Reimagining “Active” Participation in Ontario’s History Curriculum

Abstract

How is citizenship education pedagogy in relation to political participation conveyed by specialist teachers in Ontario’s grade 10 history classrooms? This paper explores the ways in which the Ontario 2013 Canadian and World Studies curriculum (CWS) citizenship education framework (CEF) builds students understanding of civic participation. The CEF outlines the requirements for students to become informed and active citizens in society. Two guiding research questions include: 1) How active participation as described in the CEF is mandated in Strand E entitled Canada, 1982 To The Present of the grade 10 academic history curriculum and 2) What spaces and gaps are present that restrict diverse active participation as mandated in the CWS curriculum? My argument is that in collaboration with neoliberal ideology, Ontario’s curriculum reflects an individualistic and multicultural notion of active participation, which has shown to limit certain ethnic groups.