Power, politics, democracy and reform: a historical review of curriculum reform, academia and government in British Columbia, Canada, 1920 to 2000

Abstract

This paper explores the interrelations between power, politics, academia and curriculum reform in British Columbia (BC) using social studies curriculum documents as a case study. It describes how curriculum reform occurred and argues that reform was undemocratic as it was largely the product of individuals with power who invited individuals with educational ideologies that were attractive to them to aid them in the revisions. These educational ideologies came from the USA, illustrating the influence of US ideas overseas. The non-democratic nature of the curriculum reform process may partly explain why teachers often resisted the revisions, and why government officials attempted to appear more democratic by increasing teacher participation in the curriculum revision process later in the century. However, curriculum revision remained undemocratic. The paper comments on whether the curriculum revision process in a democracy ought to be democratic or not.

Keywords:

• curriculum history
• social studies
• curriculum reform
• educational philosophies

Notes

1. ‘Progressivism’ is a complex movement, underlain by a number of conceptual bases, ranging from a focus on child-centred pedagogy to social efficiency conceptions. The former is the one considered here.

2. Weir’s biography (Giles, 1993) includes: McGill Bachelors of Arts with honours, University of Saskatchewan Masters of Arts, Queen’s Doctor of Pedagogy with honours, Queens and Chicago Universities post-graduate courses, bar exam of the Saskatchewan Law Society, teacher, provincial inspector, Dominion Archives historical research scholar, vice principal and principal of the Normal school of Saskatchewan and then a professor of and head of Education at UBC.

3. King received an MA in 1923, from the University Of British Columbia and a PhD, from the University Of Washington (1936). He was principal of Kitsilano High School in the early 1930s, at which time he was sued by one of the teachers for wrongful dismissal. He was Technical Adviser to the Provincial Department of Education from 1934 to 1939 and Chief Inspector of the Schools of BC, after September 1939.

4. These were health, command of fundamental processes, vocation, worthy use of leisure time, worthy home membership, citizenship (or civic education) and ethical character (Woyshner, 2003).

5. Pressure was exerted on the Department for more Canadian content to be included in senior grades, partly resulting from tensions in Quebec and the celebration of Canada’s centenary (BCTF report, 1959).

6. The BC Social Studies Association was founded in 1958–1959, under the BCTF (Dawson, 1982).

7. The curriculum was revised in 1985 (Ministry of Education, 1985). It swung from a Structure of Disciplines approach to a more progressivist, interdisciplinary course divided into ‘Social Science’ like themes such as Society, Environment and the Economy.

8. The BCTF pressured the government for a long time to have teachers involved in curriculum revisions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine A. Broom

Catherine Broom is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada; e-mail: [email protected]. She publishes work in the areas of citizenship education and the history of social studies and education in BC.