Identity and Place from 1971 to 2009: Constructions of Land and Geography in Saskatchewan’s Social Studies Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-4467.40786Keywords:
place, social studies, curriculum studies, discourse analysisAbstract
This article examines discourses of land and place in Saskatchewan Grade 9 to 12 social studies and history curriculum from 1971 to 2009. As such, the study provides insight into the function of discourses about land and place and situates these discourses in the broader context of enduring and dominant myths at the intersections of place and identity in Canada. As modern urban living undermines our connections to the landscapes we inhabit, this study provides a timely examination of both the notion of place in Canadian identity, as well as its current conception in social studies curricula in Saskatchewan.
References
Alcorn, K. (2013). Border crossings: U.S culture and education in Saskatchewan. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Porter, G. (2020). National history and identity in Saskatchewan social studies curriculum 1971-2009: Narratives of diversity, tolerance, accommodation, and negotiation [Doctoral dissertation, University of Saskatchewan]. Harvest Electronic Dissertation and Theses. https://harvest.usask.ca/items/c129b97a-a6ca-4f42-9d97-1446d01318d9
Chamberlin, J. (2003). If this is your land, where are your stories? Finding common ground (1st ed.). A. A. Knopf Canada.
Chambers, C. (1999). A topography for curriculum theory. Canadian Journal of Education, 24(2), 137-150. https://doi.org/10.2307/1585864
Chambers, C. (2006). "The land is the best teacher I have ever had": Places as pedagogy for precarious times. Journal of Curriculum Theory, 22(3), 27-37.
Corbett, M. (2009). Rural schooling in mobile modernity: Returning to the places I’ve been. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(7), 1-13.
Francis, D. (1997). National dreams: Myth, memory, and Canadian history. Arsenal Pulp Press.
Francis, D. (2007). The kingdom of God on the Prairies: J. S. Woodsworth’s vision of the Prairie West as promised land. In D. Francis & C. Kitzan (Eds.), The Prairie West as promised land (pp. 225-241). University of Calgary Press.
Francis, D., & Palmer, H. (1985). Utopian ideals and community settlements in Western Canada
1880-1914. In D. Francis & H. Palmer (Eds.), The Prairie West: historical readings (pp. 338-361). Pica Pica Press.
Frye, N. (1965). Conclusion. In C. F. Klink (Ed.), Literary history of Canada: Canadian literature in English (pp. 821-849). University of Toronto Press.
Greenwood, D. A., & Levin, M. (2007). Introduction to action research: Social research for social change. SAGE.
Gruenewald, D. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619-654. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312040003619
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032004003
Harris, C. (2017). The myth of land in Canadian nationalism. In J. O’Brian & P. White (Eds.), Beyond wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian identity, and contemporary art (pp. 239-240). McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Hutchison, D. (2004). A natural history of place in education (Advances in contemporary educational thought series; Vol. 24). Teachers College Press.
Israel, A. L. (2012). Putting geography education into place: What geography educators can learn from place-based education, and vice versa. Journal of Geography, 111(2), 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2011.583264
Kilbourn, W. (1965). Canadian history and social sciences after 1920: The writing of Canadian history. In C. F. Klink (Ed.), Literary history of Canada: Canadian literature in English (pp. 496-519). University of Toronto Press.
Kobayashi, A., Cameron, L., & Baldwin, A. (2011). Rethinking the Great White North: Race, nature, and the historical geographies of whiteness in Canada. UBC Press.
Little, J. I. (2018). Fashioning the Canadian landscape: Essays on travel writing, tourism, and national identity in the pre-automobile era. University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/j.ctv2fjwxwm
Mackey, E. (2002). The house of difference: Cultural politics and national identity in Canada. Routledge.
Medby, I. A. (2018). Articulating state identity: "Peopling" the Arctic state. Political Geography, 62, 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.10.008
Nicol, H. N. (2015). The fence and the bridge (1st ed.). Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Noddings, N. (2002). Starting at home: Caring and social policy. University of California Press.
Pente, P. (2009). The hidden curriculum of wilderness: Images of landscape in Canada. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 7(1), 111-134.
Phelan, P., & Rogoff, I. (2001). "Without": A conversation. Art Journal, 60(3), 34-41.
Rabinovitch, V. (2011). The North in Canadian identity. Queen's Quarterly, 118(1), 17-31.
Rennie, B. (2007). A far green country unto a swift sunrise: The utopianism of the Alberta farm movement from 1909-1923. In R. D. Francis & C. Kitzan (Eds.), The Prairie West as promised land (pp. 243-258). University of Calgary Press.
Resor, W. C. (2010). Place-based education: What is its place in the social studies classroom? The Social Studies, 101(5), 185-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377990903493853
Saskatchewan Department of Education. (1971-1978). Social Studies curriculum documents. Department of Education.
Saskatchewan Ministry of Education. (1987-2009). Social Studies and History curriculum documents. Ministry of Education.
Schaefli, L., Godlewska, A., & Rose, J. (2018). Coming to know Indigeneity: Epistemologies of ignorance in the 2003-2015 Ontario Canadian and World Studies curriculum. Curriculum Inquiry, 48(4), 475-498. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2018.1522932
Styres, S. (2018). Literacies of land: Decolonizing narratives, storying, and literature. In L. T. Smith, E. Tuck, & K. W. Yang (Eds.), Indigenous and decolonizing studies in education (pp. 24-37). Routledge.
Walsh, J. C., & Opp, J. W. (2010). Placing memory and remembering place in Canada. UBC Press. https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774818421
Wangler, M. (2007). Canada’s Rocky Mountain Parks: Rationality, romanticism, and a modern Canada. In R. D. Francis & C. Kitzan (Eds.), The Prairie West as promised land (pp. 53-76). University of Calgary Press.
Wodak, R. (2001). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 63-94). SAGE Publications.
Wright, R. (2004). Virtual sovereignty: Nationalism, culture, and the Canadian question. Canadian Scholars' Press.
Yemini, M., Engel, L., & Ben Simon, A. (2023). Place-based education – a systematic review of literature. Educational Review, 77(2), 640–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2177260
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Gemma Porter
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright for work published in JCACS belongs to the authors. All work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
