An Analysis of Historical Agency in Québec History Textbooks

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: International Perspectives on History Curricula and Textbooks

Abstract

Our research has focused on history textbooks used in Québec secondary schools.
In the current context, where history and citizenship education are officially linked in the pursuit of democratic ideals, research reveals little about how agency is portrayed in textbooks or what function and actions they ascribe to the various historical agents in socio-political change. Are citizens and human groups portrayed by textbooks as actors of historical change? Are students encouraged to see how historical agency relates to their own role as subjects of history and agents of change?

Authors

• Marc-Andre Ethier, Université de Montréal

• David Lefrancois, University of Quebec - Outaouais

• Stephanie Demers, University of Quebec - Outaouais

• Francis Dupuis-Deri, L'Université du Québec à Montréal