History Is a Verb: We Learn It Best When We Are Doing It!': French and English Canadian Prospective Teachers and History
| Autor | Stéphane Lévesque - Paul Zanazanian |
| Cargo | PhD in Educational Studies (University of British Columbia, Canada) - PhD in Comparative Education and Educational Foundations (Université de Montréal, Canada) |
| Páginas | 32-51 |
ABSTRACT
This article presents the results of a Canadian study of prospective history teachers conducted in 2012-2013. Using an online
questionnaire to assess a broad range of questions pertaining to their knowledge of history, their trust in historical sources,
their experiences in high school and university classes, and their views about school history, it offers new empirical evidence
on how the growing generation of Canadian teachers are prepared for the teaching profession. Implications of this study for
teacher education and practice teaching are also presented.
KEY WORDS
History, education, Canadian teachers, experiences.
* This stud y, inspired by the m ajor researc h initiative Canadians and their Pasts (www.ca nadiansand theirpasts.ca), wa s designed a nd suppor ted by the
Virtual H istory Lab and the Edu cational Research Un it “Making History/Fai re l’histoire” of the Unive rsity of Ottawa. We w ould like to thank all teache r
candidates who voluntarily contributed to our survey.
v PhD in Educat ional Studies (Univers ity of British Columb ia, Canada). As sociate Professor in th e Faculty of Education a t the University of Ot tawa
(Canada). His la test publicatio ns include: What is t he Use of the Past for Fut ure Teachers? A Snapshot of Fr ancophone Stude nt Teachers in Ontario
and Québec U niversities. In Becoming a History Teacher: Sustaining Practices in Historical Thinking and Knowing, eds. Ruth San dwell and Amy von
Heyking. Toronto: U niversity of Toronto Pre ss, 2014, 115-138, and A Giant wi th Clay Feet”: Québec Stud ents and Their Histo rical Conscious ness of
the Nation (wi th Jocelyn Létour neau and Raphaël Gani ). International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research 11, n° 2 (2013): 156‐172.
E-mail: stephane.levesque@uOttawa.ca
D PhD in Comparative Education and Educational Foundations (Université de Montréal, Canada). Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrated
Studies in Edu cation at McG ill Universit y, Canada. His late st publicat ions include: Hi story is a tre asure chest : Theorizing a Hi storical Met aphor for Init iating
Teachers to Hist ory and Ass isting them to O pen up Possibili ties of Change fo r English-Spea king youth in Qu ebec. Journal o f Eastern Townships Stud ies 43
(2014): 27-46, and Hi storical Consc iousness and Met aphor: Chartin g New Directions fo r Grasping Human His torical Sense- Making Patterns f or Knowing
and Acting i n Time. Historical Encounters Journal 2, n° 1 (2015): 16-33. E-mail: paul.z anazanian@mcg ill.ca
“History Is a Verb: We Learn It Best When We
Are Doing It!”: French and English Canadian
Prospective Teachers and History*
Received date: May 30, 2014
Acceptance date: September 30, 2014
Modication date: December 15, 2014
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7440/res52.2015.03
Stéphane Lévesquev – Paul ZanazanianD
“La historia es un verbo: ¡La aprendemos mejor haciéndola!”: futuros profesores de
historia franco y anglo-canadienses
RESUMEN
Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio canadiense sobre futuros profesores de historia realizado entre 2012 y 2013.
El estudio ofrece nuevas evidencias empíricas sobre la manera en que la nueva generación de profesores canadienses se está
preparando profesionalmente, utilizando un cuestionario en línea para evaluar una amplia gama de preguntas relacionadas
con sus conocimientos de historia, su conanza en las fuentes históricas, sus experiencias en clases a nivel secundario y
universitario, y sus opiniones sobre la historia que se enseña en los colegios. El artículo también presenta las implicaciones de
este estudio para la formación de los profesores y su práctica docente.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Historia, educación, profesores canadienses, experiencias.
Revista de Estudios Sociales No. 52 • rev.estud.soc. • Pp. 256.
ISSN 0123-885X • Bogotá, abril - junio de 2015 • Pp. 32-51.
32
language communities. All in, it seemed that the
historical consciousness of prospective teachers, or what
we might conceive of as their capacity to give meaning to
the past in order to make sense of and act in present-day
reality (Rüsen 2005; Zanazanian 2012 and 2015), played
a central role in developing their identity as teachers.
Furthermore, although such an impact was not viewed
negatively in and of itself by Hodgetts (1968), it had to
be geared towards developing a stronger commitment
to fostering a sense of a united Canadian identity and
polity among students.
Hodgetts also criticized teacher-training institutions for
not providing adequate awareness of and sensibility to
Canadian history, the result being that “teachers leave
university to enter the profession with the same feelings
and attitudes toward Canada as those held by Grade 12
students in high school” (1968, 102). Finally, Hodgetts
blamed academic programs for much of the teachers’
own conservative approach to history. Canadian history,
as taught to future teachers, the report claimed, “is
much too purely factual, it is seldom used to develop
historical concepts or ideas, and it is equally enslaved by
the textbook” (1968, 99). In other words, teachers were
graduating from universities with the same weaknesses
in knowledge and teaching approaches as those their
students were revealing “in more intensified forms”
when they left high school.
More recently, similar criticism about the state of Canadian
history education has been voiced publicly (Granatstein
1998; Osborne 2003; Sandwell 2012). Throughout North
America, teacher education has been decried and put at
the forefront of efforts at improving education in schools.
“It has been more or less assumed,” Marilyn Cochran-
Smith and Susan Lytle observe, “that teachers who know
“A história é um verbo: aprendemos melhor fazendo!”. Futuros professores de
história franco e anglo-canadenses
RESUMO
Este artigo apresenta os resultados de um estudo canadense sobre futuros professores de história, realizado entre 2012 e
2013. O estudo oferece novas evidências empíricas sobre a maneira em que a nova geração de professores canadenses está
sendo preparada prossionalmente, utilizando um questionário on-line para avaliar uma série de perguntas relacionadas com
seus conhecimentos de história, sua conança nas fontes históricas, suas experiências em sala de aula do ensino médio e
universitário, e suas opiniões sobre a história que se ensina nos colégios. O artigo também apresenta as implicações desse
estudo para a formação dos professores e sua prática docente.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE
História, educação, professores canadenses, experiências.
The teaching and learning of Canadian history
has been a subject of ongoing interest and
controversy, notably due to the nature of
the country as a federal compact between
French-speaking and English-speaking
Canadians. Since the creation of the federation in 1867,
issues of history and identity have divided Canadians
along linguistic and cultural lines, as have the workings
of their respective historical consciousness as members of
two parallel national communities within a common
territorial and civic state. Which history should be
taught? What perspective should teachers take? What
knowledge should be assessed? And in terms of teacher
preparation, which epistemological understandings of
reality and history —ones that influence both national
and professional identity— should teacher educators
take into account for preparing prospective teachers to
take ownership of their practice? On the eve of Canada’s
centennial celebrations in 1967, the National History
Project led by Professor A.B. Hodgetts addressed these
questions through the first-ever national assessment
of history and civics teaching and learning. Over the
course of this comprehensive investigation, Hodgetts
and his team surveyed 10,000 students across the
country, observed 847 classroom teachers in 247 schools,
and interviewed over 500 of them. The report came to
a bleak conclusion on the state of history education
in Canada (Hodgetts 1968). First of all, English- and
French-speaking Canadians were being taught two
fundamentally different histories, holding the potential
for what Hodgetts conceivably feared as a gateway
leading to the country’s eventual demise. Secondly,
beginning history teachers lacked sufficient knowledge
of the subject matter to teach it in an engaging and
critical manner, one that would make up for the
differences in perspectives between Canada’s two main
33
Dossier
“History Is a Verb: We Learn It Best When We Are Doing It!”
Stéphane Lévesque, Paul Zanazanian
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