Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms

Description

This book explores the evolution of Canadian and Australian national identities in the era of decolonization by evaluating educational policies in Ontario, Canada, and Victoria, Australia. Drawing on sources such as textbooks and curricula, the book argues that Britishness, a sense of imperial citizenship connecting white Anglo-Saxons across the British Empire, continued to be a crucial marker of national identity in both Australia and Canada until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when educators in Ontario and Victoria abandoned Britishness in favor of multiculturalism. Chapters explore how textbooks portrayed imperialism, the close relationship between religious education and Britishness, and efforts to end assimilationist Anglocentrism and promote equality in education. The book contributes to British World scholarship by demonstrating how decolonization precipitated a massive search for identity in Ontario and Victoria that continues to challenge educators and policy-makers today. Front Matter ....Pages i-x Introduction (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 1-19 Society and Education in Mid-Twentieth Century Ontario and Victoria (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 21-62 From “Scrub Players Playing on a Vacant Lot” to the Big Leagues: Ontarian and Victorian Educational Constructions of the Imperial Relationship (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 63-95 “The Ideology of All Democratic Nations”: World War II and the Rise of Religious Instruction in Ontario and Victoria* (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 97-128 An Identity Quagmire: Ontarian and Victorian Religious Education after 1950 (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 129-159 The Stereotypical Classroom: Moving Towards Multiculturalism in Ontario and Victoria, 1945–1980 (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 161-205 Finding Historical Meaning without Britain (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 207-240 Conclusion (Stephen Jackson)....Pages 241-245 Back Matter ....Pages 247-282