Trends and Issues in Canadian Social Studies

Jo-Anne Naslund is an education librarian at the University of British
Columbia Library.

In this well-written compendium of essays, key concerns of social
studies education are explored by such well-known Canadian educators as
Ken Osborne, Jack Kehoe, Walt Werner, Ruth Yates, Elspeth Deer, Robert
Fowler, Roland Case, and Peter Seixas. The broad range of issues that
are debated revolve around four questions: What is the purpose of social
studies? What is the appropriate content of social studies and how
should it be organized? Who should be involved in deciding what form the
social studies curriculum should take? And finally, how should social
studies be taught? The goal is to inform teachers so that they may
develop a clearly articulated and ethically defensible vision of social
studies.

The discussions, a nice blend of theory and practice, are organized
into three major conversations, juxtaposing philosophical debates in the
field with practical suggestions for classroom activities. The first
conversation about the fundamental assumptions underlying social studies
includes discussions of the purpose of social studies, details of
citizenship education, recognition of the American influences shaping
social studies curricula in Canada, and importance of subject-matter
knowledge in social studies teaching.

The second conversation is about the subject matter of social studies
and the place of history, geography, law, globalism, multiculturalism,
ethics, peace and media in social studies. Discussions about educating
Indians (as well as educating about Indians), and about the integration
of text and image in history, are also included. The third conversation
about pedagogy focuses on critical thinking, inquiry, concept learning,
cooperative learning, and assessment.

This very readable book will be of particular interest to beginning
teachers and teacher educators. At the same time, it provides
policymakers, curriculum developers, and experienced social studies
teachers with some critical background material.