Alberta government expected to release social studies curriculum overview in February

Albertans should have their first look at the province's latest high-level plan for a new K-12 social studies curriculum in February give or take a couple of weeks, the education minister says.

Demetrios Nicolaides said in an interview on Wednesday that the public will see a proposed scope and sequence for social studies for all 13 years of school, laying out what topics would be covered in which grade and in what order.

The latest attempt at revamping social studies will include feedback from a survey conducted this fall, the results of which the province released earlier this week.

"Social studies is a complex area because it involves history and world events, and no two people have the same opinion on global events or even on interpretations of the importance of different historical events," Nicolaides said in the interview.

He said Alberta Education has just finished consulting with education professors at post-secondary institutions and will now seek feedback from professors with expertise in history, economics, and other disciplines relevant to social studies.

Although the government will prepare a high-level plan for how social studies should look from kindergarten to graduation, junior and senior high students will likely see new math, English and science curriculum expand to those grades before social studies, Nicolaides said. He was still determining what year that would begin.

There has been an effort to modernize Alberta's entire K-12 curriculum in English and French. However, social studies has provoked the most controversy.

Any new version coming in 2024 would be the third iteration of social studies since the NDP government published a draft in 2018, and Jason Kenney's United Conservative Party government reworked it in 2021.

Critics of the 2018 version accused the previous government of using the curriculum to indoctrinate students with socialist ideology. Skeptics of the 2021 draft said it was age-inappropriate, fixated on memorizing dates and facts, and too Eurocentric. Public condemnation prompted the UCP to take social studies and fine arts proposals back to the start.

The fall online survey, which included 12,853 respondents, asked participants to rank possible focal points of a social studies curriculum, what skills students should develop, and which history and culture should be included. The opt-in survey is not necessarily balanced to reflect the general population's opinions.

The results suggested the public broadly favours students developing critical thinking skills.

Although educators and students wanted more emphasis on respectfully interacting with people with different ideas and opinions, parents and "interested Albertans" wanted a better understanding of historical events.

The survey suggested little consensus about what topics the curriculum should cover.

Nicolaides said the province would have to narrow it down since social studies are only about 10 per cent of class time in elementary school. He said he's been speaking with different cultural and religious groups because including different perspectives is a priority.

Curriculum experts question survey's weight

NDP education critic Rakhi Pancholi said the survey result favouring critical thinking skills is a rebuke of the government's previous draft, which emphasized memorization.

"It was about a certain worldview that was being forced onto students," she said on Friday.

Pancholi said it's unclear now what philosophical approach the government is taking to social studies curriculum.

Some professors who research curriculum and train future teachers also have concerns about how the survey was performed and how the government might use the results.

"I would hope that we're not going to design curriculum based on public opinion alone," said Carla Peck, a professor of elementary social studies education at the University of Alberta.

Peck said public input is crucial, but curriculum experts who understand what social studies education is intended to accomplish, how children learn, and are up on current research should assemble a program of studies.

Peck said asking respondents for ranked priorities created false choices. She was disheartened to see respondents rank civics education so low as wars make headlines.

Margie Patrick, associate professor of education at The King's University in Edmonton, said the public shouldn't advise surgeons on how to operate, and they shouldn't be writing curriculum, either.

In the survey's comment section, some respondents said lessons should be based on facts, not a "narrative."

Patrick said teachers convey history by telling stories.

"How do you teach that without it being a narrative?" Patrick said. "How do you teach that as just fact when history is about multiple perspectives. It's layers."

Both professors said they volunteered to be involved in the government consultations with academics but said the government did not select them.

A spokesperson for Alberta Education said the survey was shared online in English and French and promoted on social media channels. They did not answer a question about how much weight the responses would carry.

"Survey results will be used to help inform development of draft K to 6 social studies curriculum before it is released for further public engagement in early 2024."