“World Trouble Spots as New Year Begins”: Teaching About War and Peace in the 1950s and 1960s

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Peace Education Culture

Abstract

My paper will analyze the approach that one magazine used in Canadian schools in the 1950s and 1960s to depict peace, diversity, social justice and conflict. In particular, I’m interested in the “trouble spots” that were presented in relation to national and global citizenship. Despite the extensive scholarship on textbooks, few scholars have investigated the pedagogical and curricula implications of using magazines as “modern channels of communication” in the classroom during this time period. In addition to probing the adaptation of popular culture for instruction, this study will shed light on the ongoing debate regarding the various forms of pedagogical influences during this time period as traditional or progressive.

Author

• Lorna McLean, University of Ottawa