Poster #8 - Curriculum "Past and Future": The History of Indian Residential Schools — Why Remember the "Traumatic" Past?

• In Event: 31.094 - MTCC Poster Session Six
  In Poster Session: 31.094-2 - #GetFreeWithDivB Posters

Abstract

The very hope for a just and compassionate future lies, at least in part, in working through the traumatic catastrophes we have inherited (Simon, R. et. al.: 2000).

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission sparked a significant moment in Canadian curriculum when The Council Ministers of Education, made a unanimous national commitment to include the history of Indian Residential Schools in the curriculum. This decision was declared essential, so future generations could avoid the errors of the past. Yet what rationale are given for study that Britzman (1998) has identified as "difficult knowledge". This study explores reasons given for the introduction of the traumatic past using "Verticality and Horizontality" in the study of curriculum - an approach articulated by Pinar (2007).

Author

• Brenda Darlene Davis, University of British Columbia PhD Graduate Student