Curriculum panel needs more diversity, NDP says

Diverse voices need to be added to a panel of advisers appointed by the government to make recommendations on overhauling the Alberta school curriculum, says the official Opposition.

NDP critic for women and LGBTQ Issues Janis Irwin called for women and people from minority backgrounds to be added as advisers after the government announced eight men had been appointed to the curriculum review panel.

“Indigenous scholars, women scholars, there’s a lot that needs to be added there to ensure that students really have experiences that, especially in our social studies curriculum, involves multiple perspectives,” said Irwin during a news conference Thursday.

Education reform in Alberta began close to a decade ago. In 2016, the NDP government promised to overhaul K-12 education in six subject areas. They said the process would take six years and $64 million to complete.

Education Minister Adriana Lagrange said last week the government will implement a curriculum that would teach without bias.

Kassandra Kitz, acting on behalf of the press secretary for the education minister, said the government is continuing to search for qualified people with diverse opinions and experiences to be added as advisers.

“We have full confidence in the subject matter experts and the nearly 300-member curriculum working group, and their commitment to a transparent and non-partisan approach to curriculum development,” said Kitz.

The following people are providing advice and recommendations on different subject matters: Dr. George Georgiou for literacy, Dr. David Chorney for wellness, Dr. Vladimir Troitsky for math, Dr. Chris Champion for social studies, William French for arts and literature and Dr. Cameron Macdonell for science.

Two advisers, Dr. Marvin Washington and Dr. Onookome Okomewere, were appointed to provide perspectives on diversity and pluralism.

Irwin called for one of those eight advisers, Dr. Chris Champion, to be fired.

Champion is an author and visiting research fellow at Queen’s University in Ontario. He also served as an adviser to Premier Jason Kenney when he was a federal cabinet minister.

Champion is the founder and a current editor of the Dorchester Review. An unattributed file published on the review’s website titled How to Teach History in Schools says “the left” has a tendency to reduce history to condemning past wrongs.

The piece goes on to read: “Here in Canada the preoccupation with victimhood has mostly centered on Japanese Canadians and residential school ‘survivors.’”

“Jason Kenney needs to fire Dr. Champion,” said Irwin.

“He needs to replace him with any one of the many qualified Indigenous and women professors and academics across this province.”