moins que le premier État post-national à l’échelle planétaire.
De 2006 à 2015, Stephen Harper a cherché à redéfinir l’identité canadienne en remplaçant le nationalisme libéral par un nationalisme néoconservateur. S’inspirant des « études du nationalisme », cet article propose trois conditions nécessaires à l’émergence d’un nouveau nationalisme : sentiment d’exclusion sociopolitique ; mobilisation politique de ce sentiment ; redécouverte et réinterprétation de l’histoire nationale. L’article explore cette dernière condition, soulignant l’importance de la politique étrangère et de l’histoire militaire dans la reconstruction du nationalisme canadien par le Parti conservateur sous Harper. L’analyse des travaux de Jack Granatstein montre que celui-ci a contribué à « redécouvrir » un passé national dont le projet identitaire néoconservateur s’est inspiré.
This chapter explores the role of history education in imagining the nations of the United States and Canada within the global order. I provide an overview of the discourses of national identity and relevant research on history education in each nation. Observing three US and two Canadian secondary history classes engaged in the study of World War II, I identify the schematic narrative templates that render the United States as a “reluctant hegemon” and Canada as uncertain of its claim to nationhood. The US story of the World War II as a fundamentally political narrative suggests an underlying narrative in which politics, rather than military or economic actions, are the driving force in history. Canadian narratives, on the other hand, portray different images of the war. Not only do military narratives dominate the narrative landscape, but the narratives attend in detail to the material experiences of ordinary soldiers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the need to critically read and rewrite the national narrative.
A comparison of the enacted history curriculumi in Canada and the United States presents an opportunity to draw conclusions about the processes by which citizenship and the nation are constructed in the high school history classroom. While this collection has largely focused on how textbooks represent the nation, this chapter examines the teacher’s role in “enacting” or teaching the narrative content of textbooks. The interaction between history teachers and textbooks is largely unstudied (Thornton, 2006), yet teachers have the power to reinforce, challenge, or complicate the story of the nation as told in textbooks and other texts.
In Canada, cultural diversity has always been a contested cornerstone of citizenship and of citizenship education. In the last decade, a number of provinces, including Alberta and Ontario, have published citizenship and character education documents and social studies curricula in which ideas of cultural diversity are central and shape dominant understandings of nationhood. Meanwhile, the federal government produced its own citizenship education text: a study handbook for adult immigrants taking the citizenship test. Recognizing an interesting opportunity to compare how citizenship and diversity are presented to youth and to adult immigrants, we offer a critical analysis of the extent to which current discourses reflect, revise, or reassert those that were prominent in the past. We find that within educational curricula, liberal social justice discourses are taking a background to those that promote social cohesion and a narrow vision of Canadian identity and history and that de-emphasize progressive ideals of engaging with difference and committing to social action policies. At the provincial K-12 level, a neoliberal understanding of individual development and economic rationales is dominant, while at the federal level, there is also a shift toward neoconservatism that recovers the imperial roots of Canadian citizenship ideals while covering up the strong history of equity, diversity, and civic action.
Politicians in many Western countries argue that the transmission of a coherent national past to younger generations will further the integration of minorities and contribute to responsible citizenship and social cohesion. However, the flip side of such a political role for history is that it can easily reduce history teaching to a branch of civics, guided by the political priorities of the government. Such a type of history might easily marginalize, or silence, dissenting perspectives and voices. The cognitive functions of history would be sacrificed to its ideological and moral functions. What's more, these government's interferences are contrary to the aims of history sui generis. Moreover, a univocal history would be unlikely to nourish the competence to judge competing perspectives on historical trends and events. Hence history in the service of nation building might lead to the smothering of history as a critical discipline.
Over the past years, memory has developed as an important theme, as much in public space in general as in the historical field in particular. Now, it can be perceived circulating around historical education. What benefits can we expect from this? After having recalled the modern conception of historical education and its goals, the paper considers, first, the place and role that memory occupies in the field of history, and, second, its possible place and role in the field of history education. Before concluding that the advantages to be drawn from this tendency are not evident, it may be wise to anticipate some effects opposite to what is expected from a modern historical education.
After establishing the spatiotemporal coordinates of the work, along with an interpretive perspective of political history, the metropolitan powers of France and England in their American expansion, autochthonous-Amerindian powers and colonial powers of New France and New England between 1661 and 1713 have been analysed.Después de fijar las coordenadas espacio temporales del trabajo, así como la óptica interpretativa de la historia política, se analizan los poderes metropolitanos de Francia e Inglaterra en su expansión americana, los poderes autóctonos-amerindios y los poderes coloniales de Nueva Francia y Nueva Inglaterra entre 1661 y 1713.
This paper presents a multi-voiced examination of educating for global citizenship from critical, interdisciplinary perspectives. The paper explores how insights from theoretical work on multiculturalism, race, religion, gender, language and literacy, and eco-justice can contribute to a critical global citizenship education practice. It reports the learning of a group of six Canadian PhD Candidates, who engaged in a year-long collaborative process to explore critical approaches to global citizenship education by focusing on key intersecting concerns, particularly critically understanding globalization. Drawing on theoretical considerations and discussions, the authors consider pedagogical implications for classroom teaching and learning.
Three years after the merger of the Progressive-Conservative and Reform parties, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Stephen Harper, won the federal election and formed a government, ending an era of Liberal dominance. The year 2006 was a turning point in recent Canadian history and the beginning of a period of fundamental transformation of numerous policies. During that time Conservative politicians launched a series of changes in Canadian public policies, which, among other things, encompass alteration of the official discourse on Canadian history. Subsequent victories in 2008 and especially in 2011 strengthened the Harper Conservatives and enabled them to continue the long term plan of changing the way Canadians perceive their past.
2014 brings an opportunity to look at the process of redefining the meaning of history in contemporary Canada. First, this year is marked with bold celebrations of the centenary of the First World War, which is in line with the more militant interpretation of history pursued by Stephen Harper’s government. The commemorations already resulted in restarting a debate among politicians, journalists, and ordinary Canadians, on what should constitute Canadian “remembered history.” The discussion in Canadian academia was heated up in May when Yves Frenette, professor of history at Université de Saint Boniface published an article in Canadian Journal of History entitled “Conscripting Canada’s Past: The Harper Government and the Politics of Memory.” Second, in November 2014 Stephen Harper became the sixth longest-serving prime minister. After more than eight years of Harper’s leadership it is becoming clearly visible what the main features of the “reinventing the nation project” are.
This essay uses this time frame opportunity and presents how the meaning of history is being redefined in contemporary Canada. It is divided into four parts. The first one tries to define the term “politics of memory.” The next section refers to how history was used in the past by Canadian politicians and also briefly depicts recent “history wars” among Canadian historians. The main part presents Stephen Harper’s politics of memory project. The last part tries to assess the programme and answer (from the perspective of a Polish scholar interested in Canadian studies) the question why the changes matter.
Cette analyse de contenu s'intéresse aux commentaires du public, dont de jeunes adolescents , sur la réception d'un film historique controversé du réalisateur Pierre Falardeau: 15 février 1839 (Payeur et Falardeau, 2001). Ce film traite de la pendaison de Patriotes à Montréal et semble exacerber les sentiments d'opposition entre francophones et anglo-phones. L'étude illustre qu'au-delà du biais apparent du réalisateur, les réactions aux films semblent plutôt dictées par le niveau de conscience historique du public ainsi que par la construction collective d'identités liées à la nation et à la race. Il est discuté du potentiel d'un film controversé sur la problématisation de la nation et la possibilité de favoriser une discussion critique afin de dépasser les lieux communs. Des implications didactiques à l'usage du film historique sont proposées pour une intégration en classe.
L’actuel programme d’« Histoire et éducation à la citoyenneté » pour le 2e cycle du secondaire, portant sur l’histoire du Québec, a suscité depuis 2006 de nombreux commentaires dans les milieux intellectuels en raison de son contenu. Certains affirment que la transmission des grands événements historiques qui structurent la mémoire collective ou nationale y est inexistante, d’autres soutiennent qu’il doit favoriser le développement des compétences critiques et citoyennes, donc, l’autonomie de l’élève face à la mémoire collective ou nationale. Quelle position les enseignants du secondaire occupent-ils dans ce débat ? Il est possible de le découvrir par l’entremise de la perception qu’ils se font du programme et de ses trois compétences.
While Canadians have been described as an “unmilitary people,” their historic affections for empire have contributed to a conspicuous reluctance to criticize past military exploits. A tradition of anti-imperialism, meanwhile, has colored American attitudes to war, and produced a powerful current of antiwar sentiment throughout US history – even as that nation developed into a dominant imperial power. This essay finds the source of these national discrepancies in the founding myths of each country and in subsequent demographic, economic, strategic, and ideological transformations which have both reinforced and challenged each nation's traditional responses to empire. The result is a relationship between war, imperialism, and national identity that is multifaceted, often paradoxical, and in certain instances, surprisingly antiquated.
When the Dutch columnist and right-wing populist politician Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated in 2002, published his diatribe Against the Islamisation of our Culture (1997) he used a historical narrative to illustrate what was most essential to ‘our’ culture.’ This is not so remarkable, in that since the nineteenth century one of history’s most important — and most contested — uses has been the justification, characterization and marking off of national identities. What was remarkable, however, was what he considered the most important historical change in the Netherlands since the emergence of the welfare state. After a brief overview of the history of the emancipation of women and the liberation of homosexuals in the final decades of the twentieth century, he concluded: ‘It is my moral judgement that this is humankind’s greatest mental and cultural achievement in the modern world since the creation of the welfare state. At any rate, I do not know of a greater accomplishment and effort of civilisation with more far-reaching results.’2 As Islam did not acknowledge equal rights for women and did not tolerate homosexuality at all, his argument went, Islam was a threat to a tolerant Dutch society at large.
Over the past years, memory has developed as an important theme, as much in public space in general as in the historical field in particular. Now, it can be perceived circulating around historical education. What benefits can we expect from this? After having recalled the modern conception of historical education and its goals, the paper considers, first, the place and role that memory occupies in the field of history, and, second, its possible place and role in the field of history education. Before concluding that the advantages to be drawn from this tendency are not evident, it may be wise to anticipate some effects opposite to what is expected from a modern historical education.
The French Association for Canadian Studies (AFEC) was created in 1976, immediately after the creation of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States and the British Association for Canadian Studies. From their respective beginnings, these three national associations have been concerned with the major challenges Canada has faced, in particular the relations between Quebec and the “rest of Canada,” the recognition of First Nations and the US–Canada relationship. In France, Canadian studies programs have been established at several universities since the 1970s. The institutionalization of Canadian studies has been reflected through the creation of AFEC and 18 centers of Canadian studies, the creation of a professional journal, Études canadiennes/Canadian studies, published for over 40 years, an annual conference, and extensive research contacts between scholars and institutions in France and those in Canada and Quebec. This dense and vibrant network of Canadian studies received a setback as a result of the Canadian government’s 2012 decision to end support for Canadian studies abroad. Nevertheless, France’s Canadian studies community has shown remarkable resilience, due largely to the personal and professional relationships that have been forged between academics and institutions in the two countries for over 40 years.
Versailles 1685: A Game of Intrigue was a historical videogame released in 1996. It claimed to be the first ludo-educational videogame. This paper intends to highlight the conflictual creation of the game Versailles 1685 through the study of its creation process. During the design of this game, two visions were at odds with each other: a historical approach versus an entertainment approach. According to our findings, this conflict shaped the final gameplay of the game, which led to inconsistencies and the limitation of the players' "historical agency." Although, in 1996, the debate between story and history was private for Versailles 1685, the question of the scientific authenticity of historical games is now a topic of interest for both scholars and videogames players. We hope that this paper will help understand Versailles 1685 and shine a new light on this question.
As the previous chapter has suggested, there is much to be said for regarding the period from 1870 to 1914 as witnessing ‘the zenith of the nation state’, seeing as it did the reconstruction of the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War, the unification of Italy and Germany, and the consolidation of the great industrial democracies of France and Britain.2 But as was also made plain, from the standpoint of the early twenty-first century, this no longer seems quite so complete or convincing a picture, even for Europe, let alone for the wider world beyond. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were relatively few sovereign states then in being, compared with the massive increase in numbers that would take place from 1945 onwards, and again after 1988, and many of those which did then exist were so complex in their histories, so sprawling in their jurisdictions, and so elaborate in their governing arrangements that the phrase ‘nation state’ describes them very inadequately and very incompletely. Britain, Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, China (and the United States) were all multi-national entities, each with a bewildering number of lands, regions and territories, inhabited by many different ethnic groups with fierce and sometimes competing national aspirations, and all of them held together under a no less bewildering variety of laws and constitutions. All of these essentially composite countries had been put together across the centuries, often as the result of dynastic arrangements and royal ambitions, and as such, they were not so much nation states as multiple monarchies, latter-day survivals (and developments) from the early modern European world.3
Résumé Cet article propose une interprétation divergente de la controverse sur les programmes d’enseignement de l’histoire du Québec. Il soutient que les opposants au programme se trompent lorsqu’ils affirment que l’éducation à la citoyenneté est une nouveauté. Depuis le rapport Parent, l’histoire devrait familiariser les élèves avec l’attitude et la méthode des historiens, pour en faire des citoyens plus autonomes, critiques et rationnels. Les auteurs de ce texte appuient cet aspect du programme, mais déplorent le rôle de l’école dans la reproduction sociale. L’article montre que ce programme repose sur un nationalisme civique québécois, et non sur le fédéralisme, et que certains historiens et sociologues critiques du programme défendent en fait un nationalisme chauvin. Les auteurs considèrent que la lutte contre l’oppression nationale des Québécois a plus à gagner avec la formation de l’esprit critique qu’avec la mémorisation d’un récit apologétique et qu’avec l’endoctrinement, quel qu’il soit. Enfin, l’article tient ce débat non pour le signe d’une tare propre au Québec, mais pour une situation normale qui trouve son pendant ailleurs. Abstract This article offers a new and different interpretation of the controversy surrounding the history curriculum in Quebec. It argues that the opponents of the current program are mistaken in claiming that its emphasis on citizenship education is a new development. Since the Parent report, the history curriculum has attempted to expose students to the approaches and methods used by historians, with the goal of making them into more autonomous, critical, and rational citizens. The authors support that aim, but deplore the role played by schools in social reproduction. They demonstrate that the current program is based around civic Québécois nationalism, and not support for federalism, and that some historians and sociologists who have criticized it are in fact proponents of a more chauvinistic nationalism. The authors believe that Quebec’s struggle against national oppression will benefit more from the development of critical thinking among students than from the memorization of justificatory narratives or indoctrination of any type. Finally, rather than viewing this debate as a problem unique to Quebec, the article asserts that it has numerous precedents elsewhere in the world.
How to teach the nation without churning out little nationalists? How to bring young people to adopt a critical stance about the(ir) nation while passing national reference points along? How to represent the nation in its dissonances and ambiguities while making sense of what she was and is? Létourneau argues that presenting the nation as an open rather than a closed place, as a reality that can be questioned rather than proof that must be preserved, and as a composite rather than unambiguous historical shape may be a promising path for teaching the transforming nation to a young audience. He maintains that by initiating them to the true and the good and giving them a foothold on the world they, in turn, can build it in their own way.
Par le biais d’une serie de propositions modestes, cet article cherche a aller au-dela de deux courants historiographiques lies a l’etude de la communaute politique quebecoise qui occultent la place des Premieres Nations au sein du recit historique national. L’auteur suggere des analyses du « fait indien » qui feraient mieux dialoguer les historiographies plus ou moins etanches portant sur le Quebec, d’une part, et sur sa population autochtone, de l’autre. En insistant sur des problemes methodologiques, souvent emergeant directement des projets politiques contemporains, ainsi que sur differentes manieres possibles de depasser ces derniers, l’objectif de ce texte est d’encourager un renouveau de la recherche en histoire autochtone au Quebec (recherche qui est, par ailleurs, deja en cours), non pas pour assimiler cette derniere au recit historique national, mais pour assurer que ces deux historiographies distinctes mais liees interagissent et s’inspirent mutuellement.
Public commemorative art adorns the landscapes of virtually all places in the world. Communities and individuals create artistic representations to reflect who they were, are (or perceive themselves to be), what they value today, and who they want to be in the future. These representations emerge from particular perspectives on and orientations to the past, and are fraught with problematic particularities and absences. This chapter examines the potential of public commemorative art to provide important points of convergence for examination in history education. It uses examples of commemorative art from a range of places to examine the potential for studying: the differences between the remembered past and academic history; the multiple historical eras represented in commemorative sites; the connections and disconnections between history and heritage education; and the relationship between history and citizenship education.
The Simon and Garfunkel classic, “The Sound of Silence,” criticizes silence that perpetuates oppression. Living amid familiar darkness, people struggle to hear others screaming for recognition. Social movements, some of which have used this song, have slowly changed the faces of oppression.
When O’Brien is torturing Winston Smith in the Ministry of Love, a certain Party slogan is repeated between the two men: ‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past’ (Orwell, 1962, pp. 204–5). In order to own the past, one has to control both written records and human memories. The ultimate power of the Party in 1984 resides in its ability to erase history; true freedom is to be aware of the past in all its various shades and representations, not just that decided upon by Big Brother and the censors at the Ministry of Truth. Or, as Simon Schama put it in his own discussion of 1984, having a ‘future, a free future at any rate, presupposes keeping faith with the past’ (Schama, 2002, p. 558).
Since at least 1970, Canadian writers have been working to represent historical events and Native life in their poetry and prose fictions mainly from a postcolonial perspective and metafictively. They have produced a broadly written fiction that is ideologically postmodern in its deconstruction of realist fiction's presumptions and designs respecting history, while in their interrogation of the ideology in received versions of narrative history they implicitly further their claim to a truer historical truth. Examples of this revisionist literature proliferate in contemporary Canadian literature, in works by every major Canadian writer of the past half-century. Apart from the politics of its implicit claim to historical truth, more often than not such art is lessened by sentimentalism. Two of the most celebrated examples of this continuing revisionist literary history are Joy Kogawa's Obasan (198120.
Kogawa , Joy . 1981. Obasan, Toronto: Penguin. Rpt2003 View all references), which deals with the mistreatment of Japanese Canadians during and after the Second World War—their forced evacuation from Canada's West Coast, their internment, the confiscation of their property, and for some their deportation—and Rudy Wiebe's representative short story. “Where is the Voice Coming From?” (1982), which works as do his big novels of various indigenous people's histories of victimization.
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