Understanding Teachers’ Experience with a Revised History Curriculum in Québec

The author examines the historical contexts and debates surrounding Quebec’s primary and secondary mandated history courses published in 1982, 2006 and 2016. She investigates the problems with the 2006 curriculum and conducts a policy analysis of the circumstances for replacing the 2006 curriculum only 10 years after its publication. The author points out that the 2016 curriculum is based on the 2014 recommendations of a public consultation by sociologist Jacques Beauchemin and retired history professor Nadia Fahmy-Eid. Her policy analysis of these recommendations reveals that Beauchemin and Fahmy-Eid tightly controlled text and discourse in favour of a Québécois national historical narrative. Consequently, the author observes, the Beauchemin and Fahmy-Eid report limits Quebec’s minority and marginalized communities from connecting to or being validated by their interpretation of Quebec history. The author notes that the 2016 version of the curriculum has come under scrutiny for overemphasising the historical contributions of one nation through a unique French Quebec perspective. The author concludes that teachers of English-speaking students in Quebec are aware that the 2016 curriculum does not validate minority and marginalized communities and they accommodate the curriculum by delivering the material in ways that undermine the nationalistic and civic aspects of the curriculum and encourages students to reflect on their place and that of others in Quebec’s social culture.

Master's Thesis

Concordia University

Montreal

2022

v-99p.

en