1996/97 PCERII Funded Research Abstract

Research Title: Valuing Diversity: The Formal and Lived Curriculum in Prairie Schools

Research Team: Dr. Cecille DePass (University of Calgary) - Principal Investigator

Research Domain(s): Education

Gatekeepers of knowledge, drawn from the dominant culture, develop/implement and interpret the formal curriculum. In doing so, the gatekeepers of knowledge map the social, cultural and political reality which is presented to students in schools. In the Social Studies curriculum, for example, colonial narratives usually of the founding fathers; discussions of roles, functions and contributions of cultural and racial immigrant groups; descriptions of the nation's social and economic developments; and discussions of Canada's relationship with the larger world appear, to a greater or lesser extent, to reinforce dominant perspectives.

The process of schooling/being socialized at a public school in Canada can be a fomidable, overwhelming experience to immigrant minority students who are not descended from the preferred Anglo-celtic or European stock of immigrants. Specifically, visible minority immigrant students, who have neither learned the written nor the unwritten patterns of school rules, conventions and behaviours and who do not share the imagined or real attachments to the dominant culture's grand narratives.

Given significant structural changes at provincial and institutional levels, public schools and teacher training institutions have been forced to revamp programs and curricula. Stage 1 of the proposed study will provide a summary of the Social Studies curriculum reivew. The curriculum review and documentary analysis will be used as the foundation to construct and carry out Stages 2-6 of the larger study (separate proposal).

The primary objective of Stage 1 of the proposed study is to explore and to assess the ways in which the formal Social Studies curriculum depicts major cultural and demographic changes which have occurred in Canada during the past 30 odd years.