Connecting to the Bigger Picture: The Inclusion of Social History Within Ontario Secondary Schools to Foster Critical Thinking & Engagement in Students

This study comes from a desire to truly understand how the Ontario secondary school curriculum teaches history in the twenty-first century. Research looks at the inclusion of social history, or lack thereof, by teachers into their history classrooms, in combination with the “grand narrative”, or general perspective of content that is required of every secondary school history course. Within this particular research, the three primary facets of history education – the curriculum itself, the textbooks, and the teachers – were studied in an effort to see if there is any correlation between an inclusion of social history, and students’ critical thinking abilities and levels of engagement. It examined the documents to see if social history is included at the highest levels – the curriculum and the designated textbooks – and if so, whether or not teachers carry this inclusion down into their own lessons and practice. Research was qualitative, and consisted of interviews with two secondary school history teachers who teach within all levels of the history curriculum. The study examined teachers’ reasons for including or excluding social history from their lessons, and delve even deeper to determine what impact these teachers feel social history has on their students’ learning and engagement, positive or negative. Perhaps most importantly, this study aims to determine whether including social history in the classroom fosters students’ critical thinking abilities and serves to engage students in their studies