Historical Significance As a Tool to Understand High School Students' Identity in A
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Historical Significance as a Tool to Understand High School Students' Identity in a Bilingual Setting by Véronique La Salle B.Ed. Université Laval, 2001 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Graduate Academic Unit of Education Supervisor: Alan Sears, PhD, Faculty of Education Examining Board: Alan Sears, PhD, Faculty of Education, Chair Josée LeBouthillier, Faculty of Education Cindy Brown, Department of History This thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK October, 2018 ©Véronique La Salle, 2019 ABSTRACT This research aimed to better understand the implications of having a dual educational system on students’ sense of national identity. It was centred on questions like, do high school students’ identities influence their perception of what they consider historically significant? And, is there a discrepancy between high school students from Anglophone and Francophone districts when asking them to consider what is historically significant in Canadian past events? The historical thinking concept of significance was used to probe how students’ linguistic identities shaped their understanding of Canada’s past. Twenty-six high school students from the Francophone and Anglophone sectors were asked to draw, sketch or write what they considered the ten most important elements in Canadian history. Then, participants explained their thoughts during individual semi- structured interviews. The results were analyzed through Social Identity Theory and phenomenography. Although students’ identities influenced their ascription of historical significance, similarities rather than differences were more common between participants from the Francophone and Anglophone sectors. While students demonstrated an awareness of Indigenous issues in Canadian history, they shared a European centered narrative focused on the participation of Canada in both World Wars and the consequences of this for the country’s independence. ii DEDICATION J’aimerais dédier ce mémoire à Jeffrey St-Pierre qui m’a d’abord encouragée à poursuivre mes études, mais qui m’a aussi accompagnée tout au long de ce processus parfois houleux. Merci de ton soutien. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Alan Sears of the Faculty of Education at University of New Brunswick. Dr. Sears not only encouraged me to pursue a Master degree by thesis, he also always believed in my linguistic and academic capacities to complete this work. I am grateful for all the advice I received throughout this process. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Josée LeBouthillier of the Faculty of Education at University of New Brunswick as the second reader of this thesis. I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments on this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Cindy Brown of the Department of History at University of New Brunswick for accepting to be on my examination board. Finalement, j’aimerais remercier ma mère et mon père qui m’ont toujours poussée à me dépasser, ma sœur et sa petite famille, qui se sont intéressés à ma recherche et mes amis, Marie-Claire, Peter, Richard et Sylvia. Je n’ai pas les mots pour exprimer combien leur intérêt, leur curiosité et leurs encouragements ont été appréciés. iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Tables..................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Historical Significance, a Tool to Understand Identity .............................................. 4 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................. 8 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 8 Historical Thinking .................................................................................................... 8 Historical Significance ............................................................................................. 13 Identity and Collective Memory Shaping Historical Narrative ............................... 20 The Gap .................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 28 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 28 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 28 Phenomenography .................................................................................................... 29 Social Identity Theory .............................................................................................. 32 Data Collection Method ........................................................................................... 35 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 38 v Limitations ............................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 40 Results .......................................................................................................................... 40 Participants’ Identity ................................................................................................ 40 Participants’ Story of Canada .................................................................................. 42 Participants’ Interviews ............................................................................................ 46 Identity’s Influence .................................................................................................. 46 Most and Least Important Elements ........................................................................ 48 Others’ Point of View .............................................................................................. 53 Summary .................................................................................................................. 60 Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 62 Discussion .................................................................................................................... 62 Similarities Instead of Differences ........................................................................... 62 European Dominant Narrative ................................................................................. 66 World Wars and Mythistories .................................................................................. 71 First Nations Awareness .......................................................................................... 74 Historical Significance and Ethnic Identity ............................................................. 77 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 82 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 87 Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 95 Curriculum Vitae vi List of Tables Table 1 ............................................................................................................................... 15 Table 2 ............................................................................................................................... 40 Table 3 ............................................................................................................................... 44 Table 4 ............................................................................................................................... 49 vii List of Figures Figure 1.Story of Canada – ASF3..................................................................................... 43 Figure 2. Story of Canada (sample) – ASF10 .................................................................. 43 Figure 3. Story of Canada (sample) – FSF1 ..................................................................... 43 viii Chapter 1 Introduction My research