Rugg's Social Studies in Alberta

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Comparative Education Through Historical Analysis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the origins of Alberta’s secondary Social Studies program introduced in the 1930s. It demonstrates the extent to which the writers of the program drew on Harold Rugg’s social reconstructionist vision of Social Studies and his issues-centred textbooks. Like Rugg’s textbook series, an Alberta textbook became the focus of a controversy in the early years of World War Two. Unlike Rugg’s series, which was abandoned by school districts in the United States, the Alberta textbook remained in use in schools throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Moreover, the provincial Department of Education affirmed its commitment to a program they saw as crucial to the development of democratic citizens capable of constructive civil deliberation.

Author

• Amy J. Von Heyking, University of Lethbridge