Session 9C: Panel discussion: Are Teachers Who Teach History in English-Language Schools Key for Vitalizing English-Speaking Quebec?

Speakers:  

Paul Zanazanian, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University 

Sabrina Moisan, Faculté d'éducation, Université de Sherbrooke  

Both presenters will draw upon data from 3 different research projects that examine the experiences, beliefs, and practices of teachers who teach the History of Quebec and Canada program in English in English-language schools. Paul Zanazanian will talk about the following: These teachers’ historical memory of English-speaking Quebec. How these history teachers position themselves regarding the exclusionary history program they are responsible for transmitting. These teachers’ ideas about integrating social diversity through the teaching of history. Sabrina Moisan will talk about the following: These teachers’ ideas about the plurality of perspectives in the teaching of the History of Quebec and Canada program. Francophone teachers’ ideas regarding the plurality of perspectives, and how they compare with English-speaking teachers’ own beliefs. Both Paul Zanazanian and Sabrina Moisan will then comment on the topic of the panel: Are history teachers who teach history in English-language schools key for vitalizing English-speaking Quebec?

Speakers' bios:

Dr. Paul Zanazanian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His overall research examines the workings of historical consciousness, with a particular focus on practitioners’ historical sense-making and its impacts on their awareness of self and agency. His interests include the politics of history teaching; official state narratives and issues of exclusion; and problems of history, identity, community vitality (i.e., English-speaking Quebec). 

Sabrina Moisan is professor in the Faculty of Education at the Université de Sherbrooke. Her work focuses on the relationship between collective memory, the teaching and learning of history at the secondary level, the teaching of genocides and other sensitive themes related to racism, as well as on the civic purposes of history education. She directs the research project "Plurality of historical experiences in the past of Quebec and Canada and its teaching: representations of historians, teachers and future history teachers" funded by SSHRC (2017-2022).

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