Measuring Whether Canadian Studies Courses Make a Difference in Knowledge of Canada

Abstract

In this research, we compare the results for a 2009 survey of Iowa State University students (our non-Canadian Studies sample) with the 2010 survey of Loyola University, Chicago, the University of Missouri, and Université Laval students (our Canadian Studies sample) on their knowledge of Canada. In general, we find significant differences between these two groups on the overall survey results, but we also find differences between the two groups on two subscales within the survey (one on geography, politics, and economic items, the other on Québec culture). We also report the difference among the three groups of students with exposure to Canadian Studies. Not unexpectedly, we find that the Laval students to be more knowledgeable about Québec, but we also find some differences among students at these institutions on their knowledge of political, geographical, and economic knowledge of Canada. We conclude our analysis by discussing the implications of these results for increasing the knowledge about Canada through Canadian Studies courses.

Keywords:

• Canadian studies
• survey
• Canadian knowledge
• American students
• course

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ray Tatalovich at Loyola University, Chicago, and James Endersby at the University of Missouri for assistance in collecting some of the survey data used in this article as well as colleagues at Iowa State University who allowed us to collect survey data in their classes.

Notes

1. See Chapelle (2009) for a report on Canadian coverage in French textbooks.

2. We believe that it is appropriate to classify the Iowa State students-whether in the Political Science or French classes-as non-Canadian Studies students, since we explicitly asked all respondents to identify the percentage of Canadian content in their Political Science or French classes and the overwhelming response was a negligible percent.

3. Two of the surveys from the French classes and one survey from the Political Science classes were not useable, since they were not completed or were completed in both classes.