Creating Citizens: History and Identity in Alberta's Schools, 1905–1980.

Frits Pannekoek is an associate professor of heritage studies, director
of information resources at the University of Calgary, and the author of
A Snug Little Flock: The Social Origins of the Riel Resistance of
1869–70.

Creating Citizens outlines the changing history curriculum of the province’s schools, and how history was used to reinforce objectives set by society’s political and intellectual leaders. Von Heyking carefully describes the six historical phases of Alberta’s history curriculum: 1905 to 1920, which focused on cultivating the academic talents of the leaders of tomorrow; 1920 to 1935, which focused on creating good citizens; 1935 to 1945, which focused on effecting social change; 1945 to the 1960s, which focused on the virtues of democracy; the 1960s to the 1970s, which focused on improving technological and ideological competitiveness; and finally the current neo-progressivism that “encourages … self-fulfillment.” Van Heyking argues that underlying this change has been one constant: the curriculum must be “useful.” History has not been well served by that philosophy. She argues that the increasing marginalization of history has meant that Alberta’s students “were left with a limited understanding of their place in a changing community; they were left with an inadequate sense of themselves,” other than that they must be useful to progress.

Von Heyking observes that the Alberta history curriculum was determined by Alberta’s elites as interpreted by the University of Alberta and its faculty. She does an excellent job of describing elite that drove the 1905–20 curriculum, but does a less thorough analysis as she moves through time. She does little with the irony that while Alberta proclaimed its ideological allegiance to “Empire,” the province sent its educators for training to New York and Chicago to become infected with the new ideas of progressivism—the ideas that ultimately led to the death of history and its resurrection as enterprise and social studies.

While an important book that should be required reading for the reflective, its real impact will always remain hidden under the cloak of its timidity. In the end, while it describes the changes in the teaching of history, it does little to assess the impact of that teaching on society. It also does little to connect to the excellent Canadian social and intellectual history discourse that is so current today.