On the Undervaluing of History and Social Studies in Modern Education
Please note that this blog post represents the opinions of Danté Fosterdelmundo and is not representative of the official stance of the FCSS-FESC.
In education, subjects such as history are often controversial in subject matter; whether it be supposed political bias, too graphic for an age group or overall relevance. Regardless, it must be recognized that these “soft” subjects are crucial for modern education. Mishandling this portion of a student’s learning can dampen their worldview and lead to a misinformed generation.
The Alberta curriculum proposal was leaked in October 2020 and was universally panned by experts. Changes to social studies and history are a mockery of education that is relevant to the Canadian learner. Instead of respecting history for the wealth of skills that can be learned through its studies, such as critical thinking, research, and communication, the proposed changes decided that in history class, students should be practicing for a game of Memory.
The leaked proposals include a note about how, “History and geography, in particular, rely on a framework of integrated facts and understanding. The earlier that students’ memory can be trained and exercised by remembering basic building blocks.” Most of the introduction paragraphs go on about “memory building blocks,” without ever talking about actual historical thinking skills such as perspective, significance, and consequence. The writer proposes that in Grade 2, students should have four historical dates memorized, and by Grade 4 they should have a total of 36 memorized.
More insidious is the clear white-washing of Canadian history. All references to residential schools and the harms of European colonialism to the Indigenous peoples are scrubbed for later grades, and in Grades 3–4 concepts of “equity” were replaced to learn about feudalism and the Greek systems of governance. In the leaked document, “equity” was declared to be a partisan and politically charged buzzword.
There has been a significant movement within school governance, generally pushed through right-leaning politics, for the devaluing of liberal education in strong favour of STEM, or “job-ready” skills. In Ontario, the focus is on “Back to the basics” in all subjects, and soft sciences have been drawn the shortest straw. A curriculum rewrite that would boost Indigenous perspective was cancelled, as well as funding towards other specialized education programs.
Alberta’s case is more alarming, unlike Ontario where these are pushed as austerity, the direction that Alberta’s curriculum wishes to take insinuates that sections of public education have “political agendas.” This fearmongering often reduces the scientific and academic consensus in learning; issues such as intersectionality and climate change are minimized just because they are often hot-button topics.
This strong anti-intellectual stance is seeping into right-leaning policy towards education. Teachings that are hard to stomach in regards to Canada’s history and represent the newer, more progressive, findings of social sciences are cast under a shadow of suspicion as political brainwashing. As a result, the discussion around curriculum development is devolving into a bout of political squabbling instead of actual academic dialogue towards making a quality curriculum for teachers and, most importantly, students.
References
“Alberta Government to Release More Details on Education Curriculum Review.” CityNews Edmonton, 6 Aug. 2020, edmonton.citynews.ca/2020/08/06/alberta-government-to-release-more-details-on-education-curriculum-review/.
Crawley, Mike. “Ontario Cancels Curriculum Rewrite That Would Boost Indigenous Content | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 10 July 2018, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-education-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc-1.4739297.
French, Janet. Leaked Alberta School Curriculum Proposals Include Cutting References to Residential Schools, Equity | CBC News. 21 Oct. 2020, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/education-experts-slam-leaked-alberta-curriculum-proposals-1.5766570.
“On Education Doug Ford Will Respect Parents and Get Back to Basics.” Ontario PC Party, 8 May 2018, www.ontariopc.ca/on_education_doug_ford_will_respect_parents_and_get_back_to_basics.