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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l'Éducation is the property of Canadian Society for the Study of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, we examine the CBC/Radio-Canada series, "Canada: A People's History," for its use of empathy, specifically with regard to its portrayal of Aboriginal people. We call the empathy promoted in the series, emotive empathy, and compare it to the concept of historical empathy constructed by researchers in history education. The emotive empathy employed in this series, while adequate for public audiences, is not sufficient for history classrooms because it lacks a cognitive dimension. We discuss implications for using the series, and by extension, other instructional resources, to promote the development of historical empathy. (Contains 2 figures.)

This article examines provision of elementary school readers in Ontario from 1850 to 1909. It traces the conflicts that arose due to the dual role of textbooks as economic commodity and democratic instrument of curriculum. It illuminates the strategies that three dominant stakeholders used in textbook provision to position themselves to best advantage in these conflicts: the Education Department, retail booksellers, and textbook publishers. (Contains 114 notes.)

There are many areas of overlap between history and fiction. Teachers of history have long recognized this connection and used a range of fictional accounts in their teaching. In this article, we argue that fiction is a double-edged sword that must be handled carefully. On the one hand, it presents compelling characters and accounts that provide powerful connections with the past often missing from school history. On the other hand, the narrative force that draws the reader in and connects him or her to the experience of the characters also mitigates against alternative readings of the situation, undercutting the reader's ability to understand the past in complex and critical terms. We contend that in the hands of effective teachers, the double-edged sword of fiction can be a valuable and effective tool in the teaching of history. We begin by exploring three scholarly conversations around the nature of history, history education and learning theory. We then discuss the general relationship between history and fiction, move on to describe two broad categories of fiction and their particular connections to history and history teaching and consider some of the tensions between history and fiction. Finally, we investigate pedagogical implications for effective use of fiction in the teaching of history.

Educational publishing sits at the intersection of industry, culture and education. Pedagogical aims must be balanced with the need for publishers to make a profit, while also acknowledging Canadian national identity and culture. The events of central interest are related to the tensions between two publishers' associations in the wake of the sales, in 1970, of Canadian publishers Gage and Ryerson Press to American interests. The Canadian Book Publishers' Council was comprised mainly of American branch plants and the Independent Publishers Association membership was Canadian-owned publishing companies. The two associations became bitter rivals, engaging in "fratricidal warfare", as they lobbied the provincial and federal governments and fought to maintain their places in the textbook market. About 65% of total sales revenues from publishing in Canada came from textbook sales in this period. Both governments and commercial interests had to balance Canadian sovereignty with commercial gain and educational goals.

The development of the Child Study Centre (CSC) at University of British Columbia (UBC) provides a unique perspective on the complex and often contradictory relationship between child study and preschool education in postwar Canada. In this article, the authors detail the development and eventual closure of the CSC at UBC, focusing on the uneasy interdependencies of scientific child study research and the education of preschoolers. Similar to laboratory schools on Canadian campuses, the CSC was a strange hybrid of school and clinic, educational classroom and psychological lab, a place intended to cultivate both cutting edge research and children's imaginations. The authors begin by placing the broader struggle for child study and preschool education in the province of British Columbia (BC) into the context of the history of scientific child study in North America. Even though the need for early childhood education had long been recognized by organizations such as the provincial Parent-Teacher Federation (PTF), its potential as an area of scholarly study languished for many years before it was taken up by UBC. (Contains 2 figures and 121 footnotes.)

This article examines the controversy that ensued when the Education Department of the province of Ontario, Canada, granted the tender to publish elementary school readers to the T. Eaton Company, a department store, in 1909. This decision eliminated an important source of income for retail booksellers, who could not compete with the consumer appeal of a department store, or with its option of mail-order service. Over the next decade, the booksellers fought vociferously, using a variety of strategies, in an effort to mitigate the effects of this decision on their profits. The booksellers' struggle was part of a larger campaign on the part of retailers to oppose mail-order provision of consumer goods in Canada. This historical case study contributes to our understanding of the effects of political influences and commercial pressures on the provision of textbooks, which are central to instruction in a publicly funded school system. (Contains 1 table, 7 figures and 108 footnotes.)

This article explores the potential of the graphic novel as a means to approach history and historiography in secondary school social studies and history classrooms. Because graphic novels convey their messages through the interaction of visuals and written text, they require reading that is across the grain. They have been likened to hypertext, a format with which students are increasingly familiar, because they are flexible and open-ended and can be approached in multi-layered ways, and read along both linear and nonlinear paths. This format holds promise for increasing students' tolerance of ambiguity and appreciation for the nature of history as interpretation.

This study examined 20th Century Canadian history textbooks authorized in British Columbia, for their portrayals of women. The texts do not adequately reflect feminist scholarship nor societal changes. The nation building narrative of the textbooks precludes the inclusion of women in important ways. In the interwar years, the women who appear in history textbooks are portrayed as parasitic and weak. In the 1950s to 1970s period inclusion requires royal status or fame as a writer. In the 1980s women are often depicted in larger-than-life ways and "filler feminism" is a problem.

Around the world people confront monuments that celebrate historical origins, movements, heroes, and triumphs no longer seen as worthy of celebration. While an analysis of these "lieux de memoire" themselves can reveal historical consciousness, the sites become particularly interesting at the moment when they inspire debate, namely, when people ask what can be done with these artifacts of earlier power configurations, outdated modes of understanding, and bygone identities. Recent protests over a series of murals depicting the origins of civilization in British Columbia, located in the central rotunda of the British Columbia Legislative Buildings, offer this opportunity. This article analyzes a sample of 53 essays written by senior high school students, responding to the dilemma of what to do about the murals. It explores four different orientations toward the past implicit in the student responses, using theoretical frames adapted from Nietzsche and Rusen. These have implications for identities, public policies, and the teaching and learning of history in the present.

Traces challenges to history's place in Canadian school curricula during the 20th century. Argues that while citizenship goals have provided the rationale for teaching history, history as a vehicle of citizenship education has come under assault. Considers the question of inclusion in the historical narrative and how it has been addressed. (DSK)

Leslie Howsam. Past into Print: The Publishing of History in Britain, 1850-1950. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; London: The British Library, 2009. 182 pp.; $50.00 ISBN 9781442640573 In his 1997 [...]

SOMMAIRE Un oligopole, cree par trois eminents editeurs de Toronto W.J. Gage, Copp, Clark et la Canada Publishing Company, dirigea de 1885 1907 la publication du lucratif Ontario Readers destind [...]

Believes that social studies teachers should encourage young people to learn about Canadian heroes but simultaneously assist them in developing skepticism as opposed to only idealizing heroes. Explains that when students understand the qualities of heroes they will be able to cope when someone they hold as a hero falters. (CMK)

Contends that many educators believe that social studies as a subject does not have a future in Canadian schools systems. Asserts that social studies is essential and must address four critical areas to actualize its potential for attaining citizenship goals: content, critical thinking, community action, and caring. (CMK)