Curriculum Studies in Canada: Present Preoccupations

The largest specialization in faculties of education in Canada is curriculum studies. Curriculum Studies in Canada represents the present preoccupations of curriculum scholars in Canada. Set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, contributors engage with significant themes, among them ongoing efforts at justice for Indigenous Peoples, the continuing arrival of immigrants and refugees, Canada's complex relationship to the United States, and issues related to the climate crisis. Addressing such realities through the field of curriculum studies and the school curriculum is critical at this historical conjuncture given the complex and shifting intersections of local and global dynamics restricting education. To this end, contributing scholars serve as intellectual activists to address the critical need for understanding curriculum responsive to the vexed relations among schools, nation-building, social reconstruction, and identity development. Their activism yields more sophisticated understandings of what it means to be educated in Canada. Contributors trace the legacy of their work and reflect on their present scholarly preoccupations in light of their past endeavours. In doing so, Curriculum Studies in Canada offers an invitation to readers: to study, remember, dialogue, and navigate an uncertain world with them.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Curriculum Studies in Canada William F. Pinar 1. Storying Curriculum as International Text Kumari Beck 2. Schooling for Building Just Peace: Comparative and Canadian Perspectives on Facing Difference, Conflict, and Violence in Education Kathy Bickmore 3. Beauty in the Shadows: Curriculum Change and the New BC School Science Curriculum David Blades 4. Indigenous Students and Settler Teachers Caught in the Double Bind of Settler Schooling Susan Dion 5. Questions of Witnessing: Historical, Contemplative/Nondual, and Ecological Claudia Eppert 6. From Goose Feather Pen to Keyboard: Does the School Form Still Have Its Relevance in the Contemporary World? Clermont Gauthier 7. The Curricular Landscapes of Sex Education: Curriculum-as-Checklist Meets the Queer Curriculum Practices of LGBTQ+ Youth Jen Gilbert 8. Which Story of the Canadian Experience Should We Tell Our Young People? Jocelyn Létourneau 9. Unavoidable Middles: Dilatory Methods of Reading and Comics Creation in Teacher Education David Lewkowich 10. Reconstructing Curriculum Studies in Canada: Life Writing, Settler Colonialism, Truth, and then Reconciliation Nicholas Ng-A-Fook 11. Early Childhood Curriculum Studies: An Intellectual Engagement Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw 12. The Radical Pedagogy of Climate Striking in a Petroculture Jackie Seidel, Sidrah Anees, Emily Blackmore, and Kelsey MacKenzie 13. Disquieting Returns Teresa Strong-Wilson Epilogue: Curriculum Studies in the Shadowlands Anne M. Phelan List of Contributors Index

About the Author :
Anne M. Phelan is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and an honorary professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. William F. Pinar is the Tetsuo Aoki Professor in Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia.

Review :
"Edited by renowned curriculum researchers Anne M. Phelan and William F. Pinar, this volume, containing essays by Canadian scholars, is exceptionally well-suited to highlight the many sometimes existential challenges to which modern education and schools are attempting to respond. These studies, which intellectually and thematically transcend traditional Canadian nationalist boundaries, exemplify a deeper insight into curriculum research that is sensitive to multiple pluralities and thus opens up new research perspectives that can in turn claim policy relevance."--Daniel Tröhler, Professor of Education, University of Vienna "These essays attest to the vitality of the curriculum studies field as the subjective and social practice of study rather than the instrumental 'instructional delivery' of decontextualized skills. The authors historicize interconnected social, cultural, and political issues - educational topics all - through intentional engagement with the canonical curricular question: 'what knowledge is of most worth?' Crucially, this work also illuminates the tensions we must negotiate regarding the myriad of existential issues we face locally and internationally."--James P. Burns, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Florida International University "Curriculum Studies in Canada is a living treaty documenting agreement and resolve, acting on faith; it embraces enduring bonds and undertakings for truth, reconciliation, sustainability, and justice, via education. This text is not just for curriculum studies in Canada, though, but for any of us who seek to become more attuned in a most affectively moving and thoughtfully stirring way to the shared responsibilities, and avenues for intellectual activism, from which all our futures unfold."--Molly Quinn, St. Bernard Chapter of the LSU Alumni Association Endowed Professor, Louisiana State University