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EXPLORATIONS: A CANADIAN SOCIAL STUDIES PROGRAM FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre, c1983.
Volume 12 Number 3
The adoption of Explorations represents a fundamental step for social studies education in British Columbia. Until the end of the 1960s, no materials whatsoever were provided for the primary grades, while intermediate teachers trying to introduce the subject were forced to use textbooks that were boring, difficult, and lacking in direction. In 1972, a comprehensive set of pictures was introduced for grades 1 through 6 together with an absurdly generous array of pamphlets for grades 3 to 7 that were of reasonable academic quality but lacked coherence and were invariably written at unrealistic levels of readability. This was the heady period when the gurus of educational thought were assuring us that teachers who were encouraged to "do their own thing" would be sure to create learning experiences with real meaning. In fact, an embarrassing number simply ceased to teach social studies and science in any meaningful way. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that we are now hearing calls for a return to basics. Elementary social studies in Canada could never return to basics because we have never had any good basic programs. Explorations gives us something new, something that has been carefully conceived, logically planned, painstakingly written, and attractively produced. By 1986, it will comprise an integrated series for grades 1 through 6. It has been created by practising teachers and writers in British Columbia specifically for the new provincial curriculum. Like most modern social studies curricula, it expands outwards by exploring families, communities within a region, the notion of provincial and national identities, examples of native cultures and the explorers who found them, a more systematic study of Canada and selected cultures on other continents. Debate is certain to rage over such details as whether more emphasis should be given to world affairs or formal history, but the essential point is that we now have a reasonable curriculum supported by adequate textbooks. Once this series is in the schools, teachers will not be able to claim that they lack direction. Each teacher book includes scope and sequence charts, notes concerning a philosophy of the social sciences, an explanation of the inquiry approach, a model, for decision-making, charts showing skilluevelopment, lengthy bibliographies of both professional and curriculum materials, and extensive suggestions concerning approaches to particular lessons. Now all parents need is action on the part of elementary teachers and their principals to indicate that they view the social studies as part of the core curriculum rather than a frill to be taught when time permits. Howard Hurt, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. |
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