The Death of the Good Canadian: Teachers, National Identities, and the Social Studies Curriculum (Counterpoints)

Product Description This book documents the failed attempt of successive social studies curriculum to create a sustainable mythic structure of Canadian identity, and it situates teachers in the uneasy space between the modernist concepts of national identity prescribed in the curriculum and the lived world of the classrooms they experience daily. In The Death of the Good Canadian, George H. Richardson endeavors to represent the ambivalence of curriculum «delivery» in an era when there is frequently a striking dissonance between the rigid boundaries that the modernist curriculum creates between «national self» and «other,» and the more hybrid and problematic sense of national identity formation as an ongoing process of the articulation of cultural difference, which is suggested by the plural classrooms of the twenty-first century. Review «There has been an explosion of academic interest in the field of citizenship in the past several years. In this context, George H. Richardson’s book is particularly important in that it provides links between that work and citizenship education in two important ways. First, it situates citizenship education in the context of important work in the field of political theory, particularly work related to postmodern conceptions of nation and nationalism; and second, through the use of action research, Richardson links that theoretical work to the world of teachers and classrooms. Both of those connections are sorely lacking in the field and to find them here is significant and refreshing.» (Alan Sears, Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, University of New Brunswick) «‘The Death of the Good Canadian’ is a marvelous book, chock full of original insights of great theoretical, methodological, and practical value. George H. Richardson deals with the often vexing issues of poststructuralism’s relationship to contemporary educational dilemmas with a welcome clarity and intellectual force.» (Cameron McCarthy, Research Professor, Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois) About the Author The Author: George H. Richardson teaches in the University of Alberta’s Department of Secondary Education. He has taught in northern Canadian schools and in Ukraine. Dr. Richardson’s research interests focus on national identity formation and citizenship education.