Curricula
In comparing the experiences of Norwegian and Ontarian teachers in teaching during/about global crises, I felt it was necessary to compare Norway’s national curriculum to Ontario’s provincial curriculum, specifically the social studies curricula. The purpose of this analysis was to compare the ways the curriculum guides teachers in teaching about global issues and to inform the questions I asked in my interviews. Because of this, this is not by any means a comprehension look at either curricula; rather, it is a comparison of the specific elements of the curricula that serve to answer my research question. Throughout this analysis, I make connections between the curricula and the answers I received in the interviews in order to give some real-world context to the key points in the curricula.
Comparison Overview
The Norwegian national social studies curriculum and the Ontario social studies curriculum are structured quite differently. While Norway teaches social studies from grades 1-10, the curriculum provides learning goals for grades 2,4, 7, and 10. These are essentially "checkpoints" that detail what the students should have learned by the end of these years, but the subject is not exclusive to those grade levels. Ontario's curriculum outlines learning goals in social studies from grades 1 through 6, before transitioning into history and geography studies in grades 7 and 8.
For this comparison, I chose to focus mainly on the overall expectations across the grades within both curricula. I also chose to narrow my focus to two areas of comparison: Global Issues and Inquiry.
Global Issues
One of the considerations outlined in the Ontario social studies curriculum is the need for teachers to incorporate current events and issues into their lessons. For instance:
"Teachers need to integrate current events and issues within the curriculum expectations, and not treat them as separate topics. The integration of current events and issues into the curriculum will help students make connections between what they are learning in class and past and present-day local, national, and global events, developments, and issues" (38).
While the curriculum does include some global contexts throughout the grades, the discussion of global issues and events does not appear explicitly in the curriculum until grade 6. Regardless, it is clear that the curriculum encourages teachers to incorporate discussion of significant events, including those of global significance, into their lessons at all grade levels. Similarly, Norway's curriculum includes the exploration of issues and events in various contexts as a "central value" (2) of the social studies curriculum for all grades:
"In social studies, students will have the opportunity to explore their own identity, the local community in which they live, and national and global issues" (2).
There is also the inclusion of democracy in the two curricula, but not to the same extent in both. In the Norwegian curriculum, the connection between the study of global conflicts and the teaching of democracy can be seen here:
"Students will gain insight into differences between countries when it comes to governance and safeguarding of human rights and minorities, and they will see how differences have had and have an impact on people's lives and their ability to participate. They must understand why conflicts have arisen and arise, and how they have been and are handled. Pupils must gain experience of democracy in practice in order to be able to influence and contribute to the shaping of society" (3).
In the Ontario curriculum, democracy is included as a part of the Citizenship Education Framework, as an element of "structures" (10), or "power and systems within societies" (10). However, it is only mentioned explicitly in the curriculum a handful of times, within the grade 4, 6 and 8 specific expectations. In the Norwegian curriculum, democracy is not only a lens through which students study global conflicts, it is a method through which teachers teach students to be positive, contributing members of their society. For this reason, I feel that teaching democracy would be especially applicable in discussions of global issues and could be made a greater focus of student learning in the Ontario curriculum.
Inquiry
A common theme I noticed across the two curricula was the teaching of student inquiry or, more generally, creative exploration. While inquiry in the curricula is not exclusive to exploration of global issues, I felt an in-depth look at how inquiry is recommended across the curricula would be highly relevant to the teaching of global events and issues, both past and present.
While inquiry and exploration is present in both curricula, it is more specifically outlined as a "process" in the Ontario curriculum. For instance, the Ontario curriculum includes a five-step model of the inquiry process, the five steps being: "formulating questions; gathering and organizing information, evidence, and/or data; interpreting and analysing information, evidence, and/or data; evaluating information, evidence, and/or data and drawing conclusions; and communicating findings" (23). The strongest grade-level connection between inquiry and global issues can be found in the overall expectations for grade 6, specifically expectation B2: "Inquiry: use the social studies inquiry process to investigate some global issues of political, social, economic, and/or environmental importance, their impact on the global community, and responses to the issues" (132).
While the Norwegian curriculum does not outline inquiry through a visual model as the Ontario curriculum does, it does not appear any less important than in the Ontario curriculum. Within the overall expectations for the curricula - not just the social studies curricula, but all curricula - "scientific thinking" (6) is considered a part of building "critical thinking and ethical awareness" (6).
Closely tied to the theme of inquiry is teaching students how to critically assess sources (this was also a common theme within my interviews, of which you can read the summary here). The connection between critical literacy and assessment of sources is outlined in the Ontario curriculum as follows:
"In social studies, history, and geography, students who are critically literate are able, for example, to actively analyse media messages and determine potential motives and underlying messages. They are able to determine what biases might be contained in texts, media, and resource material and why that might be, how the content of these materials might be determined and by whom, and whose perspectives might have been left out and why" (54).
In the Norwegian social studies curriculum, critical assessment of sources is described under the "basic skill" (4) of "digital skills" (5), as well as an aspect of "wonder and exploration" (2). In the context of digital skills, source evaluation is described as such:
"The development of digital skills ranges from exploring and using digital resources, to searching for and selecting information independently and to showing good digital judgment when one acquires information, uses digital resources and communicates digitally" (6).
Evidently, the two curricula have similar approaches to the concepts of inquiry and global issues. A major difference between the two is in length and detail. I have included my reflections on this aspect of the curricula, which can be read here.
Resources:
Ontario Ministry of Education. The Ontario Curriculum, Social Studies, Grades 1-6; History and Geography, Grades 7-8, 2018 (Revised). http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/social-studies-history-geography-2018.pdf
Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. Curriculum in Social Studies. https://www.udir.no/lk20/saf01-04?lang=nno.
Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. Overall Part – Values and Principle of Primary and Secondary Education - Critical Thinking and Ethical Awareness. https://www.udir.no/lk20/overordnet-del/opplaringens-verdigrunnlag/1.3-kritisk-tenkning-og-etisk-bevissthet/?kode=saf01-04&lang=nno