History education approaches in primary and secondary education in Canada: Ontario province case

The general purpose of this study is to investigate the approaches to history education in primary and secondary schools in Canada in the context of the Ontario Province sample. The thesis consists of four sections. In the first section; the problem of the research, its purpose, its importance, its limitations, its assumptions, the definitions mentioned in the research; in the second section the methods are included. The third section includes a variety of factors that are considered to be decisive in shaping the understanding of history and history education in Canada; the learning-teaching processes in the teaching programs of Social Studies (3-6th grades at Heritage and Identity units) and History (7-12th grades) and their reflections on the textbooks (the sample of the first unit in the history textbook of the 8th grade) in Ontario; Ottoman and Turkish imagery in the curriculums of Social Studies (Heritage and Identity Units) and History in Ontario. The fourth and final section includes the results and suggestions. The following results are obtained in the research on Canada: History and history education are treated always as a matter of Canadian nationalism and identity; Canada is no longer able to present their history with a nationalist political understanding especially due to the violations of human rights that they have perpetrated especially against the natives in the past and due to the ethnic and cultural context of the country; the Quebec province, speaking French, and Canada, speaking English, have never had a common sense of history as a whole; last years indigenous histories have become more widely known and aroused more interest; most probably most people see it differently, history currently represents the multicultural structure of the country with Canadian identity at federal level. In the province of Ontario, The history subjects are taught in the "Heritage and Identity" units of Social Studies Curriculum at the 3rd-6th grades; as history lesson at the 7th-8th grades in the Social Studies Curriculum; as history lesson within the scope of the "Canada and the World Studies" (History-Geography-Citizenship) Curriculum at the 10th grade; and in the "Canada and the World Studies" (Economics-Geography-History-Law-Politics) Curriculum at the 11th and 12th grades; Social Studies (Heritage and Identity Units at 3rd-6th grades) and History (at 7th and 8th grades) curriculums have been classified under the themes of "Application, Inquiry, Understanding Context" where two of the "social studies thinking concepts" (pattern and trends, perspective, historical significance, cause and consequence, continuity and change, interrelationships) (at 3rd-6th grades) and "historical thinking concepts" (Historical Significance, Continuity and Change; Historical Perspective; Cause and Consequence) (at 7th and 8th grades) are defined as focuses in each theme in primary schools; History has been classified under the themes of "Social, Economic and Political Context; Conflict and Cooperation; Identity, Citizenship and Heritage" at 10th grade; and that of "Significant Interactions; Culture and Identity; Conflict and Repression; Social, Economic and Political Factors etc…" at 11th and 12th grades where two of the "historical thinking concepts" (Historical Significance, Continuity and Change; Historical Perspective; Cause and Consequence) are defined as focuses in each theme in curriculums at secondary schools; Historical inquiry and historical thinking concepts are at the center of history education and history text books; The content and methodological scope of curriculums are directly related to the historical development, socio-cultural structure and expectations of the country; The histories, perspectives, achievements and contributions of the indigenous people (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), who have experienced many violations of human rights in Canada, have been included in the Social Studies (Heritage and Identity) and History curriculums in recent years; In the Province of Ontario, in spite of the contemporary approaches in history education, the curriculums' inclusion of the "so-called" Armenian genocide statements, which are not based on primary sources, has come out of a political decision, representing an example of how history is abused by a variety of Powers.