A gaggle of educators and researchers invited by Alberta Education to assist develop the brand new social research curriculum has “significant concerns” with the draft launched this week.
An open letter from eight educators and researchers who had been a part of the Ok-6 Curriculum Development Specialist Group claims their enter was “largely ignored.”
The authorities mentioned it spent seven months consulting on the draft curriculum, together with assembly with greater than 300 academics, Indigenous communities and different consultants, in addition to incorporating 12,800 public surveys.
The open letter was launched on Friday, describing the UCP authorities’s draft curriculum as restricted and saying received’t assist college students growth vital expertise like essential considering.
“We are deeply disappointed with this draft curriculum and concerned about the lack of transparency in the curriculum development process. As researchers and educators, we have provided critical feedback and constructive advice that could inform the creation of a high-quality social studies program for Alberta students,” the letter reads, partially.
David Scott is the chair of Curriculum and Learning on the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. He was additionally a part of the group that was requested for suggestions on the social research curriculum.
“We spent from November into January working with Alberta Education. We provided a lot of direction, feedback, guidance, contributions. And in many instances, we were quite happy working with them and we felt we were being very much listened to. But unfortunately, when the new program was released yesterday, we found that a great deal of what we had offered was largely ignored. So we felt that we had no choice but to disavow our association with the new curriculum…”
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Scott is nervous that the curriculum, in its present kind, will negatively have an effect on a complete era of younger Albertans.
“We know that if it’s just about textbook work and memorizing information and information that has no relevance to the world that you live in, the issues that we’re facing, that’s not going to be interesting. And the danger of this program to me is that it’s going to kill any love of social studies for a whole generation of young people,” he mentioned.
Scott described the curriculum growth course of as “rushed” and “opaque.”
The open letter factors out a number of issues with the draft curriculum, together with an absence of alternatives for essential considering, and listening to views from numerous identities and cultures, together with First Nations and Metis.
“The newest draft social studies program rightly acknowledges First Peoples and their longstanding occupancy on these lands. It is also absent of overtly racist references. At first glance, this is a marked improvement; yet, the unique knowledge systems, languages, perspectives and worldviews of local Indigenous peoples are noticeably absent. The social studies curriculum lacks the integrity needed to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and its recent stalling out.”
This is the province of Alberta’s third try at changing the 20-year-old social research curriculum at present being taught in elementary colleges. It comes after the NDP authorities’s 2018 model and the UCP’s 2021 try had been each criticized and rejected.
When releasing the draft curriculum on Thursday, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides mentioned his authorities spent seven months doing consultations, together with assembly with greater than 300 academics, Indigenous communities and different consultants.
More than 12,800 surveys had been crammed out within the fall of 2023 by members of the general public eager to have a say on a brand new doc.
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In a press release on Friday, the training ministry stood by the draft curriculum.
“I am confident that the draft curriculum we released on March 14 for further public engagement is reflective of the significant feedback we’ve received over the last seven months,” Nicolaides mentioned.
“We have worked hard to be transparent and comprehensive in our efforts to develop a new draft curriculum. Alberta Education has carefully considered feedback from all engagement activities and research to date, and will consider additional public feedback received through the survey prior to the new 2024 draft K-6 social studies curriculum being finalized this spring.”
Albertans are only being given two weeks to view and give feedback on the doc. Public engagement will shut on March 29.
School boards might then decide in to pilot the curriculum beginning this September.
The K-6 draft curriculum is posted on the Alberta government’s website.
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