Group consulted about Alberta social studies curriculum disavows new draft
Global News
A group of educators invited by Alberta Education to help development the new social studies curriculum has "significant concerns" with the draft that was released this week.
A group of educators and researchers invited by Alberta Education to help develop the new social studies curriculum has “significant concerns” with the draft released this week.
An open letter from eight educators and researchers who were part of the K-6 Curriculum Development Specialist Group claims their input was “largely ignored.”
The government said it spent seven months consulting on the draft curriculum, including meeting with more than 300 teachers, Indigenous communities and other experts, as well as incorporating 12,800 public surveys.
The open letter was released on Friday, describing the UCP government’s draft curriculum as limited and saying won’t help students development important skills like critical thinking.
“We are deeply disappointed with this draft curriculum and concerned about the lack of transparency in the curriculum development process. As researchers and educators, we have provided critical feedback and constructive advice that could inform the creation of a high-quality social studies program for Alberta students,” the letter reads, in part.
David Scott is the chair of Curriculum and Learning at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. He was also part of the group that was asked for feedback on the social studies curriculum.
“We spent from November into January working with Alberta Education. We provided a lot of direction, feedback, guidance, contributions. And in many instances, we were quite happy working with them and we felt we were being very much listened to. But unfortunately, when the new program was released yesterday, we found that a great deal of what we had offered was largely ignored. So we felt that we had no choice but to disavow our association with the new curriculum…”
Scott is worried that the curriculum, in its current form, will negatively affect an entire generation of young Albertans.
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