NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Dehcho Region, South Slave Region

Tags: traditional knowledge, education, decolonization, reconciliation

Objective(s): To investigate different contexts of history education in Canada to better understand the range of educators’ experiences across the country.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5501. The purpose of the Thinking Historically: Portraits of Professional Practice (PPP) research project is to investigate different contexts of history education in Canada to better understand the range of educators’ experiences across the country. In November 2021, the Thinking Historically for Canada's Future research project launched a large-scale pan-Canadian teachers survey to better understand the state of history teaching and learning in Canada. Researchers designed a bilingual online questionnaire that includes closed- and open-ended questions about the nature of history, and the pedagogies, learning resources, and assessment strategies teachers utilize when teaching history. It also asks specific questions about the three central themes for this project: historical thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and civic engagement. An online, pan-Canadian student survey is currently being developed. The PPP research project aims to provide more insight, depth, and texture to the teacher and student survey data by investigating how educators' context shapes their teaching practice. The main objective of this research is to deepen our understanding of how history is being taught in different places in Canada. This research focuses on one main research question and two sub-questions. 1) How is history being taught in different places in Canada? a) How does the context where history is taught shape educators’ practices? b) What unique opportunities and challenges do educators experience teaching history in their context? This study includes two phases. In Phase 1 participants are asked to complete an online teacher survey that will take approximately 30 minutes. The survey aims to assess the state of K-12 history teaching and learning in Canada and asks questions about teaching strategies, learning resources, and assessment strategies used when teaching history, and teachers' pre- and in-service professional learning experiences related to teaching history. In Phase 2, participants will be asked to participate in two 45-minute semi-structured interviews that will be conducted online using Zoom. The first interview will include follow up questions on participants' responses from the teacher survey and questions about their teaching context and the ways it shapes their teaching practice. In the second interview participants will be asked to share an artifact that they have used or currently use to teach history in the context where they are located, and answer questions about the artifact. After phase two is completed, teachers will be invited to collaborate with a member of the research team to co-create a narrative that uses text, visuals, or video to describe what it is like to teach history in your context. Participation in the co-creation of the narratives is entirely voluntary, and the narratives will not be analyzed as part of the research study. These narratives will be featured on the Thinking Historically for Canada's Future website (www.thinking-historically.ca) to share the diverse experiences and contexts of history teachers throughout Canada. The research team is planning to recruit 1-3 teachers in the Northwest Territories to participate in this research. Once the research licence is approved, advertisements for participants will be sent via email to partner organizations (including Northwest Territories Social Studies Teachers Organization) that describes the research study and asks them to share a URL (https://tinyurl.com/HistoryTeacherInterview) with K-12 history teachers in their network who might be interested in participating. We will also advertise for participants on Social Media including Facebook. Recruitment on social media will be done from both Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future accounts and the personal accounts of researchers involved in the research. The commenting function will be turned off on Facebook. Other parties including partner organizations may share the original social media posts. The URL will take potential participants to a Google form that describes the goals and methods used in the study and asks participants who are interested in participating in the research to complete a form that asks for their name, email address, the province or territory they teach in, their community size and location, the grade level they teach, their language of instruction, the type of K-12 school system they teach in, their years of teaching experience, their gender/gender identity, and their ethnic or cultural background. After a list of potential participants has been developed by the research team (using the Google form), researchers will use this document to directly email potential participants the Letter of Information and Consent form. This email includes information on how to securely return the consent form. I have created an email template to provide instructions on how participants can return the consent form. Please see the attached email template entitled “Thinking Historically PPP Email-invitation to potential participants-EN.” Only those teachers selected for participation in the research study will be contacted via email. They will be provided with more information about the study and will have an opportunity to indicate their consent to participate. They are free to decline to participate in the study. By filling out this form, they are indicating your willingness to be considered for inclusion in this study but they are not obligated to do so. They can change their mind at any time. All information collected on the Google form will be securely destroyed once a final list of participants has been determined. Potential participants are informed on the Google form that all responses are confidential. No data will be posted to the web, and all research data will be stored on a password-protected computer. The data will be destroyed for anyone who completes the form, but is not selected for participation in the study. Co-investigators will contact potential participants via email and formally invite them to participate in the study by sending the letter of introduction and the consent form. The consent form includes a cover letter that includes the study title, contact information of the Project Manager and PI, a description of the study, risks and benefits, limits to confidentiality, a statement that participation is optional, and the University of Alberta Research Participant Information. At the bottom of the cover letter potential participants are asked to sign the form if they are at least 18 years old, have read this consent form, and agree to participate in the research study. If they choose not to sign the form, or do not return the consent form via email two weeks after receiving it, then they will not be further contacted. If participants consent to participate, they will be contacted by members of the research team with information about the survey and the interviews. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: January 1 - June 30, 2024