Looking Beyond the Surface: The Politics of Two Grade Ten History Textbooks in Ontario

Abstract

The study of history has always been very significant to me. My early and most vivid exposure to the subject occured when I was in grade ten. At the time, I felt that a part of me was disconnected from the content we were taught. I was not able to identify myself with the history narrated in the textbooks. I began to examine history from a critical perspective, and thought about whose history was being taught. Textbooks play a powerful role in the way students understand history and in their cultural and political formation. This study is theoretically framed by critical race theory and post-colonial theory. I compared two ministry approved grade ten history textbooks published under two different governments to examine how the history of non-white minority groups has been represented and integrated into the narrative of the textbooks. I investigated the representation of Black Canadians, Chinese Canadians, Japanese Canadians, Vietnamese Canadians, and South Asian Canadians. Furthermore, I analyzed how the government's educational objectives and their differing agendas intersected with the content in the textbooks. Overall I found that the minority groups I studied were marginalized in the first textbook I looked at, however in the second textbook they were provided much wider representation.