Response: Penney Clark's "Historical Context of Social Studies in English Canada"

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Penney Clark begins her article "Historical Context of Social Studies in English Canada" by stating that much of social studies in English Canada borrows, models itself after, or is subject to American models and influences.  She refers to this as receiving "scraps from under the American table", as if those who accept the current system and policies surrounding social sciences have subjugated themselves to an oppressive system.  American influence is a threat to Canadian social studies according to Clark, at least in policy.  Individual classrooms all provide radically different models for the social studies curriculum; hence, Clark chooses to focus only on the policies, textbook, and ministry document. 

I believe that Clark's analysis is an unhelpful one for two reasons.  First, Clark's critical and scathing depiction of American influences seem like pithy attempts to rage against the hegemonic powers-that-be rather than a critical examination of Canadian-American relations.  She notes that Canadian and American cultures have cross-polinated, that they bear elements of each other, no matter how slight, but she writes her article on the premise that Canada should be completely distinct and independent of American culture.  In her fervour, Clark forsakes this cross-polination and sharing of identity, as well as the ways that Canadian schools reject American systems and institutions. In this sense, I find her analysis quite narrow and shallow.

Clark's superficiality accounts for my second point as well.  Though she acknowledges that the classroom is a dynamic and independent space, she chooses instead to focus on Canadian education policies, which, while telling of American influences, are not indicative of Canada's complete embrace of American practices.  In fact, the classroom is, I would argue, a much more interesting focus of study in this regard.  Clark may safely assert that American policies and practices are borrowed heavily from the American education system and she may also harp on the frequent use of American speakers at conferences, but in the classroom, individual teachers may subvert educational practices, adopt different focuses to their research, and utilize different resources.  I would be much more interested to see how different teachers have combated American influences by picking different subject matter and sources for their classes.  I wonder, for instance, about what Clark would say about our class.  We didn't even have a textbook, and the majority of our supplementary resources were Canadian based.