DR. CATHRYN VAN KESSEL

University of Alberta

Individual, National, and (Multi?)Cultural Identities in Alberta’s Secondary Social Studies Curriculum

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Both before and after the Multiculturalism Act of 1988, Alberta’s social studies program sought to consider the entanglement of individual, national, and cultural identities. These considerations have been in service (consciously and unconsciously) of creating “good” citizens, a notion which can be understood in a myriad of ways. This presentation will focus on how multiculturalism in relation to a (supposedly) Canadian national identity functions as a concept (and potentially as a provocation) in the curriculum documents for Grades 7 through 12 before and after 1988. Even as the call for such things as “multiple perspectives” has become louder and more specific, the taken-for-granted aspect of some dominant metanarratives has lingered.

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Cathryn van Kessel is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta in Secondary Social Studies Education, but formerly was a secondary social studies teacher in Alberta. Her research interests include social "evils" such as racism, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism as they intersect with multiple forms of structural violence, as well as helpful (versus unhelpful) ways to address these evils and make our societies hurt less.