Proposed curriculum gets failing grade from experts

Some specialists say province again failed to follow advice on social studies

Alberta's new draft K-6 social studies curriculum is “profoundly disappointing” and continues to lack diverse and age appropriate content, according to experts.

The province unveiled the draft social studies curriculum on March 14. At a news conference that same day, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides assured Albertans there were consultations with partners and members of the public. While the ministry was transparent with the list of curriculum specialists, some who were part of the process are disappointed by the draft outcome.

Yvonne Poitras Pratt, an associate professor of education at the University of Calgary, was part of both the 2021 and 2023 group of curriculum specialists. She said while this time around there was a slight improvement in the consultation process, in that it seemed more collaborative, suggestions to change the framework of the curriculum were not heeded.

“I think it's a really interesting trajectory of another failed attempt,” Poitras Pratt said.

“We provided a lot of feedback in terms of what we felt would really bring the curriculum into a new vision, very dissimilar to what they've done in the past. Our suggestions to change the architecture of the K-6 draft social studies curriculum was not heeded. Instead, they went back to their original framework.

“It did not allow for the room and the expansion that the social studies curriculum requires in order to meet the diverse needs of a rapidly changing world.”

In 2021, the first drafts of the K-6 curriculum released were slammed for being age-inappropriate and lacking necessary Indigenous perspectives.

In an emailed statement to Postmedia, Nicolaides said more than 300 partners and organizations were engaged and provided feedback for the curriculum. He said a second round of public engagement is open until April 2, during which people can provide feedback on the draft curriculum.

“I believe that the valuable contributions will help ensure Alberta students learn from a curriculum that builds their critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making skills, and empowers them to be involved citizens,” Nicolaides said.

Poitras Pratt, who is also a Métis scholar, said her goal when consulting on the draft curriculum was to deepen understanding on Indigenous history to include more in-depth looks into the colonial impacts on the Indigenous population, but was disappointed to see that her suggestions were not taken.

“One of my first criticisms when we encountered the first draft that they shared with us, there was not one mention of colonial anything. As we look at our nation state, at all the different societal issues that have erupted, for example the discovery of the mass graves of Indigenous children and the many that have been unearthed since then — it reminds us that this work, you can't not teach it,” she said.

“People want to know what happened in Canada's past to allow for these atrocities. To eradicate those topics from the curriculum or to cloak them with marginal mentions of Indigenous reality starting millennia ago, it does a really huge disservice to students as well as teachers, and we're not going to reach the truth and reconciliation.”

She said the curriculum does not have “a true line” that runs through the material so teachers can work to build students' understanding and critical awareness of social studies. Poitras Pratt said at a time when student anxiety is at an all-time high, course material needs to deviate away from memorization and engage with students in a critical way.