“The English Have Tried to Assimilate Us but in Vain”: Québec Students and Their Historical Consciousness of the Nation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: International Perspectives on Students’ Historical Reasoning

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore French Canadian (Québec) students‘ historical consciousness of the nation through the lens of Social Identity Theory (SIT). Relying on a stratified sample of 142 Québec‘s historical narratives written by Québécois students, the paper revisits findings from a previous study on the historical consciousness of young Québécois. Informed by SIT principles, our narrative analysis shows how Franco-Québécois categorize the past in homogenous categories (e.g., the imperialist Anglophone; the surviving Francophone) and frame their stories into particular modes of present-day orientations. Implications of this study for history education in divided societies are also discussed.

Authors

• Stephane Levesque, University of Ottawa

• Jocelyn Létourneau, Laval University

• Raphaël Gani, Ottawa University