In 2013, the consultation for the strengthening of the teaching of national history in primary and secondary schools resulted in a report in favour of a curriculum review for secondary schools. While this consultation led in 2016 to a revision of the history programme offered in secondary schools, it had no effect on the social studies programme (geography, history, citizenship education) in primary schools.
We filed a brief at the time, but few of us did so.
While the Ministry of Education began monitoring the social studies program for elementary schools over a year ago, we would like to update the recommendations we made at the time, in our capacity as researchers and social sciences educators who regularly work with future and practicing teachers in Quebec elementary schools. Our recommendations are based on observations from experiences as well as on research that we conducted in collaboration with elementary school colleagues.
The revision of this program becomes urgent for several reasons.
First of all, the current curriculum for the second and third cycles of primary school, starting with the 1500s, is a real obstacle to students’ learning. How can we understand that the study of the oldest content, the most distant from the reality of children, is prescribed at the youngest age of the school curriculum, when this teaching is compulsory? From a historical perspective, the chronological structure proposing the study of the oldest times to the youngest and then to more recent times, the 1980s for the oldest, is didactic nonsense. It is important to respect their capacities for understanding. It seems more appropriate to us, at 2e cycle, to start from the present and, in stages, go back to the generations that preceded that of the students; they will thus be able to better understand how their parents and grandparents lived and, from this close, intimate, family history, they will be able to decentralize themselves further in order to discover older societies and eras.
Geographically, the current program provides few opportunities to develop a good understanding of territories, to identify specific features of the local environment, to identify traces of the past and places of importance to the family and the community, and then to encourage students to reason on issues that are important to their community. While geography is primarily a science of the present, the societies covered in the current program all predate 1980. It should be noted that students are able to study pressing issues that are likely to interest them and the citizens of their municipality—for example, the issue of expanding a landfill site near the school. Increasing the place of geography in the social studies program would be one way to develop a sense of belonging to the territory and the community.
Other reasons can be cited to call for a revision of this social studies program, including the near absence of female characters and characters from First Peoples and immigrants, the presence of terms considered pejorative or unscientific (“Native Americans”) or the redundancy with the secondary school program.
In short, it is important to redefine in a realistic and pragmatic manner the aims of the history and geography program in primary school, so that a common cultural background is built up and real training in reasoning about life in society is achieved, in line with the past and present realities of Quebec.
In the meantime, without this crucial revision – and without more hours allocated to it – the programme certainly exists, but it too often takes the form of transmitting factual knowledge of a past that is neither that of the pupils nor that of their families.
Updating the social studies program in primary school means not only restoring the relevance of history and geography in students’ education, but also creating new opportunities for young people to learn about their region and plan for the future as members of these local communities, in short, as citizens who have the common good at heart and who are aware of the challenges and the path of the society in which they are called upon to evolve.
*This text was also co-signed by: Vincent Boutonnet, Director and Professor, Université du Québec en Outaouais; Marie-Hélène Brunet, Professor, University of Ottawa; Émile Caron, PhD student, Université de Montréal; Marc-André Éthier, Professor, Université de Montréal; Geneviève Goulet, High School Teacher, École Horizon Jeunesse; Jean-Louis Jadoulle, Professor, Université TÉLUQ; Margot Kaszap, Retired Professor, Université Laval; Audrey Lamontagne, Research Technician and Lecturer, Université de Montréal; Dany Larouche, High School Teacher, École secondaire l’Odyssée Lafontaine; David Lefrançois, Professor, Université du Québec en Outaouais; Virginie Martel, Professor, Université du Québec à Rimouski; Ismaila Mbodj, Teacher-Researcher, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar; Laurence Murray-Dugré, educational advisor and lecturer, University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières; Michel P. Trudeau, lecturer, Laval University; Anne-Marie Paquet, doctoral student and lecturer, Laval University; Kevin Péloquin, professor, University of Montreal; Gabriel Viens, elementary school teacher, CSS Val-des-Cerfs.