Skip to main content

Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

New Possibilities for the Past

Shaping History Education in Canada

The place of history education in schools has sparked heated debate in Canada. Is history dead? Who killed it? Should history be put in the service of nation? Can any history be truly inclusive? This volume advances the debate by shifting the focus from what should be included in history education to how we should think about and teach the past. In this book historians and educators discuss the state of history education research and its implications for classrooms, museums, virtual environments, and public institutional settings. They develop a comprehensive research agenda both to help students learn about the past and to understand how we construct history from its infinite possibilities.


408 pages | © 2011


Table of Contents

Introduction / Penney Clark

Part 1: History Education: Contested Terrain

1 A Brief Survey of Canadian Historiography / Margaret Conrad

2 Teaching Canadian History: A Century of Debate / Ken Osborne

3 The Debate on History Education in Quebec / Jocelyn Létourneau

4 Teaching History from an Indigenous Perspective: Four Winding Paths up the Mountain / Michael Marker

Part 2: Orientations Toward Historical Thinking

5 What it Means to Think Historically / Stéphane Lévesque

6 Assessment of Historical Thinking / Peter Seixas

7 History Education as a Disciplined “Ethic of Truths” / Kent den Heyer

Part 3: Classroom Contexts for Historical Thinking

8 Historical Thinking in Elementary Education: A Review of Research / Amy von Heyking

9 Historical Thinking in Secondary Schools: Zones and Gardens / Tom Morton

10 The Shape of Historical Thinking in a Canadian History Survey Course in University / Gerald Friesen

11 History Iis a Verb: Teaching Historical Practice toTeacher Education Students / Ruth Sandwell

Part 4: Other Contexts for Historical Thinking

12 Historical thinking in the Museum: Open to Interpretation / Viviane Gosselin

13 Creating and Using Virtual Environments to Promote Historical Thinking / Kevin Kee and Nicki Darbyson

14 Obsolete Icons and the Teaching of History / Peter Seixas and Penney Clark

Part 5: Perspectives on Historical Thinking

15 Ethnicity and Students’ Historical Understandings / Carla Peck

16 Learning and Teaching History in Quebec: Assessment, Context, Outlook / Marc André Ethier and David Lefrançois

17 Historical Thinking and Citizenship Edu

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press