AN ANALYSIS OF HOW THE ONTARIO SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM ADDRESSES ISSUES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE by Jonathan Avak Lambert A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Jonathan Avak Lambert (2018) An Analysis of How the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum Addresses Issues of Social Justice Jonathan Avak Lambert Master of Arts Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning University of Toronto 2018 Abstract While it is generally agreed that social studies is the integrated study of history, social sciences, and the humanities, there is significant debate about what to include and what to emphasize. With social justice increasingly on the Social Studies agenda, the most recent version of the Ontario Social Studies curriculum includes an increase in references to social justice and equity. Such curriculum, however, has yet to be thoroughly examined for how it addresses issues of social justice. As a result, informed by Critical Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I examine the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum for how it addresses social justice issues, such as the Indian Residential Schools, racism, gender, and disability.
Findings suggest that, despite its increasing use of vocabulary about social justice, the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum remains dominated by forms of bias that whitewash history and social relations in Canada. ii Acknowledgements With utmost gratitude, I am thankful to many people and places that were influential during this thesis. First I thank Dr. Jim Cummins and Dr.
Antoinette Gagné for very generous support and guidance. Your thoughtfulness, questions, attention, and insight have broadened my horizons significantly and provided great assistance along the path of my thesis journey. Also thank you for your outstanding commitment in respect of all students and for your ongoing, inspiring dedication to social justice and equity at OISE and internationally. I also thank professors at OISE such as Dr.
Stephen Bahry, Dr. Clare Brett, Dr. Karyn Cooper, Dr. Alister Cumming, Dr.
Daphne Heywood, Dr. Rahat Naqvi, Dr. Katherine Rehner, Dr. Peter Trifonas, and Dr.
John Wallace for providing experiences and opportunities to extend my capabilities and understanding. In many ways, you are a significant part of this thesis, my current work, and my future. Furthermore, I thank staff at the University of Toronto such as Mr. Terry Louisy, Ms.
Sasmita Rajaratnam, Ms. Lisa Rupchand, and Ms. Lucy Stelatto for administrative support at the university. I also thank many classmates and colleagues at OISE, including Souham Alkazaal, Tasneem Anjum, Themistoklis Aravossitas, Bapujee Biswabandan, Kayla Brodie, Alison Brooks, Hye Yoon Cho, Salma Farooqi, Kate Higgins, Eveline Houtman, David Kim, In Chull Jang, Amir Kalan, Eun-Yong Kim, Jia Luo, Yecid Ortega, Gail Prasad, Dr.
Saskia Van Viegen Stille, Xinchen Wang, and Choongil Yoon, for sharing conversation, insight, challenges, and solidarity. In addition to thanking people at OISE, I am thankful to many friends, and I am thankful to my family. I thank my mother, Kim Elizabeth Lambert (née Moligian), who passed away during my work on this thesis, and I thank my father, Brian George Lambert, for your support iii during my post-graduate studies and throughout everything. I thank my partner and wife, Wang Shiying, for 15 wonderful years together and for many more in the future.
I also thank my son, who is turning four years old while I complete this thesis. I also thank students and teachers with whom I worked as a teacher from 2003 to 2015. Thank you students and staff at Chengdu University of Technology in Sichuan, Loza Ling Tibetan School in Chengdu, Hamilton Literacy Council in Ontario, Sichuan University for Nationalities in Kham and the Multi-Language Identity Text Project, Yushu Normal School in Jyegu and the English-Tibetan Training Program (ETP), Columbia International College in Ontario, Phuntsok Ling Monastery, Kangding Teachers College in Guza, Guangzhou University in Guangdong, and Hebei University in Baoding. My gratitude exceeds what is possible for me to describe.
谢谢, ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆྗེ། iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements. iii Table of Contents .v List of Figures. vii List of Appendices. viii Chapter 1: Introduction .1 Rationale and Purpose .3 Statement of the Problem.4 Research Questions and Aims .5 Chapter 2: Literature Review.7 Literature Review Introduction.7 Indian Residential Schools .7 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission .15 Social Studies, Bias, and Racism .18 Social Studies, Bias, and Indigenous History .22 Social Studies, Bias, and Gender .30 Social Studies, Bias, Disability, and Inequality .33 Social Studies, Bias, Problems, and Solutions .37 Critical Race Theory .47 Chapter 4: Introducing the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum.56 Introduction to Results .56 Curriculum that Whitewashes Canadian History .56 How the Curriculum Addresses Gender .70 How the Curriculum Addresses Racism .72 How the Curriculum Addresses Disability .73 How the Curriculum Addresses Inequality.75 v Comparing the 2013 Ontario Curriculum with the 2004 Ontario Curriculum .77 Comparing the 2013 Ontario Social Studies Curriculum with the 2016 British Columbia Social Studies Curriculum .83 Chapter 6: Recommendations and Discussion .85 Including Indigenous People .85 Including Story Books that Address Social Issues .87 Supporting Teacher Education .88 Listening to the TRC .91 Advancing Critical Orientations such as Critical Pedagogy and Critical Race Theory .92 Learning from British Columbia Curriculum Experiences .93 Directions for Future Research .98 Appendix A: Representations of gender in the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum .118 Appendix B: Representations of ethnicity in the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum .123 vi List of Figures Figure 1.
Three-part lens for focusing on omissions, distortions, and marginalization ……. References to individuals in the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum ………. Representations of ethnicity in regards to past, present, and future…. References to individuals in the 2004 Ontario Social Studies curriculum …….
References to individuals in the 2016 BC Social Studies curriculum ……………. 82 vii List of Appendices Appendix A: Representations of gender in the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum…. 118 Appendix B: Representations of ethnicity in the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum…… 123 viii 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction My interests in the Ontario Social Studies curriculum are rooted in my experiences as a student and teacher. I have been influenced especially by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and its remarkable artwork, such as the Witness Blanket.
The TRC’s reports and the testimony of the survivors of the genocidal Indian Residential School system deepen my awareness of the significance of understanding the past and committing to collaborative relations. I am inspired by the work and words of educators such as Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard. Following up on the completion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Dr.
Dawn Lavell-Harvard (2016) spoke in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in order to advocate for awareness of the Indian Residential Schools and for restoration of traditional leadership roles and balance. “Reconciliation,” she said, "means more than just the restoration of our relationship… This system exposed our children to a cycle of violence that continues today. But we know that violence is a learned behaviour… We can make a change”. In addition to documenting the policies and practices of the Indian Residential Schools, the TRC also expressed calls to action in regards to child welfare, education, language and culture, health, and the legal system.
In its Calls to Action report (2015b), Section 62 calls “upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, in consultation and collaboration with Survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators, to… Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve 2 students” (2015b, p. Inspired by Indigenous activists, allies, and the TRC, I am interested in examining the Ontario Social Studies curriculum for how it addresses social justice issues related to the Indian residential schools, Treaties, and Indigenous peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada. I am also interested in how this curriculum addresses gender, disability, racism, and inequality. This study is also an extension of my work as a teacher.
From 2003 to 2015, I worked as a teacher, mostly in high schools and at the college level. From 2004 to 2011, I worked with students in Tibetan regions in China. During this time, with the support of local partners, students and I worked together to initiate a number of exciting projects, such as the publication of students newspapers; a cultural preservation project recording local, oral histories; translation teams; original drama performances; outdoor poetry readings; HIV awareness; hikes in the mountains; guest speakers in the classroom; cooking events; dance events; visits with families; a unique multilingual, college-level course called Multi-language Identity Texts (Lambert, 2011); and so on. My work with students and friends in Tibetan regions in China extended my concerns for land claim issues, genocide, the reproduction of racism in society and in schools, and social change.
My experiences as a student and teacher developed my concerns for whitewashing. Whitewashing can be viewed as a form of censorship. It is commonly seen as a metaphor for action or discourse that glosses over or covers up crimes, scandals, abuses, or injustice. Likewise, it can absolve blame by means of a superficial investigation or by the biased presentation of data.
Examples of whitewashing include textbook accounts of the civil rights movement that omit and marginalize the contributions of Black activists (Mannie, 2017) and 3 narratives produced by corporate film media that distort the history of slavery (Giroux, 2010a). In Canada, scholars such as Marie Battiste (2013) have been concerned with schooling that whitewashes Indigenous history and current social relations. Likewise, among my concerns is that the presumption of progress can contribute to a complacency about the present, privilege, and social relations. As a result of my experiences as a student and teacher, I am interested in examining the elementary Social Studies curriculum of Ontario, where I live and went to elementary school many years ago.
While the Ontario curriculum has begun to address social justice and equity, it has yet to be thoroughly examined for how it addresses these issues. Informed by Critical Pedagogy (e., Giroux, 1983, 1988, 1996a, 1996b, 2001, 2004, 2010a, 2010b, 2014) and Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings, 2003b), I examine the 2013 Ontario Social Studies curriculum for how it addresses issues related to Indigenous people, gender, disability, racism, and inequality. Rationale and Purpose This study is important because it addresses issues related to social justice, stereotypes, and racism. In the current political climate with re-emerging expressions of racism, particularly in relation to Indigenous people, academic work has serious responsibilities.
As described by scholars such as Giroux (2001, 2004), multiple efforts are needed, including the action of “public intellectuals” and the development of a “language of critique and possibility” that connects language with power and contributes to visions of democracy and inclusive community. 4 As education is a provincial responsibility in Canada, I analyze the social studies curriculum of Ontario. This is significant now, because Ontario recently revised its official social studies guide. Furthermore, it has the largest population among the Canadian provinces, and Ontario has made commitments to equity in general, and specifically in response to issues pertaining to Indigenous peoples (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2013, p.
The Ministry of Education (MOE), furthermore, has recently announced that it will make revisions to the curriculum to make Indigenous history and culture mandatory for all students in Ontario; the revisions are to be complete by fall 2018 (Johnson, 2017, Nov. Moreover, as shown by the work of the TRC, curriculum matters because it has significant effects. For these reasons, examining the Ontario Social Studies curriculum for how it addresses issues of social justice is a priority. Statement of the Problem This study is part of a response to two problems.
In terms of academic research, only a small number of researchers (e., Bickmore, 1999, 2006; Cavanagh, 2001; Godlewska, Moore, & Bednasek, 2010; Maroney, 2016) have critically examined Ontario social studies curriculum. The 2013 version has yet to be thoroughly reviewed.