Teaching for Political Thinking: An Analysis of Course Curricula in Ontario

Proceedings of The 4th World Conference on Teaching and Education

Year: 2022

DOI:

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Teaching for Political Thinking: An Analysis of Course Curricula in Ontario

Dr. Todd A. Horton

ABSTRACT: 

Teaching for ‘political thinking’ continues to evolve in the theory and practice of political education in Canada. Efforts to study it have primarily focused on its theoretical foundations, analyses of curriculum, and explorations of classroom practices. This presentation draws on several theoretical sources, including work on ‘historical thinking’, to analyze curricular progress in Ontario. With a focus on the curricula of senior politics courses, content analysis, including frequency counts and keyword-in-context methods, is used to show the substantial but incomplete support for teaching for ‘political thinking’. Results, along with suggestions for future consideration, are offered as feedback to Ministries of Education and other interested stakeholders.

keywords: political education, politics curricula, content analysis.