I chose to
review Catherine Broom’s article called, “Curriculum in the Age of
Globalization”, published in the “Canada’s
National Social Studies Journal” (Formerly: The History and Social Studies
Teacher), Volume 43, No. 1, Spring 2010. Catherine
Broom is an Assistant Professor of Education at the University
of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus. The Journal can be found in the Canadian Social Studies which is
an indexed, refereed journal published quarterly on-line at the University
of Alberta. One main theme in Broom’s article is coined in
her term “absent curricula” which she uses to refer to various failures of the
current B.C. Social Studies curriculum. According to Broom these failures of
the curriculum make it next to impossible to successfully create critical
thinking global citizens out of our students, in our current Age of Globalization.
As a kind of antidotal evidence, Catherine Broom refers to student’s “stereo-typed
responses” and “silences” when asked questions about countries and cultures other
then European and western ones as a kind of indication or evidence of the
failure of our current BC social studies curriculum, to adequately educate our students
to become informed critically thinking global citizens. Broom’s article presents various perspectives,
arguments and warning of potential negative implications if the problem of the
“absent curricula” is not remedied in the BC Social Studies curriculum.
Some
key arguments Broom makes are that students are provided a too shallow amount
of information regarding the world outside of Canada and that the curriculum
“has a definite Western European slant…” . “The guide [curriculum] clearly aims
to develop national feeling and identity at the expense of knowledge of World
History”. Secondly, Broom explains that “[t]he new Social Justice 12 course
(Ministry of Education, 2008) contains the potential for some current world
history that is not only Western and is less Eurocentric in orientation but it is
not being taught very often. Broom’s
points out that both History 12 and Social Justice 12, are optional courses”
and therefore unlikely to be selected by the majority of students.
Various
short-comings in the social studies curriculum can result in a failure of
students to gain the knowledge to adequately consider negative facts regarding for
example human rights histories of other countries. Furthermore, when potentially
a negative light can be shed on Canada
or when Canada’s
role is not viewed as a positive then the history is not being considered with
enough information to be fairly assessed by students. I agree with Broom that
it is essential to succeed at critical thinking only when enough information is
provided which includes looking at both negative and positive perspectives. For
example Canada’s
denial of human right to First Nations or its refusal to sign the UN
Declaration of Indigenous Rights which it helped to author according to Broom
is not considered in the curriculum or other such lines of inquiry. “BC’s
curriculum is focused on telling an incomplete story of Canada
and its place in the world, as the government aims, and has aimed, to build
national pride through schools.”
One
means that Broom uses to explain and relate her arguments and evidence her
perspectives is by discussion and comparison to other curriculums such as Nova
Scotia, UK
and Oregon that show
substantially differences in the way that they engage students in social
studies. These comparisons help to highlight alternative more successful ways
in which curriculums can approach social studies from a more modern relevant
global perspective.
The
article emphasized the author’s opinion that the middle school social studies curriculum
fails to adequately include history from non western non-European countries in
a balanced and critical way. The negative implications for students are that
they can end up forming shallow and stereo-typed global perspectives because of
the lack of information provided to them; students need to develop a depth of
understanding of other countries and their cultural perspectives. Understanding
the historical and cultural perspectives of other countries is essential for
forming a peaceful society, economic relationships and equitable just decisions
at all levels.
When
I read Broom’s arguments I see a oversight, as far as I am aware the BC curriculum
for middle school social studies stresses that teachers should make information
and inquiry relevant and authentic to their students, that diversity should be
considered which includes comparison of differing cultural perspective and diversity
in student backgrounds and cultures are also included through various learning
strategies that are both relevant and authentic and I think will foster
development of student being capable of critical thinking, empathy and
developing a healthy global perspective. For instance there are multiple
strategies that teachers can use to help students make connections and relate
historical information to current global issues. It may be that the flexibility is present for
teachers in the curriculum to make up for the “lack” in the curriculum that
Broom discusses in detail in her article. However the issue rests on the quality
of education and level of caring and knowledge the teacher has of the weightiness
of their job to teacher children to critically think.
I
agree with Catherine Broom that the curriculum’s underlying principles and
design and political agendas be considered and questioned continually. I think
that I support the relevance and importance that social studies teachers be
required to attend professional development conferences that debunk various
myths regarding Canadian history and nationalism because that will hopefully
translate into more critically designed lesson planning.. I support the idea that teachers need to be
rigorous in their own persuit of knowledge, that they need to be up on current
affairs and watch that they are aware and question their own underlying biasts
so that they are then less likely to mislead their students. If we are not
cognizant of both the positive and negative implication of history, all history
not just our version of history, then it is bound to repeat itself. Therefore
we need to teach our students how to weigh information and seek out as many
perspectives as possible.
Reference:
Broom, C.,Curriculum in the Age of
Globalization, “Canada’s
National Social Studies Journal” .43: 1, Spring 2010.
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