Alberta education minister stands behind new social studies curriculum

A group of educators looking at the most recent draft of Alberta's new social studies curriculum says it still does nothing to address the program's fundamental flaws.

However, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides stands by his government's draft proposal, saying it took into account all of the concerns from educators.

"There's a range of different folks that we're listening to, of course, and some of the views that you're hearing are a sample of those views but there are others who have been involved and others from across the country who have commented," he told CTV Morning Live in an interview on Thursday.

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On Tuesday, CTV News heard from Dr. David Scott, an associate professor at the University of Calgary's Werklund School of Education, who said the new curriculum, released on April 26, fails to address many concerns.

Scott says there is no contemporary or relevant vision, a lack of opportunities to see the past, present and future through the lens of Indigenous knowledge and limited opportunities for critical thinking and decision making.

"Despite the government's assertion that this program will help young people 'develop critical thinking skills to make informed decisions,' an analysis of the program has shown that only about 10 per cent of the skills and procedures can invite students to evaluate and create new knowledge," Scott said.

He also says that the new curriculum "treats students as empty vessels to be filled with information."

"(It) fails to acknowledge the diverse identities in Alberta today," he said.

"(There are) no connections made to their already existing frames of reference, along with personal and collective identities, that shapes the way they come to new learning including discussion of issues in our world today."

Government listened to advice, minister says

Nicolaides called social studies "a challenging subject" to teach and learn.

"Everyone has a different opinion when it comes to history, when it comes to politics and I recognize that everyone's not going to agree but our approach has been to make sure that students are taught a deep foundation and understand of history to be able to understand contemporary issues and have a curriculum that enables them to sharpen critical thinking skills and I think we've done precisely that.

"Less than 25 per cent of all the outcomes for the social studies curriculum asks students to recall or memorize information and the other 75 per cent being outcomes asking students to analyze, develop ideas and really strengthen critical thinking skills.

"We absolutely are listening."

This is the first time in many years that Alberta has changed its social studies curriculum, Nicolaides said, adding that many previous governments attempted to do it but didn't accomplish the task.

"The current version that students are learning is about eight years old and a lot has changed in the world. It's important they learn from the most up-to-date curriculum possible."

Discussions are still underway by many Alberta school boards about whether or not they will test drive the province's new curriculum, but Nicolaides said there "have been early indications" of interest in trying it out in 2024.

"(That) is absolutely great because, of course, we need that on-the-ground validation," he said.

"There's no magic number of how many school boards I'd like to see but I would like to see an environment where we have some piloting done in our cities and our smaller communities to get a good, broad representative example of Alberta students."

School boards have until May 15 to decide if they will test the government's new curriculum.

Feedback from the pilot will be used to refine the curriculum before it is fully implemented in September 2025.