Dialogue Across Chasms

• In Event: Race and Nation in Canadian History Education

Abstract

Dialogue Across Chasms
Penney Clark

The purpose of this presentation is to highlight a pan-Canadian initiative, The History Education Network, which aims to support and encourage scholarly research and to disseminate the findings of that research in order to encourage richer history education practice. The network addresses the problems of interdisciplinary fragmentation by creating an intellectual space where academic historians; public historians in museums, archives, and historic sites; history education scholars; practicing teachers; graduate students; and curriculum policy-makers can work together to achieve their common goal: to improve history education in Canada through research-informed practice and practice-informed research. This project is building on a rich foundation of history education theory and research (See, for example, Lévesque, 2008; Barton and Levstik, 2004; Lee, 2000; Stearns, Seixas, Wineburg, 2000), generating new history education research, and increasing the momentum of knowledge mobilization. Equally significant, it is providing stakeholders with opportunities for active engagement in the changes that have transformed the work of historians over the past half century and that are beginning to change history education in Canada and other parts of the world.

The History Education Network has sponsored three annual symposia on history education research, and has plans to sponsor three more. The first examined the state of research and practice in Canada; looking at classrooms at every level, including undergraduate history classes, and teacher education programs. It also considered other settings such as museum exhibitions, virtual environments, and public institutional settings. Finally, it looked at the relationship between ethnic identity and students’ historical understandings, as well as the relationship between citizenship education and history education. The second symposium examined the possibilities of challenges of digital technologies, asking: How do we teach history in an age of pervasive computing when interactivity with (rather than consumption of) media, in the context of social networks (rather than in isolation) is key. The third explored history teacher education, in terms of academic preparation, pre-service teacher education programs, and ongoing professional development. The fourth symposium will focus on teaching history in museums and historic sites. The fifth will consider assessment and history education. The final symposium will invite the international history education community to Canada. These symposia have brought together academic historians, history education scholars, museum scholars and practitioners, graduate students and practising teachers in order to engage in “dialogue across chasms”. Each will result in an edited publication with a scholarly press.

References
Barton, Keith and Linda Levstik. Teaching History for the Common Good. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Lee, Peter. “Progression in Historical Understanding among Students Ages 7-14.” In Peter Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds. Knowing, Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives. New York: New York State University Press, 2000.
Lévesque, Stéphane. Thinking Historically: Educating Students for the Twenty-First Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
Stearns, Peter, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds. Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives. New York: New York State University Press, 2000.

Author

• Penney I. Clark, The University of British Columbia