Citizenship and Multiculturalism in Canadian Curricula: Examining Representations of Ancient and Indigenous Cultures and Wisdom Traditions

• In Event: Difference and the Politics of Representation

Proposal

1. Objectives:
With growing global polarization and exclusionary nationalist movements in many parts of the world (e.g., Kubin & von Sikorski, 2021), it is becoming even more relevant to examine curricular content and its potential influence on shaping students’ appreciation of and embodiment of values of inclusive citizenship, pluralism, democratic participation, and respect for diversity. In the context of Canada, with its growing cultural and religious diversity (Lipka, 2019; Jamal & Jie, 2019), curricula need to reflect that diversity, including in their teaching of wisdom traditions. Otherwise, lack of acknowledgement and appreciation of various wisdom traditions could lead to exclusionary attitudes, including religious-based bullying as could be witnessed in various contexts, including in Canada (e.g., Chan, 2018; Chan & Stapleton, 2021).

Representations of wisdom traditions in Canadian curricula remain understudied; this is especially the case with historically marginalized ancient and Indigenous cultures and wisdom traditions. Canadian curricula have been critiqued for their lack of inclusion of Indigenous perspectives, epistemologies, and contributions (e.g., Kim, 2015; Lamb, C., & Godlewska, 2021; Schaefli et al., 2018;). However, given Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) several Calls to Action directed at educational institutions, there is hope for better representations—at least in terms of Indigenous wisdom traditions. Call for Action number 60 calls on denominational educational institutions “to provide an education on comparative religious studies” (TRC, 2012, pp. 7-8), while number 64 highlights the need for curricula to include full sections on “Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and practices developed in collaboration with Aboriginal Elders” (p. 8). As such, both pre- and post-TRC changes in curricular representations as well as their classroom enactment would be important to explore.

Further, despite this being a highly understudied question, Canadian curricula have been critiqued for their lack of inclusion of more detailed accounts of ancient and arguably extinct cultures and wisdom traditions, including ancient Egyptian and ancient Mesopotamian wisdom traditions (e.g., Abdou, 2017; Abdou & Chan, 2017).

Thus, the key objective of this paper is to contribute to the generally understudied question of how various wisdom traditions—especially historically marginalized and misrepresented ones—are represented in Canadian curricula. The central question guiding this research is: how can Canadian K-12 curricula and guidelines offer more balanced and inclusive representations of wisdom traditions, especially ancient and Indigenous traditions?

While the focus of this analysis is on ancient and Indigenous wisdom traditions, we also include analyzing the representations of some dominant and thriving wisdom traditions (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism). Under ancient wisdom traditions, we include ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman, among others. By Indigenous wisdom traditions we refer to existing Indigenous wisdom traditions, including in the Americas, African Indigenous Religion (AIR), Shamanism, Zoroastrianism, and others.

2. Theoretical Framework:
In guiding our textual analyses of representations of various wisdom traditions, we mainly draw on ‘social representations’ theories (e.g., Moscovici, 1988, 2001, 2005; Wagner & Hayes, 2005). Moscovici clarifies that social representation can be defined as “a certain recurrent and comprehensive model of images, beliefs and symbolic behaviours … a series of propositions which enable things or persons to be classified” (2001, p. 152). In contrast to other approaches that focus, for instance, on “individually learned abstractions or stereotypes,” social representation theory is more interested in the socio-cultural dimensions of both the production, as well as that meaning making process of those representations (Wagner & Hayes, 2005, p. 196). It thus prompts us to critically analyze how these representations explicitly and implicitly “contain both judgmental and action-directing elements,” which potentially “reinforces the marginalisation of others, and justifies discrimination” (p. 123).

3. Data Sources and Modes of Inquiry:
Drawing on elements of critical discourse analyses (e.g., Fairclough, 2003) and adopting a systematic approach, we analyze all curricular guidelines available and accessible on the Ministries of Educations’ websites in six key Canadian provinces (namely: Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). The analysis focuses on the curricular guidelines of the following subject matters: social studies and citizenship education; science education and environmental studies; and religious studies.

The textual analysis is guided by four key questions: 1) how are ancient and Indigenous wisdom traditions included and represented in these provinces’ curricular guidelines, including their worldviews and belief systems? 2) what are the curricular guidelines’ key stated objectives from teaching these wisdom traditions? 3) how are these wisdom traditions’ contributions, and their interactions and exchanges with other wisdom traditions, represented?

The ongoing textual analyses will continue until August/September 2023, and the final analyses and results will be ready to share in CIES 2024.

4. Initial Results:
Initial findings point to a refreshing emphasis on Indigenous perspectives and contributions in curricular guidelines. However, genuine efforts to decolonize and indigenize curricula vary considerably between provinces. Though Canadian curricula documents all share the stated objective of fostering inclusive classrooms where diversity is valued, the extent to which this respect for diversity (particularly religious/spiritual diversity) is reflected in curricular content is not always clear.

Further, Canadian curricula generally pay very limited attention to pre-Abrahamic and ancient cultures and wisdom traditions. While there are clear mentions and emphasis on teaching about some ancient civilizations, there is very little mention or guidance on including the teaching of their wisdom traditions, which have clearly influenced the Abrahamic tradition in several ways (see also Assmann, 1998). Moreover, in some cases the curricular guidelines analyzed use language that unintentionally reinforces problematic distinctions between western “scientific” ways of knowing, and “other” non-western ways of knowing, reinforcing a hierarchical binary between Euro-western epistemologies and non-western and Indigenous wisdom traditions.

5. Significance:
Balanced curricular representations of various historical contributions of, intercultural exchanges with, and injustices endured by various ancient and Indigenous cultures and wisdom traditions is a key part of fostering respectful and critical dialogue, and promoting democratic values and citizenship practices. Thus, critically engaging with curricular guidelines and their representations of some of these key wisdom traditions—which is a generally understudied question—should help identify best practices, as well as gaps and challenges that need further attention by scholars, curriculum developers, teacher educators, and teachers.

Authors

• Ehaab D Abdou, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Sarah Best, Wilfrid Laurier University