OaksParcel
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Conservative Alberta Education Minister Adraina Lagrange made this post on Facebook on Thursday, November 28th. She is using a 10th grade Social Studies question out of context to push a narrative that teachers are promoting anti-oil industry propaganda in their classrooms.
In reality, anyone with even the most basic level of reading comprehension can determine, even without context, that these questions are testing the ability of students to gather meaning from a provided perspective. They are not promoting an anti-oil industry perspective, but rather having students think critically about how someone with that perspective would justify their position.
The current Alberta Social Studies curriculum was created by a previous Conservative government, and mandates that students "explore multiple perspectives regarding the relationship among people, the land and globalization" as well as "analyze multiple perspectives on sustainability and prosperity in a globalizing world". It is literally required by law that teachers ensure students engage in multiple points of view on various issues, with oil development being one of them.
Furthermore, the irony in this post comes from demanding that teachers "keep politics out of our classroom". Firstly, it is meaningless to study Social Studies without discussing politics, as Social Studies in inherently political. Students should develop critical thinking to create their own opinions and perspectives on issues, something that this education minister clearly lacks. Secondly, demanding that anti-oil industry perspectives be removed from Social Studies classrooms implies that only pro-oil industry perspectives are to be shown, which is in itself pushing politics in the classroom.
PrairieMetis
This is a driven agenda by teachers, they do the same with forestry and pretty well every resource industry.
Tanwolf
Are there questions on the exam where the answers like 14b, 14c, and 14d are correct?
HaveGinWillBabble
Being ass-backwards shouldn't be allowed in politics.
Rhewin
Social studies is inherently tied to politics. Curious if there are also questions asking in favor of oil sands. These seem cherry picked.
OaksParcel
There likely are, given that the curriculum requires multiple perspectives to be shown. As is, there is nothing wrong with these questions.
Rhewin
Exactly. If students are being taught to see from multiple angles that’s good. My favorite teacher had us pick a topic to write a 1/2
Rhewin
Persuasive paper. Then she made us pick the side we *didn’t* agree with. I learned much from doing that.