Academics concerned over Alberta's K-6 social studies draft curriculum
Educators who were consulted on the Alberta government's draft K-6 social studies curriculum have penned an open letter expressing "significant concerns" and disappointment that their feedback was "largely ignored."
The letter is from post-secondary academics and researchers who were part of the Curriculum Development Specialist Group. They were invited by Alberta Education to give their expertise after the initial curriculum was delayed in 2021 following heavy criticism.
"We urge the government to immediately convene a meeting of the key education partners to develop a protocol to restart the curriculum rewriting process," reads the letter.
David Scott, an associate professor and chair of learning at the Werklund School of Education, is part of the group.
He says the curriculum is an improvement from 2021, but still lacks an overall coherent framework or vision for social studies.
"Alberta is a world-leading jurisdiction of education, that has a long history of being one of the top performing jurisdictions in education, and as a parent myself of two kids, I'm deeply concerned that we're going to lose that status with this kind of curriculum," he said.
"I'd really encourage parents and concerned citizens to get involved in this debate and make their voices heard."
The letter outlines several areas the group believes the draft fails students, including a lack of definitions of key social studies concepts such as critical thinking, citizenship, historical thinking, inquiry and multiple perspectives.
Scott says the proposed curriculum also lacks learning and hearing perspectives of different identities and cultures, including First Nation and Metis Peoples in Alberta.
"There's not really an opportunity to learn about the world views and perspectives, and understand different ways of being in the world, including that of francophone and Indigenous people," he said.
"I think we were quite critical of the conflation between teaching about when Indigenous people were involved in events of the past, versus exposing students to their unique worldviews and perspectives."
Scott says that meaningful discussions and feedback were given during consultations, but are not reflected in the draft curriculum.
"I think it's 100 per cent political influence, there's no question in my mind," he said.
"We never were able to meet with the minister, so we don't know what was going on behind the scenes politically."
Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides refutes that claim, and says feedback on the draft curriculum will be taken into consideration for any modifications before it is rolled out.
"I don't think there's anything in the draft that is politically motivated," he said.
"The important thing here is that we develop a curriculum that teaches students a strong foundation of history, helps them foster the skills that are necessary to be active citizens, to help them to be strong critical thinkers, active and engaged citizens, so that they can be very effective in the world when they complete their studies.
"The recommendations were taken to heart, and a number of revisions were made to very early drafts, even before any content was put in place about the scope and sequence, what should be taught and at what grade.
"A lot of recommendations and guidance that they provided was indeed incorporated."
The government is collecting feedback until March 29.
Nicolaides says the plan is to pilot the new curriculum in schools in September with mandatory implementation starting in September of 2025.
This is the third proposed replacement of Alberta's social studies curriculum for elementary schools. In addition to the version criticized in 2021 under the UCP government, a 2018 proposal under the NDP was also unsuccessful.
The Calgary Board of Education, which previously chose not to test-drive the previous curriculum in 2021, says it has not determined if it will pilot the recent draft. The CBE says it is waiting for more information on the pilot process from Alberta Education.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.